Black Market

ジャコ・パストリアスも参加している彼らの最高傑作のひとつ。バッキングの緻密さとウェイン・ショーターの自由奔放かつメロディックなソロが絶妙で、突き抜けるほど創造的な世界観が実に彼ららしい名盤。

Uncut - 4 out of 5 - "...These reissues are indispensable to the history of jazz-rock fusion..." Q - 4 stars out of 5 - "...Probably their most consitently satisfying album..." Uncut - 4 out of 5 - "...These reissues are indispensable to the history of jazz-rock fusion..."

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|