1. Black Market ( Zawinul ) 
2. Cannon Ball ( Zawinul ) 
3. Gibraltar ( Zawinul ) 
4. Elegant People ( Shorter ) 
5. Three Clowns ( Shorter ) 
6. Barbary Coast ( Pastorius ) 
7. Herandnu ( Johnson ) 

Alex Acuña 	Congas, Percussion
Don Elias - Congas, Percussion
Alphonso Johnson - Bass
Jaco Pastorius - Bass
Wayne Shorter 	- Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
Chester Thompson - Drums
Narada Michael Walden  - Drums
Joe Zawinul  - Arp 2600, Fender Rhodes, Keyboards, Oberheim Synthesizer, Piano, Synthesizer

The shifts in Weather Report's personnel come fast and furious now, with Narada Michael Walden and Chester Thompson as the drummers, Alex Acuna and Don Alias at the percussion table, and Alphonso Johnson giving way to the mighty, martyred Jaco Pastorius. It is interesting to hear Pastorius expanding the bass role only incrementally over what the more funk-oriented Johnson was doing at this early point -- that is, until "Barbary Coast," where suddenly Jaco leaps athletically forward into the spotlight. Joe Zawinul or just Zawinul, as he preferred to be billed -- contributed all of side one's compositions, mostly Third World-flavored workouts except for "Cannon Ball," a touching tribute to his ex-boss Cannonball Adderley (who had died the year before). Shorter, Pastorius, and Johnson split the remainder of the tracks, with Shorter now set in a long-limbed compositional mode for electric bands that would serve him into the 1990s. While it goes without saying that most Weather Report albums are transition albums, this diverse record is even more transient than most, paving the way for WR's most popular period while retaining the old sense of adventure. ---Richard S. Ginell, Rovi

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   1. "Birdland" (Zawinul) — 5:57
   2. "A Remark You Made" (Zawinul) — 6:51
   3. "Teen Town" (Pastorius) — 2:51
   4. "Harlequin" (Shorter) — 3:59
   5. "Rumba Mamá" (Badrena/Acuña) — 2:11
   6. "Palladíum" (Shorter) — 4:46
   7. "The Juggler" (Zawinul) — 5:03
   8. "Havona" (Pastorius) — 6:01

Personnel:
* Joe Zawinul — 2 ARP 2600, Rhodes electric piano, Yamaha grand piano, Oberheim polyphonic synthesizer, vocal, melodica, guitar, tabla
* Wayne Shorter — Soprano and tenor saxophones
* Jaco Pastorius — Electric bass, mandocello, vocals, drums, steel drums
* Alex Acuña — Drum set, congas, tom-toms, handclaps
* Manolo Badrena — Tambourine, congas, vocal, timbales, percussion

Weather Report's biggest-selling album is that ideal thing, a popular and artistic success -- and for the same reasons. For one thing, Joe Zawinul revealed an unexpectedly potent commercial streak for the first time since his Cannonball Adderley days, contributing what has become a perennial hit, "Birdland." Indeed, "Birdland" is a remarkable bit of record-making, a unified, ever-developing piece of music that evokes, without in any way imitating, a joyous evening on 52nd St. with a big band. The other factor is the full emergence of Jaco Pastorius as a co-leader; his dancing, staccato bass lifting itself out of the bass range as a third melodic voice, completely dominating his own ingenious "Teen Town" (where he also plays drums!). By now, Zawinul has become WR's de facto commander in the studio; his colorful synthesizers dictate the textures, his conceptions are carefully planned, with little of the freewheeling improvisation of only five years before. Wayne Shorter's saxophones are now reticent, if always eloquent, beams of light in Zawinul's general scheme while Alex Acuña shifts ably over to the drums and Manolo Badrena handles the percussion. Released just as the jazz-rock movement began to run out of steam, this landmark album proved that there was plenty of creative life left in the idiom. --- Richard S. Ginell, allmusic.com

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01 Bass Intro
02 Cannonball
03 Black Market
04 Piano Intro
05 Badia
06 Gibraltar -2-

Line Up:
Joe Zawinul (keyboards), 
Wayne Shorter (saxophones), 
Jaco Pastorius (bass), 
Alex Acuna (drums), 
Manolo Badrena (percussion).

Along with MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA, and RETURN TO FOREVER, WEATHER REPORT can trace its origins to Miles Davis' late 60s line up and breakthrough recordings "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew". Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter had played together briefly in 1959 with MAYNARD FERGUSON'S BAND, kept in touch and collaborated again with the aforementioned Davis projects when they finally decided to form their own band. Leaning further perhaps towards the jazz end of the meter among their jazz-rock peers, WEATHER REPORT has made an essential contribution in the legacy of fusion. Zawinul and Shorter comprised the bulk of creative force for the early part of their career, cycling through various lineups until the 1976 recording "Black Market" introduced fusion's most influential and renowned bass player, Jaco Pastorius.

"Mysterious Traveler" marks the peak of the pre-Jaco era and is hailed by many as their finest moment. While other fusion acts relied heavily on the presence of the ever popular electric guitar, WEATHER REPORT forged ahead without one and still managed to produce an album that transcended anything done with jazz based music before. "Black Market" would mark another transition in their direction that would ultimately be realized in 1977's "Heavy Weather". Standing as their most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, "Heavy Weather" boasted a hit single in Birdland, and leant a production credit to Pastorius, who was now a driving force in the group.

WEATHER REPORT complete the triangle that launched fusion in the early seventies, and are highly recommend for anyone interested in Jazz Fusion. --- Jeremy Spade, progarchives.com

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1. Procession (8:41)
2. Plaza Real (5:30)
3. Two Lines (7:42)
4. Where the Moon Goes (7:49)
5. The Well (4:00)
6. Molasses Run (5:50)

- Victor Bailey - bass
- Omar Hakim - drums, electric guitar, vocals
- José Rossy - percussion, concertina
- Wayne Shorter - soprano & tenor saxophones
- Joe Zawinul - keyboards, synthesizers

A new Weather Report lineup makes its debut here, with Victor Bailey filling Jaco Pastorius' shoes, Omar Hakim on drums, Jose Rossy on percussion, and Joe Zawinul now thoroughly in charge. But contrary to the conventional wisdom which claims that WR went downhill after the departure of Pastorius/Erskine, the new lineup actually recharged WR's creative batteries; the material here is superior to that of the previous two albums at least. Bailey, while not Jaco's technical equal, is mobile enough to project through the texture, and Hakim has the versatility and swinging Third World rhythmic influences that must have appealed to Zawinul. "Procession" itself is a masterly Zawinul tone poem, with moody electronics and voices building to an emotional crescendo and ebbing away, a high point in WR's output. Even Wayne Shorter's sole composition "Plaza Real" is the most interesting tune he had come up with in a long time. The Manhattan Transfer, the champions of "Birdland," make a fascinating electronically distorted appearance on Zawinul's marvelous "Where the Moon Goes." This is an unjustly overlooked Weather Report treasure, hopefully due for CD reissue soon. ---Richard S. Ginell, Rovi

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1.Corner Pocket 5:43 
2.Indiscretions 4:05 
3.Hot Cargo 4:38 
4.Confians 5:03 
5.Pearl On The Half-Shell 4:04         play
6.What's Going On 6:26 
7.Face On The Barroom Floor 3:55       play
8.Ice-Pick Willy 4:56

Musicians:
Joe Zawinul - synthesizer, keyboards
Wayne Shorter - tenor and soprano saxes
Victor Bailey - bass
Omar Hakim - drums
Carl Anderson - vocals
Dee Dee Bellson - vocals
Mino Cinelu - percussion
Bobby McFerrin - vocals
Alfie Silas - vocals

With de facto leader Joe Zawinul now even more set on a world music groove-oriented direction than ever, it is hard to place Weather Report even within the broad electric jazz -- or fusion, if you must -- category at this point. But forget labels; this is another superb WR album where the grooves percolate and thump along in an irresistible surge, rhythmic elements pouring in from the Caribbean, Africa, Middle East and the instrument designers at Yamaha, Korg, etc. There are more vocals than ever, mostly wordless chant by guests Carl Anderson, Bobby McFerrin and others, and there is a total departure in the form of an attractive folk-like song sung and played by the new percussionist/guitarist Mino Cinelu. Almost alone among synthesizer players, Zawinul took the trouble to learn how to swing on these instruments, and by Sportin' Life, he had become unstoppable. And Wayne Shorter? His beams of light are still around, as heard most hauntingly in a duet with Zawinul's synths on "The Face on the Barroom Floor." Yet Wayne's presence is just another color in Zawinul's multi-band palette, and as a result, their long partnership was coming to a close despite the still sky-high quality of their music. ---Richard S. Ginell, Rovi

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01. Unknown Soldier (Josef Zawinul) – 7:55
02. The Moors (Wayne Shorter) – 4:40
03. Crystal (Miroslav Vitouš) – 7:18
04. Second Sunday In August (Zawinul) – 4:09					play
05. Medley: Vertical Invader (Zawinul)/T.H.(Vitouš)/Dr.Honoris Causa (Zawinul) – 10:40
06. Surucucú (Shorter) – 7:41
07. Directions (Zawinul) – 4:34

Personnel:
- Joe (Josef) Zawinul - electric & acoustic keyboards
- Wayne Shorter - reeds
- Miroslav Vitouš - bass
- Eric Gravátt - drums
- Dom Um Romão - percussion
+
- Andrew White - english horn (01)
- Hubert Laws Jr. - flute
- Wilmer Wise - trumpet
- Ralph Towner - 12-string guitar (02)
- Yolande Bavan, Joshie Armstrong, Chapman Roberts – vocals

Like the weather itself, this band would assume a new shape with virtually every release -- and this album, half recorded in the studio and half live in Tokyo, set the pattern of change. Exit Airto Moreira and Alphonse Mouzon; enter percussionist Dom Um Romao, drummer Eric Gravatt, and a slew of cameo guests like guitarist Ralph Towner, flutist Hubert Laws, and others. The studio tracks are more biting, more ethnically diverse in influence, and more laden with electronic effects and grandiose structural complexities than before. The live material (heard in full on the import Live in Tokyo) is even fiercer and showcases for the first time some of the tremendous drive WR was capable of, though it doesn't give you much of an idea of its stream of consciousness nature. --- Richard S. Ginell, allmusic.com

Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul were arguably the two geniuses most responsible for Miles Davis's development from the mid-sixties into his electric period that revolutionized jazz in the seventies. Shorter constantly pushed the music forward with his adventurous compositions for Davis's "second great quintet" (some fantastic music there) and participated in "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew" which launched fusion. Zawinul was the mastermind behind many compositions in the electric Miles period and helped define the different sounds that were to come from keyboardists in this style. Then the two left Miles to do things their own way, and thus they started Weather Report. Their first album, self-titled, was filled with fascinating quick sketches of new musical ideas capitalizing on the new palette of sounds that came from electronics. This album continued those experiments, but in a more developed and profound way. "Unknown Soldier" in particular is a masterpiece in angular, unconventional composition that manages to be beautiful and very challenging. "The Moors" features an appearance by guitarist Ralph Towner who plays an improvised introduction filled with ideas and lines nobody had ever thought of before, while managing to be extremely funky in some spots. I read that Towner was practicing some ideas for his intro, and Zawinul was concerned that he would be overly self-conscious when actually being recorded, so they recorded Towner practicing for the intro without his knowledge. It was good enough that they actually used his run-through, and when he finally said "okay, I'm ready," they told him he was already done.

The second half of the album is edited down from a performance in Tokyo, and the energy of the band in a live setting is astounding. They do an electrifying version of "Directions," the tune Zawinul wrote for Miles which became Miles's signature piece during his electric period. There's something angularly funky and otherworldly about this very simple melody and the way they play it.

The unfortunate thing about this album is expectations after the fact. Weather Report had only a cult following at this time, so the sound associated with this band from their later recordings is nowhere near what this album sounds like. This music is a lot closer to electric Miles, though it backs off a bit from the rock rhythms and focuses more on the headier aspects of the electronics. As a result, the music is very esoteric and difficult to approach even from familiarity with later Weather Report. If you find the description of this album interesting and want to appreciate it, explore Miles in the late sixties up through "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew," and then get the first Weather Report album, the self-titled one. This is very deep, exploratory music that is completely enthralling for those people who know how to listen to it. Become one of those people. --- Michael Hardin, amazon.com

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CD1
01 – Black Market
02 – Scarlet Woman
03 – Young and Fine
04 – The Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat
05 – A Remark You Made
06 – River People
07 – Thanks for the Memories						play
08 – Dolores Portrait of Tracy Third Stone from the Sun
09 – Mr. Gone

CD2:
01 – In a Silent Way								play
02 – Waterfall
03 – Teen Town
04 – I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good The Midnight Sun Will Never Set On You
05 – Birdland
06 – Introductions
07 – Fred & Jack
08 – Elegant People
09 – Badia

Personnel: 
Joe Zawinul (keyboards), 
Wanye Shorter (tenor and soprano saxophone), 
Jaco Pastorius (electric bass), 
Peter Erkskine (drums).	

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of Weather Report the Zawinul estate is proud to release this live document of the band's performance in Offenbach, Germany, on September 29th, 1978. This is the first time that this wonderful live concert has been available on CD.

Previously unreleased recordings from pioneering fusion band Weather Report playing live in the 1970s are streaming from the late Joe Zawinul's estate in the group's 40th anniversary year. This spring's 1975 Live in Berlin set caught the band beginning to sense its power over a rock audience. Live in Offenbach, from September 1978, features the band that included bass-guitar star Jaco Pastorius. It also included Peter Erskine, a shrewd drummer who helped reintroduce a cooler jazz feel after the critical hammering that had greeted the overcooked, studio-made Mr Gone earlier that year. Stripped down to a quartet, the band sound engaged (particularly the sometimes enigmatic saxist Wayne Shorter), and after the standard early workouts on their hits, they get surprisingly loose and open. Shorter exhibits Sonny Rollins's muscular solo-sax whimsicality on the standard Thanks for the Memory, and Zawinul's wealth of acoustic-piano improv ideas burst out of I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good, while Birdland has a bright, rough-and-ready energy. Pastorius's driving basslines thunder through the music, even if his solo spots tend to emit more heat than light. It's a vivid show from a WR period sometimes considered short of inspiration. ---John Fordham, guardian.co.uk

This version of Joe Zawinul's ship of state featured Peter Erskine and Jaco Pastorius as the Rhythm Section Which Gives You More, but no ancilliary percussionist. The group at its most spacious, crisp and cogent then (whatever your view of the showy style of the bassist): two discs, 18 pieces taken taken from every stage of their decade-long history with only three from hit 1977 album Heavy Weather. Extensive in every sense. Wayne Shorter is very involved too, which always helped. ---Nick Coleman, independent.co.uk

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01. Milky Way (Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul) – 2:29			play
02. Umbrellas (Shorter, Miroslav Vitous, Zawinul) – 3:24
03. Seventh Arrow (Vitous) – 5:19
04. Orange Lady (Zawinul) – 8:40
05. Morning Lake (Vitous) – 4:22
06. Waterfall (Zawinul) – 6:16
07. Tears (Shorter) – 3:22									play
08. Eurydice (Shorter) – 5:41

Personnel:
- Joe Zawinul - electric and acoustic piano
- Wayne Shorter - soprano saxophone
- Miroslav Vitous - electric and acoustic bass
- Alphonse Mouzon - drums, voice
- Airto Moreira – percussion

Weather Report's 1971 debut album defined the spirit of fusion - restlessly creative, eager to explore new sonic landscapes, and aware that there was a new audience out there eager to share in the discoveries. It's no accident that four of the five original band members - keyboardist Joe Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Miroslav Vitous, and percussionist Airto Moriera - had played with the godfather of fusion, Miles Davis. Drummer Alphonse Mouzon brought a tireless propulsive force into the mix. The short, densely-written pieces on this record were like blueprints for a band that would expand on them in live performance. ---John Swenson, Amazon.com

Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul left the Miles Davis fold to start their own group, soon to be known as Weather Report. This is their debut album with bassist Miroslav Vitous, drummer Alphonse Mouzon, and percussionist Airto Moreira. With so many of the musicians coming out of Miles's early electric period, one would expect more of the same funk and fire coming out of the trumpeter's recordings and performances at the time, especially since Shorter and Zawinul were probably the two most prominent in terms of shaping Miles's music compositionally. But instead of the spontaneous energy and rawness of Davis's electric music (which is definitely an acquired taste), this album delivers more of a studio production, although not to the level that their subsequent recordings would. The different tunes are more like sketches than long funky jams, though they do continue the tradition of electronic sounds. They explore new sonic territories in a relatively laid-back fashion, and thus the result is like "In A Silent Way" or even more like "Filles de Kilimanjaro" than "Bitches Brew" or anything Miles was doing at this point. But this album takes it a step farther, like on "Milky Way," the product of recording echos from an acoustic piano that form a remarkably coherent yet far-out piece of music.

When this album was first released, it was critically acclaimed to be brilliant (Shorter and Zawinul are two of jazz's greatest geniuses) but somewhat cold in comparison to Miles's recordings on which the present leaders had played. That criticism stands up today; I listen to this album once in a while when I'm in a strange mood and find myself very interested in the experiments but not particularly emotionally affected. The exception I can think of is "Tears," with its beautiful melodic fragment and passionate development.

Weather Report would continue in this vein for one more album, "I Sing The Body Electric," with what I feel are more successful results (see my review for that album) before changing tracks and becoming one of the most commercially successful fusion bands of the 70s. That music is wonderful too but this is quite different than "Heavy Weather" or "Black Market." Still, there is nothing particularly overt or offensively dissonant to the casual listener, so it is a listenable introduction to the band, if not the best. This album will truly appeal only to adventurous jazz listeners or anyone who wants to hear some "tripped out stuff" and anyone else might feel disengaged from this music. But if you can pay attention to it long enough to appreciate its depth, you will hear how nobody else ever did anything like this, which in and of itself is exciting and worthwhile. --- Michael Hardin

Weather Report – amerykańska, jazzowa grupa muzyczna, grająca muzykę w stylu fusion. Działała w latach 70. i 80. XX wieku.

Powstała z inicjatywy muzyków grupy Milesa Davisa, która nagrała na przełomie lat 60. i 70. dwa przełomowe dla jazzu albumy, "In a Silent Way" i "Bitches Brew". Stałe jądro zespołu stanowił duet Joe Zawinul (fortepian) i Wayne Shorter (saksofon). Członkami zakładającymi zespół w roku 1971 oprócz Joego Zawinula i Wayne’a Shortera byli Miroslav Vitous (gitara basowa), Alphonse Mouzon (perkusja) oraz Airto Moreira (instrumenty perkusyjne). Początkowo grupa ta była formacją eksperymentalno-rytmiczną, stając się później absolutnym kanonem muzyki fusion.

W roku 1976 do zespołu dołączył basista Jaco Pastorius. Grupa stała się bardziej melodyjna i zdobyła masowy rynek. Najbardziej znany utwór zespołu Weather Report nosi tytuł Birdland.

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