Heavy Weather (album)

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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.

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 from Zawinual's eponymous solo album predating the formation of Weather Report which was often coupled with Directions which appeared on I Sing the Body Electric. A striking feature of Birdland is Pastorius picking harmonics on his fretless bass, although recordings exist of life performance of the theme prior to Pastorius joining the band when it was purely a keyboard section.

Track listing

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) — 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 Acuna — Drums, congas, tom toms, handclap
• Manolo Badrena — Tambourine, congas, vocal, timbales, percussion

Chart positions

Billboard Music Charts
(North America) - album
1977 Heavy Weather: Jazz Albums : No. 1
1977 Heavy Weather: Pop Albums : No. 30
1977 Heavy Weather: Black Albums : No. 33

External links

• Weather Report Annotated Discography: Heavy Weather

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Last updated on Wednesday March 12, 2008 at 16:36:15 PDT (GMT -0700)
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