An absolute fusion classic, this is the album that put Weather Report (featuring Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Alex Acuna and Manolo Badrena) on the map! Part of Sony's Jazz Masterpiece reissue series, this album (containing the smash hit "Birdland") features great new sound via 20-bit digital remastering.
REVIEW:
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. 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.
