Weather Report - 1980 [1992] Night Passage

 

Night Passage is the ninth studio album by Weather Report, released in 1980. The tracks were recorded on July 12 and 13, 1980 at The Complex studios in Los Angeles (before a crowd of 250 people who can be heard on a couple of tracks), except for "Madagascar", recorded live at the Festival Hall, Osaka, Japan on June 29 of the same year.

The album introduces a new member to the band, namely percussionist Robert Thomas Jr. Night Passage loses the over-done production layers of some of Weather Report's earlier releases (most notably 1978's Mr. Gone). What is lost in layers of overdubs is made up in solo improvisation in the classic jazz tradition.

All things being relative, this is Weather Report's straightahead album, where the elaborate production layers of the late-'70s gave way to sparer textures and more unadorned solo improvisation in the jazz tradition, electric instruments and all. The flaw of this album is the shortage of really memorable compositions; it is more of a vehicle for the virtuosic feats of what is considered by some to be the classic WR lineup -- Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Robert Thomas, Jr. and Peter Erskine. For Erskine, this is is first full studio album and he amply demonstrates his terrific sense of forward drive unique among the other superb drummers in WR annals. "Port of Entry" is a tour de force for Jaco, who knocks off several of those unbelievably slippery, pointed runs that have made him a posthumous legend. There is also a tremendously fun retro trip to Duke Ellington's "Rockin' in Rhythm," everybody swinging their heads and hands off.

The music for Night Passage was honed during the tours of 1979-1980, following the release of 8:30. Whereas 8:30 relied largely on the music of the past, on the ’79-’80 tours the Pastorius-Erskine-Thomas edition of Weather Report developed its own unique identity independent of earlier work. Perhaps Jon Pareles captured the difference best in his article in Musician Player & Listener describing Weather Report’s New York concert in early 1980

Track listing:

1.    "Night Passage"    Joe Zawinul    6:30
2.    "Dream Clock"    Zawinul    6:26
3.    "Port of Entry"    Shorter    5:09
4.    "Forlorn"    Zawinul    3:55
5.    "Rockin' in Rhythm"    Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, Harry Carney    3:02
6.    "Fast City"    Zawinul    6:17
7.    "Three Views of a Secret"    Pastorius    5:50
8.    "Madagascar"    Zawinul    10:56

Personnel:

    Josef Zawinul – keyboards and synthesizers
    Wayne Shorter – saxophones
    Jaco Pastorius – fretless bass
    Peter Erskine – drums
    Robert Thomas Jr. – percussion