Black Market

1976年発売 ウェーザー・リポートの代表作『ブラック・マーケット』

稀代のジャズ・フュージョン・グループ、ウェザー・リポート黄金時代の幕開けを告げた1976年発表のマスターピース。これまでのスペイシーで浮遊感のある音作りから、より逞しくワイルドなサウンドへ変貌を遂げた記念碑的な作品でもある。タイトル曲や「エレガント・ピープル」など、グループの全歴史を代表する名曲も収録。アルフォンソ・ジョンソンとジャコ・パストリアスという、稀代のベーシストの聴き比べもできる。

The shifts in Weather Report's personnel come fast and furious now, with Narada Michael Walden and Chester Thompson as the drummers, Alex Acuna and Don Alias at the percussion table, and Alphonso Johnson giving way to the mighty, martyred Jaco Pastorius. It is interesting to hear Pastorius expanding the bass role only incrementally over what the more funk-oriented Johnson was doing at this early point -- that is, until "Barbary Coast," where suddenly Jaco leaps athletically forward into the spotlight. Joe Zawinul or just Zawinul, as he preferred to be billed -- contributed all of side one's compositions, mostly Third World-flavored workouts except for "Cannon Ball," a touching tribute to his ex-boss Cannonball Adderley (who had died the year before). Shorter, Pastorius, and Johnson split the remainder of the tracks, with Shorter now set in a long-limbed compositional mode for electric bands that would serve him into the 1990s. While it goes without saying that most Weather Report albums are transition albums, this diverse record is even more transient than most, paving the way for WR's most popular period while retaining the old sense of adventure. ~ Richard S. Ginell