Weather Report - Heavy Weather (1977)

Tracklist

01 - Birdland
02 - A Remark You Made
03 - Teen Town
04 - Harlequin
05 - Rumba Mama
06 - Palladium
07 - The Juggler
08 - Havona

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 Acuna — Drum set, congas, tom-toms, handclaps
Manolo Badrena — Tambourine, congas, vocal, timbales, percussion

Heavy Weather is Weather Report's seventh album, released in 1977 through Columbia Records. It is the band's second album with bassist Jaco Pastorius. On Black Market, Pastorius played on two of the seven tracks, but here he is a full member of the band. It is on the short list of LP's considered to be the greatest of all Jazz-Fusion recordings.
Featuring the 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. The Birdland melody had been performed live by the band as part of Dr Honoris Causa, which was from Zawinul's eponymous solo album. A striking feature of Birdland is Pastorius picking harmonics on his fretless bass, although recordings exist of live performance of the theme prior to Pastorius joining the band when it was purely a keyboard section.