Recently Heard: Heavy Weather by Weather Report

Weather Report: Heavy Weather

The only negative thing I can say about this recording is that it seems too short. It could be a 10-disc set, each disc filled with a good 80 minutes of music and I'd still say that. Oh, this has another very annoying aspect: it makes me want to go out and get the other Weather Report releases, to listen to more Jaco (in particular) and more jazz-rock fusion (in general.) Now, true enough, I tend to want to do that sort of thing anyway, but as I have such a multitude of musical interests, I tend to be pulled in all directions at once, although I will say that this album is responsible, in a large part, for increasing the percentage of jazz and fusion in my collection.

That an album without a guitar player can do that to me is pretty impressive.

Of course, Jaco holds nearly as much influence over me as any guitar player - he not only inspires me to play, but he also inspires me to pick up a fretless bass and do something completely different from what I normally do. Now, I can go on and on about Jaco, but the other guys in the band are no slouches - there's incredible musicianship all around.

This album is far more jazzy than it is rock, in fact I have some newer discs that are considered purely jazz that have more rock elements to them.

If you're in to jazz, fusion, good musicianship, bass, percussion, keyboards, or sax, and you don't already have this, you probably should.