Heavy Weather

Longest elevator ride ever.

Divine. Loved it. My Dearest said 'it's like the soundtrack to an 80s movie', and I wholeheartedly agree. They were obviously very instrumental in setting the sound of a sophisticated liquid velvet sound.

Background music for TV shows or hold music. Not a Jazz fan, it's not a bad listen but not my cup of tea. 2

pretty neat fusion album. jaco is a legend on the bass of course

Gets off to a great start with the first 2 tracks but then meanders a bit for me. Great bass playing though by Jaco Pastorius.

Unique but not my flavor. The extended album had to three live songs that were the strongest of the album but those are not part of the original release. 2 out of 5.

++*: Birdland ++: Teen Town, Harlequin, Palladíum, The Juggler, Havona +: A Remark You Made, Rumba Mamá 9,4/10

Perfectly enjoyable smooth jazz. The first half of the record leading off with one of my favorite jazz numbers, Birdland, is much more interesting than the back half, but I'd own this on vinyl and listen to it regularly.

eerste twee nummers bleven maar duren... daarna werd het toch beter (zeker TeenTown en RumbaMama)... en toen terug puddinggewijs in elkaar...2,5sterren

Swings between groovy and massively irritating, mostly sounds like hold music

I'm not sure I fully understood what happened on that album but I liked it.

It’s good. I’m not a jazz guy

Not quite my tempo.

Was ok, Jazzy feel on most tracks, I don’t know anything about this band, but yeah decent listen

not really my stuff, 2/5 stars based on personal enjoyment, i don’t think it’s bad

Steely Dan for A Mario kart soundtrack. Didn’t feel very special… the album cover is sick though

Was surprised I liked this instrumental album

It was ok

Even as a proud devotee of the Cult of Jaco I can admit that the smooth-jazz schmaltz can be difficult to digest at times. And yet I also want to argue, vociferously, that this album's legion of inferior imitators shouldn't be held against it. "Teen Town" remains a standard-setter for bassists everywhere, and the entire album is chock-full of virtuosity from the entire ensemble. Stop worrying about whether it's cool to like this album.

This is an interesting jazz fusion album. Some songs sounded like Chicago without the lyrics, some sounded like salsa/dance music, and others sounded like advanced-level jazz; it’s kind of all over the place, but in a controlled way. I never felt lost or annoyed, which happens for me on a lot of jazz albums; this is pretty accessible and fun. I’ll give it a solid 3/5, not a bad way to start a morning!

The was boring without anything to perk up my interest. Nothing redeeming for me.

Picture the scene.... it's 1980, there's a meeting of TV execs and sound composers. They're searching for ideas on a unified future sound of music in television... the discussion is broad and heated, ego's, differences of opinion. Through all the noise and heated debate, one composer stands up and walks towards a stereo system, he pulls a tape out of his walkman, put's it into the tape player and presses player. Birdland starts.... the room falls silent for a moment , the feeling in the room shifts and erupts into excitement.... "that's it!" shouts one exec over the crowd ... and in that moment, the soundtrack of a decade of sitcoms, TV dramas and made-for TV movies was born!

Day 61 Just a slog to get through. It's elevator music stretched to it's thinnest state. Mid. Fav track: Birdland

Jazzy with some good moments

This is basically better quality, funkier elevator music.

Awful

Interesting but a bit over the top for me

It was fine

The weather was not so heavy, more like a slight drizzle. It's rather tame from a rock and a jazz standpoint.

I don't like weather report and I think it's over exposure to people who don't stop talking about Jaco I know he's great but please

nope. so non descript for me, and so not anything I appreciate hearing - if this record got chucked out the window.. it wouldn't be a bad thing

Weather Report is like the John Mayall or Yardbirds of jazz fusion. Countless incredible players made their way through the ranks before launching their own jams. That however is pretty much irrelevant to the appreciation of this album. it probably boils down to on word - jazz fusion. the wordless counterpart to prog rock - these genres developed concurrently with a shared love for cool tones over great tunes. a lot of notes and changes to an uncertain end. obvious talent at every position -sort of like the 1980s Yankees who produced a lot of news stories but nothing noteworthy on the field (shout out to my Brooklyn born Dodger lover dad who taught me Yankee hate at an early age). Similar to other albums who i am not inclined to like at face value - and i have spent some time with weather report previously - it took a couple listens to really see the merits. there are enough jams (Teen Town, Palladium and Birdland) to keep my interest. The rhythm section of Alex Acuna and Jaco Pastorius (just damn son - play your thing) really keep things moving.

Jaco is phenomenal and bird land takes me back to playing it in high school. There wasn’t as much dynamic change between songs

The musicianship is too good. There are some impressive parts, but it's too cheesy.

Boring jazz album. It was cool to hear the original version of “Birdland” though.

Trop bonne ambiance

I've learned with this project, I really enjoy jazz and learning more about the various styles and artists. Weather Report was vaguely familiar but I couldn't place any of the songs based on title. However, I'm certain we played Birdland in band when I was in high school. Harlequin reminded me of the music from the movie Mirror Mask.

Nice to know this exists.

Sick album cover. Half of it sounds like it could be on Ridge Racer, the other half is muzak. Terrible yet not the worst.

This is a fun Jazz-Fusion album. Lots of great musicianship and I would definitely listen to. I'll likely forget it exists, but I'll listen to it.

Elevator music? Lifeless hold music? Do y'all not feel the groove, folks? (8/10, 4/5 on this scale)

Not a huge modern jazz fan, not a huge fan of most instrumentals. We'll see how this goes. Poorly, that's how it goes, very poorly. I feel like I am on an elevator to hell and this is the muzak played there. Normally I just don't enjoy jazz, but can feel the deep care and musicianship put into it. This just sounds like the worst thing a musician can do, play absolute white-bread crap with all that training and practice. There were so many better things to listen to in 1977, how about some Devo or Elvis Costello. How about some hard rock or even the soundtrack to Star Wars. Demon, I banish you back to the pablum covered, Kenny G infested hell that you came from!!!

This is a very good jazz fusion album, and the bass playing from Jaco is, of course, amazing. However, it does delve pretty deeply into some cheesy tracks and parts, and, ultimately, I prefer some other jazz fusion albums and bands, at this point. I do want to listen to more Weather Report, however, as I do admire what they did, and I can see why this was so big at the time.

Hot damn! I love a good jazz album, but this is incredible. The saxophonist is playing like his life depends on it, the drummer is laying down the slickest little beats, the keys/synth is creating a textured back wall of sound, and to top it all off is some of the down right dirtiest, chunkiest, chocolotiest bass licks I've ever heard. Any time I questioned whether the next song was going to be good because it seemed like it was going to be doing something weird, by the end of the song I was fully on board. Even Rumba Mama, which I was worried would be a sea change for the album into live stuff, the start was chaotic, until it wasn't and it came together beautifully. It's the perfect length, it's complex, it's a toe tapping delight.

It's a bit cheesy, but I do appreciate the musicianship.

To be honest it just bored me and the synths sounded shit. Not of relevance to the music itself but the album cover is absolutely terrible as well. 2/10

1am weather channel music during the 90s

Listening to this while it's absolutely bucketing down outside... how fitting. Anyway, this was a good album! You can tell the musicians are very talented - I especially liked listening to the drummer and saxophonist. I am a jazz lover and this stuff was great. One thing I kind of dislike is the long solo breaks in some of the songs. That stuff is great to listen to live but when it's put on an album it just gets a little bit boring over multiple tracks. So about a 4/5 for me. Still great stuff.

Some of this sounds like a Mario Kart soundtrack. Mario Kart is fun, and so is this album.

This was a pretty good interesting album, like new age jazz lol

Classic jazz funk fusion and the opening track Birdland is a genuine banger. After that, it’s very much a case of diminishing returns and a lot will depend on your tolerance for generic mid 70s synth sounds and fretless bass noodling. There is one oddly out of place live track for vocals and drums that sounds like it’s about to get interesting and is cut off - I would have like more of that. Cloudy with a chance of showers-tastic!

The look of disgust that my daughter gave me when she heard me playing this will haunt me. She will grow up thinking her daddy likes Jazz fusion. The horror.

Heavy Weather Although I think it's a great song, Birdland somewhat encapsulates the whole album, oscillating between stone cold groove and hotel lobby cheese. Which I suppose is also the issue with jazz fusion as a whole - similar to ELP and prog, the virtuosity is clear, and the desire to showcase their skill amplifies what often seems to be a deficit in taste and discernment. That bit of tasteful restraint and minimalism wouldn’t go amiss on here, and for someone who likes filling every moment it's notable that Jaco Pistorius’s two compositions, Teen Town and and Palladium, are, alongside Birdland,the most engaging tracks. Most of the remainder are a curious mix of somewhat aimless drift interspersed with moments of supreme jazz fusion precision, The Juggler and Havona both a case in point, on the latter the initial intro establishes a nice dramatic motif, before the bass goes popilape and the whole thing just starts to move out of focus for me. I’m on the fence about Jaco as a bassist - sometimes he really is superb, augmenting and improving songs, but at other times his relentless fretlessness is almost oppressive, surely only pleasing those who solely value technicality over feel and sense. Overall it’s a funny one, despite the above there’s much I like and I have the feeling it might grow on me, certainly more than the similarly musically self satisfied ELP yesterday, and I can see myself giving it another listen so I’ll just nudge it to a low 3. 🌦️🌦️🌦️ Playlist submission: Birdland

Some 70s and 80s jazz is a struggle for me. The musicianship is great and they deserve credit for that, but the music is inert. The live tracks worked a lot better, but mostly this didn’t land with me.

I’m not hugely against swearing, but I probably am less guilty of it than most. I do find it helpful occasionally when nothing else can quite make the same point. Growing up I probably went through phases with my swear count ebbing and flowing. All the usual bad words were in there Cs, Ss, Bs and of course Fs. Despite all those (and to get us to the punchline here) my youthful self believed the worst F-word of all, was Fusion. Now, like I’ve mentioned in my reviews plenty of times already, the developments in my music taste over the years would have pissed off my teenage self something shocking. There were plenty of other “bad words” in my vocabulary (jazz, prog, country to name a few) and I’ve got over nearly them all (country can largely still bite me though). Fusion was always going to be a major hurdle in my broadly inclusive tastes though, and the dry-wretching impression I had of it could be defined specifically by the sound on the album ‘Heavy Weather’. Utterly slick, constantly cheese adjacent, and all the band being masters of their instruments (which of course back then, I considered a crime and straight showing off). And yet here we are a number of years (decades) later, and when generated, I reached to the shelf for ‘Heavy Weather’ which sits amongst no less than 9(!) Weather Report albums. It’s like I’m actually trolling my younger self at this stage. To be fair, I do still struggle with the cheesiness factor on this album, and with only a single entry in the 1001, I strongly disagree with this as the choice. Were it up to me I would go right back to the beginning and the more dangerously experimentalist s/t debut or its follow-up ‘I sing the Body Electric’, and I guess if the choice had to recognise commercial success, I could settle for ‘Mysterious Traveller’. Fact is though we are dealing with ‘Heavy Weather’ here and I need to reassure teenage me that it’s ok for me to spin it occasionally. Stepping outside of the aesthetic which I struggle with, the strength of the album is the group unity. I’m still always learning about jazz, and I’m sure things are different across various iterations of fusion, but this is less about musicians improvising than about ensemble constructions. Apologies to those more informed than I, but in this sense, it feels like this type of fusion has more in common with Third Stream for its increased emphasis on structural ensemble playing. ‘Heavy Weather’ sounds like a methodically constructed record. Songs come in intricate, interwoven sections where all the master musicians have their parts to play and interact. I am sure keener ears than mine will spot the improvised sections, but they are certainly less prevalent than in the jazz of the 50s and 60s and before. So like I say, this is far from peak Weather Report afaic, but given my aversion to its aesthetic, it is testament to the musicians and the material at its core that I am still able to enjoy ‘Heavy Weather’ up to a point.

Sometimes you just need some music without lyrics.

I have aways enjoyed Weather Report, They are kind of a bridge between be-bop and smooth jazz and very listenable,

Impressive musicianship here. Not totally my style of jazz though.

Not my jazz

That was Ok. Probably not gonna listen to it again.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

⭐⭐⭐ Hyvää musaa mutta vähän liian korkealentoista

Man, this is good, even real good, I own it, and if I’m honest it’s a 3.

goddamn these guys fucking cook 5/5.

There were parts of this that I really liked. However as it went on and on it kind of started fading into the background for me. I can imagine this was pretty insane when it came out there. 9/30/26

havona fucks hard

Amazing bass playing. Lots of musical detail without losing the groove.

This is some late night talk show/dentist's office-ass music. I've definitely listened to Birdland before, but I don't think this version. But overall, not really my jam. The productions too clean and sterile and its got that 70s cheesy elevator jazz sound. Really the only thing I can vibe with is some of Jaco's bass playing.

This sounds like elevator music or a sitcom theme song. Some funky bass on Teen Town and Havona but otherwise the synths are not helping with the "easy listening" accusations.

Jaco!!

good

Fusionjazz. Gillar det i stort, ganska "snällt" och lättillgängligt men känner kanske att det blir lite väl mycket feeling av lounge music och TV-signaturmelodier bitvis Bäst är Birdland, A remark you made, Rumba mama

Think i was trapped in a lift

Classic with Birdland! I've heard it before. Too bad the other tracks aren't as strong.

The sims, elevated

Sounds a bit like the Wii Shop Channel at times 😅

3 Howard Moons / 5 White-ass jazz

3.3 2x jazzy and good

No me gustó

2.8/5

They’re all fantastic players, and I like some of their earlier albums a lot, but a lot of this album is very schmaltzy, leaning too much toward smooth jazz, and losing the funkier sounds of their early work. I gather its inclusion on this list is based on sales more than anything else, and I think Mysterious Traveler or Sweetnighter would be much better albums to include.

Is there such a thing as "easy listening jazz?" Sounds like one of those self-contradictory phrases like "military intelligence." What's next? Easy listening punk rock? Please. This album is blasphemy. Offensive in its politeness and definitely not what I think of as jazz.

Leuke muziek als intro/achtergrond voor een radio of TV programma! Ik vind het wel geinig, maar het wordt ook wel erg vaag op een gegeven moment. ***

As much as I love a bit of Weather Report this album always feels a bit hotch-potch. Maybe it’s the live track Rumba Mama thrown in the middle spilling the vibe. Quality of musicianship is never in doubt and some great individual tracks but as a whole there’s something prevents me from giving it a higher score. 3

Tale is two albums, first half sounds like someone added a bass line to bad Kenny G songs but the second comes to life

Always excellent.

A nice instrumental surprise.

Smooth

Cool instrumental jazz.

Jazz muy intenso, muy experimental y considerablemente interesante. Me gustó mucho, no creo volverme fan, pero sí tiene varia sorpresa guardada en sus canciones.

Wonderful Jazz Fusion - great to chill with. 4/5

this is one of my least favorite genres of music. I will literally run away from a room if they start playing smooth jazz. It sounds like an evil white person tried to suck all the soul out of jazz.

jazz continues to not be for me.  this jazz fusion album is impeccably produced, impeccably performed, but it's just not for me.  i feel like i am on hold with my insurance company.  2/5

Hm, ko sm vidla jazz fusion nism pričakovala kar zj slišim ("Birdland"). Ha, ker totalen tone change pri "Rumba Mamá". Se vid, da sta južnoameriška člana zasedbe napisala ta komad. Zadnji trije komadi so mi bli prou fajni. Ne tok zame, sploh, ampak not a bad listening experience.

I couldn’t find my way into this album. I got 2 songs in and had to stop. It sounded like elaborate 70s Muzak to me

I enjoyed this. Cool 70’s jazz album. A couple tracks sound like the soundtrack of the 70’s for better or worse. I wanted to hear a bit more of Jaco’s bass playing stand out.

The Weather Report Situation is a confounding puzzle. In my youth, I was aware that Heavy Weather had a reputation as an undoubted masterpiece. I found two WR albums once in a record store and bought them -- Mr. Gone and Mysterious Traveller. I found Mr. Gone to be uneven, but dynamic and more something I could understand. And it features what I find to be their best track -- Pursuit of the Woman With the Feathered Hat.* By contrast, Mysterious Traveller seemed sort of abstract, harder to get hold of. The Rolling Stone Record Guide, my publication of record at the time, gave Mr Gone three stars and Mysterious Traveller five. I thought it must be that I was not a sufficiently sophisticated listener. Mr. Gone was easier but not superior. Or something. On Apple Music, Pursuit ... Feathered Hat is 30th on WR's Top Songs, and the album description for Mr Gone starts by recalling that Down Beat gave it one star on its release for pandering to mainstream audiences and ends by saying the problem is that the music contains "so many ideas ... that the music at times seems like it was written in an alien language" ... in other words, that it's too experimental, novel, and difficult. What is good? What is bad? What are we supposed to be doing here, and are we doing it? Heavy Weather, the million copy selling masterpiece, is mediocre to my ears. Some of it's pretty good. Some of it stinks. (A Remark You Make is hopelessly dull.) Relistening to Mysterious Traveller, I find it to be much more dynamic and successful than Heavy Weather. Wikipedia says some listeners found Heavy Weather to be deeper, more low end, less ethereal. But MT has lovely percussion and just ... takes flight where HW lumbers along. I wonder whether some of the divided opinions have to do with where the emphasis falls between jazz and rock in Jazz Rock Fusion. I found this album to be uneven and ultimately mediocre. But more, I find that interacting with Weather Report consistently leaves me wondering what other listeners hear in the tracks they consider to be the standouts in the WR catalog, and that I find boring and lifeless. *which has wordless vocals that sound remarkably like Sting -- think Walking In Your Footsteps, maybe -- influence? Hmmm.

Heavy weather? That implies something challenging. What even was this? Yucky.

Great album.

Gear: ZMF Auteur Classic LTD Shedua Artwork: 👒🍁🏙️ Production: 🤏🤔🆗 Music: 📞⌛😩 Rating: ⛈️⛈️/5