CD-Charts Position 1
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The Best Of Weather Report

by: Weather Report

Release Date June 03, 2002
I am brand new to Weather Report and I am struggling to remember how I was drawn to them but I'm glad I was. Maybe I heard them mentioned in passing reading one of the liner notes to one of the Miles Davis CDs I have or maybe it was a Herbie Hancock CD?? Whatever, it is unimportant because Weather Report aren't really like either Miles or Herbie. They remind me more of Coltrane if Coltrane had done fusion.
How to describe the music on this CD? I have little idea really so please forgive the following attempt...
The music lolls from languid to funk to ethereal to God knows what! I just love it's headiness. The fact that it doesn't seem to make any sense at all. That it is so emotional. That it jarrs and stirs me and I'm constantly ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
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Heavy Weather

by: Weather Report

Release Date October 01, 2007
I am brand new to Weather Report and I am struggling to remember how I was drawn to them but I'm glad I was. Maybe I heard them mentioned in passing reading one of the liner notes to one of the Miles Davis CDs I have or maybe it was a Herbie Hancock CD?? Whatever, it is unimportant because Weather Report aren't really like either Miles or Herbie. They remind me more of Coltrane if Coltrane had done fusion.
How to describe the music on this CD? I have little idea really so please forgive the following attempt...
The music lolls from languid to funk to ethereal to God knows what! I just love it's headiness. The fact that it doesn't seem to make any sense at all. That it is so emotional. That it jarrs and stirs me and I'm constantly ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
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Sweetnighter

by: Weather Report

Release Date September 02, 1996
Yep, another album branded "a classic". It's a term often bandied about, but, in my case, I apply it to a mere handful of albums. I bought this when it came out - having been vaguely aware of the preceding Weather Report albums - i was quite keen on "difficult" music at that time of my youth. What an eye-opener! Basically this album comprises two massive dance tracks (yep, that's not a typo) and a number of "mood poems" (ooh - pseuds corner!) The short pieces invoke a sense of place or mood and are beautiful. But the two biggies are quite simply awesome. The wonderful basslines, with Shorter and Zawinul riffing over the top, with a bucket-load of drums and percussion. I remember Spike Milligan talking about going to see them in concert around this time ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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Night Passage

by: Weather Report

Release Date April 25, 1994
Weather Report was always the far most important band within the jazz-rock idiom, a fact that even becomes more clear in retrospect. In my opinion, all of the albums from 1974 through 1980 are all of them classics, each album paving the way for new types of musical expressions, influencing musicians worldwide. Out of this outstanding firmament, three of them shines even more: "Mysterious Traveller" (1974), "Heavy Weather" (1977) and "Night Passage" (1980). These are probably the faves among most hardcore Weather Report fans. On "Night Passage", the miraculous trio Zawinul, Shorter and Pastorius is followed by great drummer Peter Erskine, and the exciting percussionist Bobby Thomas Jr. This group was pure magic, I was lucky enough to see them in Oslo in oct 1980. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
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Black Market

by: Weather Report

Release Date June 03, 2002
This is my fave Weather report album; and a great introduction to the band if you don't know them. "Black Market" finds the band at their most colourful, with the late Joe Zawinul's distinctive synth sound unashamedly splashed across their sonic canvas and two bass legends (Pastorius and Alphonso Johnson) sharing low end duties. The Portishead-sampled "elegant people" leans towards their cheesier side but the closing cut "Herandnu" pulls everything back in line. More accessible than "Mysterious Traveller" (their other great album in my opinion) but without the big slices of cheese present on their biggest hit "Heavy Weather." New to weather report? Start here...

CD-Charts Position 6
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Mysterious Traveller

by: Weather Report

Release Date June 03, 2002
Weather Report's fourth studio recording, and one of the most highly-rated of their albums. Truly astonishing to hear in 1974 - this was music from the future - and effortlessly overshadowing any of Miles' efforts of the time. Completely mindblowing then and still absolutely amazing to this day; I have never got over this one. One of the greatest achievements ever in the jazz-fusion genre. If you only have one Weather Report record it should be this one, no contest.

CD-Charts Position 7
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8:30: Live

by: Weather Report

Release Date March 03, 1997
As a teenage rock fan of the 1970s who came across to jazz-rock, I have to say that what made Weather Report great was always the rhythm section -- not the jousting between Zawinul and Shorter. Thus for me the great Weather Report moments are the bass duel between Miroslav Vitous and Andrew White on 'Boogie Woogie Waltz', Al Johnson's bass on 'Scarlet Woman', and the interplay between Ngudu and Alyro Lima on 'Between the Thighs'. Pastorius's composition 'Havona', which ends HEAVY WEATHER, is also a supreme track.

I saw Weather Report in concert both in the five-man line-up (with Badrena and Acuna on percussion at Oxford Poly in 1977) and the four-man version (with Erskine at the Hammersmith Odeon around 78/79), and I don't believe Erskine was an adequate replacement ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
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Tale Spinnin'

by: Weather Report

Release Date June 03, 2002
I bought this album purely on the basis that I enjoy Weather Report's sound, so I took a gamble and explored one of their lesser hyped albums, and from the opening track, I knew I was going to be in for a treat.
Joe Zwainful is yet again a major writer on this album, and "Man in The Green Shirt", is a riveting opener with classic upbeat WR material. Wayne Shorter writes the latin/african styled "Lusitanos" and the astonishing "Freezing Fire", a marvellously pulsating song, accompanied by Al Johnsons sturdy basslines and Ndugu's pulsating beat, which really completes the song. The majority of the album carries on the funk feel, which slowly calms throughout and at the end, Zwainful ends with "Five Short Stories", a complete change of tone from the start of the album, with this calming ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Mr. Gone

by: Weather Report

Release Date April 25, 1994
Mr. Gone never enjoyed the deserved critical and commercial success of Heavy Weather, nor ever explored the depths of mood or groove that early albums as I Sing The Body Electric or Sweetnighter explored, yet it offered much great music that should have entitled it to more praise.

By then, 1978, the band had found their existence difficult to maintain. Zawinul and Shorter were clearly on to separate paths--along with Joe having a strong grip on the band's choice of material--and Jaco's mental illness and drug abuse was almost hitting unworkable levels.

Yet, they were still one of the most gifted groups of musicians that had ever joined forces--both as players and composers--and this album proves that the magic had not completely faded away.

The late Pastorious ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
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Heavy Weather

by: Weather Report

Release Date June 30, 1997
Mr. Gone never enjoyed the deserved critical and commercial success of Heavy Weather, nor ever explored the depths of mood or groove that early albums as I Sing The Body Electric or Sweetnighter explored, yet it offered much great music that should have entitled it to more praise.

By then, 1978, the band had found their existence difficult to maintain. Zawinul and Shorter were clearly on to separate paths--along with Joe having a strong grip on the band's choice of material--and Jaco's mental illness and drug abuse was almost hitting unworkable levels.

Yet, they were still one of the most gifted groups of musicians that had ever joined forces--both as players and composers--and this album proves that the magic had not completely faded away.

The late Pastorious ... Read More: