Weather Report Weekend #17 - "Black Market"

Long time away from Mog but pleased to be back with the next installment for you.

Black Market is one amazing album. Recording started at the end of 1975 and paused while the band took a break for the holidays. Recording resumed again in the New Year after a confusing change around in personnel, which ultimately saw Jaco make his recorded debut with the band as well as his writing debut (with the self-penned composition "Barbary Coast" making it onto the album also). At the outset of the album, then bassist Alphonso Johnson, having endured many months and several albums of slight dissatisfaction with the way the rhythm section was working, was finally able to recommend and help recruit a drummer to play alongside him that he felt really comfortable with - Chester Thompson (who later went on to play and tour extensively with Genesis!). Chester could play jazz, funk, whatever, and sounded great with Alphonso. Together they formed the rhythm section for the first half of the album's sessions, but then everything changed!

They got to the Christmas break at which point (unbeknown to Chester) Alphonso got an offer to go and join George Duke and Billy Cobham who were putting a new band together which he decided to accept. When Thompson got back from the break he was told he wasn't needed any longer. Zawinul and Shorter, assuming that Thompson was leaving along with Johnson, had brought in Narada Michael Walden (ex Mahavishnu Orchestra II) to complete the album. Once the confusion was cleared up, Thompson actually remained thru the end of the sessions, sharing tracks with Walden.

Then there was the issue of what to do about a bass player. Joe remembered his meeting with Jaco Pastorius from the previous year. He had been really impressed back then but didn't have a place for Jaco in the band at the time. But Jaco had continued to write to Zawinul, being persistent in his attempts to get a break with the band, and now came his chance. He got the call from Joe and immediately joined the band in the studios for an "audition". That turned out to be his debut recording - the track was "Canon Ball", which he supplemented with his own track "Barbary Coast".

"Black Market" also saw the WR debut of Alex Acuna, a wonderfully talented percussionist who would go on to become the band's drummer for their next (and many say the best ever) WR album "Heavy Weather".

There's not a single dud on this album. When you think about all the changes going on in the band's lineup during the sessions, there's a remarkable continuity through every track that makes this album very special and complete - a true testament to the power of the Zawinul / Shorter relationship.

For this post, a single track won't suffice. I'd love to post them all but that might upset the Mog bosses, so instead let's highlight the transition to the "Jaco years", first with Alphonso Johnson playing bass on his own compostion "Hernandu", and then in the comments, Jaco's "Barbary Coast" (which starts with the wonderfully "American" sound of the railroad tracks - a sound that Jaco was used to hearing in his native Florida abode).

Enjoy.

MM