WEATHER REPORT - 8:30 (1979) (2024)

This double LP live album represents the cornerstone of Weather Report as well as anew dimension in jazz fusion music that was prevalent in the nineties. I had no ideaabout the band at time of the release but one of my prog mates told me that the bandhad a talented bass player Jaco Pastorius, also great keyboard player Joe Zawinul. So,that was the main reason to have the album. Well, I remember vividly that during lateseventies or early eighties I also loved some of jazz fusion music with bass players likeStanley Clarke, Ralph Armstrong (contributed to Jean Luc Ponty) or Marcus Miller. So Iwas curious about Jaco.

This live record not only give you a good exploration of progressive or probablycontemporary music using jazz as the tagline or as the foundation, but it also gives youa nuance of dynamic live performance through the recorded crowd applaud that isreally dynamic and lively. The opening track "Black Market" (9:47) provides a goodexample on this. This track is by composition is a masterpiece as it combines great bass-playing that serves two purposes: as beat fillers as well as soloist. Yes, I admire the thetalent of Jaco in providing improvised bass playing throughout this dynamic openingtrack. Wayne Shorter also is a great sax (soprano & tenor) player who has unique styleand contributes dynamically throughout this track. Joe Zawinul provides great rhythmsection at the background with his unique melody keyboard and at the same timeserves as soloist to the track presented here. Peter Erskine drumming reminds me a bitof combination between Steve Gadd and Lenny White. One of key attractions this trackoffers is the solo sax accompanied with drumming. WOW! What a great performance.Top notch arrangement!

Songs like "Scarlet Woman", "Slang" and "In A Silent Way" provides an exploration ofsolo work, eg Slang for bass solo, reminiscent of avant-garde music. To fully enjoythese kinds of tracks you may need special time where you can accept this with anopen mind. So is the case with me, sometime when I'm not ready with it, I just skipit. "Thanks for The Memory" is a slow jazzy track that may favor those of you who lovejazz music. Another great fusion with great bass-playing combined with stunning saxand keyboard is "Birdland" (7:13). Zawinul gives the work of piano as well in betweenthe punctuated beats of the music. Jaco is one of the world's best bass player, I think.He demonstrates how inventive his style through this track as well. He plays the basslike playing guitar melody, sometimes. Really cool!

Overall, this live album is an excellent addition to any prog music collection. If you likebands like Brand X, Return To Forever, or solo albums like Chick Corea, Al Di Meola,etc. you may enjoy this album as well. Keep on proggin' ..!

2.5 stars really!!

First live album that came out after the two most popular WR albums (BM and HW) and obviously focusing on those two, with apredominance of HW. If you read my studio albums reviews of WR, you'll know that I am not much of a fan of their jazz-funk period(from Mysterious Traveller onwards) as opposed to their jazz-rock era (the first three albums), but this doesn't mean that I dislike it.Let's just say that from Black Market onwards the group became very prone (much more than before) to showing off their virtuososkills, and I attribute this to Pastorius arrival in the group, because when Alphonso Johnson was there before him, I hadn't reallydetected this "flaw". Line-up-wise the only new arrival is Zawinul's brother, Erich, on percussion. Graced with a typical Afro-Americanartwork of the era, this double live album

From the first disc, the only track I would pull is MT's best track, Scarlet Woman, the rest leaving me fairly cold. Indeed, withPastorious' Teen Town and then Slang (an excuse for a lengthy bass solo), this is exactly what I don't appreciate much, and thiscomes from a would-be bassist. Not only do I moderately appreciate those albums, but I also happen to disagree with the trackselected on this one. Least of all the Zawinul-penned straight jazz Birdland and Remark You Made.

The second disc isn't much an improvement if you ask me the highlight being the Badia/Waltz medley), and it is completed with fourout-of-context tracks (on the Cd version, since I've never seen the vinyl), none of which click with this writer, Brown Street actuallyreminding me of the rather poor Mr Gone album, then just released. Also completely off the bat is the weird Orphan track where theZaw-Shorter duo play with a ten kids choir. Best avoided, if you ask me, and if you should indulge into some live WR, there are a fewlater releases that are available and will be more representative of the band's live shows.

This is my only experience of live Weather Report, but I assume there must be better livereleases from this group. Especially recordings done with earlier line-ups. This live albumwas released when the group was at a commercial peak (but not necessarily an artistic one).A lot of the tracklist consists of songs taken from albums released after fretless bass legendJaco Pastorius joined. I am familiar with the CD version which omits the song "ScarlettWoman" due to time limitations of having a double album on one CD. I've read that song wasthe highlight of 8:30.

There are four new studio tracks at the end but none really add anything. The sound here isgenerally good; it doesn't sound like any overdubs have been added or any kind of editing hashappened. The performances contain a fair amount of improvisation. Zawinul's synth soundsare generally good and interesting. "Teen Town" features then current drummer Peter Erskineinstead of Jaco, who played the drums on the studio version. "Slang" is a Jaco solo piecewhich incorporates the riff from Jimi Hendrix's "Third Stone From The Sun." Included here is aversion of the Miles Davis classic "In A Silent Way" which was written by Joe Zawinul. He playsthe then brand-new Prophet V synthesizer on this track.

"Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz Medley" is probably the highlight of the whole thing. Zawinulcomes up with great keyboard sounds here. "Brown Street" is both the longest and best of thestudio tracks. Based around African styled snare rim centred drumming. Nice synths and saxwork in this song. The brief use of vocoder by Zawinul is good. Jaco's bass starts off moreburied in the mix but later becomes more noticeable and slight;y distorted. 8:30 was likelyreleased to capitalize on the success of the 1977 album Heavy Weather and it's hit "Birdland"(also included here). Live they could still do magic but in the studio they were rarely on fireanymore. I would have liked to have heard Jaco on some of the songs before he joined. As itis this is a decent live album but nothing spectacular. 3 stars.