374. Weather Report - Heavy Weather (1977)

















Track Listing

1. Birdland
2. Remark You Made
3. Teen Town
4. Harlequin
5. Rumba Mama
6. Palladium
7. Juggler
8. Havona

Review

Weather Report comes into the list at a timely occasion seeing as Joe Zwainul died just some days ago on the 11th of September. That said this isn't really going to be a eulogy of what was a great keyboardist. And it isn't going to be a eulogy because this album didn't do anything for me.

The playing is very competent throughout of course, but the music itself leaves me cold. It runs the gamut from hotel lobby to mildly interesting but never really does anything to wake me up. This album has the exact opposite problem of ELO and Billy Joel, it is very good and competent but it is also dull an not entertaining in the least.

That said, fusion jazz is really not my thing at all, I find that it always sounds a bit cheap and I much prefer the things that have been fused to be their own separate worlds. I prefer Jazz by itself, and I prefer rock music by itself. Zwainul was unfortunately opening the doors here for many a porn film soft-jazz soundtrack with synths. I am sorry but I just think my life is too short for this album, it is competent and all, but unexciting.

Track Highlights

1. Birdland
2. Rumba Mama
3. Palladium
4. Havona

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Featuring their classic jazz standard "Birdland", the album is one of the best-sellers in the Columbia jazz catalog. Heavy Weather is considered a landmark album in the jazz-rock or fusion movement of the 1970s. Its opening track, "Birdland", was a significant commercial success, something not typical of instrumental music. Additionally, the album was a breakout recording for Pastorius, virtually turning him into a household name. His track "Teen Town" and inspired performances reinforced his self-proclaimed status as "the Greatest Bass Player in the World".

Birdland: