'Night Passage' is Weather Report’s 9th album, and was released by Columbia Records in late 1980. While it is not credited as a live album, tracks 1 through 7 were actually recorded live in the studio before an audience of 250 people in August 1980. The last track on the album titled "Madagascar" was recorded live in Osaka, Japan, in June of the same year.
Wayne Shorter's saxophone playing is much more prominent than was the case on the last couple of albums. The rhythm section is top-notch on this album, too. Out of the first three albums with Jaco Pastorius on bass, "Night Passage" is his most impressive. Some of the things he plays on this album are outstanding. Just listen to his performance on a song like "Port of Entry". The drumming by Peter Erskine is also outstanding and greatly enjoyable, while the percussion playing by Robert Thomas Jr. adds a special exotic flavor to Weather Report's music.
What's most interesting about "Night Passage", in addition to the outstanding musicianship, is the high quality of the compositions. There's great variation on the album, and not a single track is sub-par to the rest. The production on 'Night Passage' is excellent; organic, warm and powerful.
For the freeload, tell us what the weather has been like in your neck of the woods.
Typical Gulf coast stuff--warm & humid, occasional rain & tropical storm threat. Forecast for tonight: dark.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, that wuz me, and the current temp is 101 & heat index 115...
ReplyDeleteHot, too hot. Okay, it's getting to 90, 95. But hotter than I've been used to. It will get much hotter as summer moves in. But a dry heat. Not humid. Today also had cumulus clouds. Thunderheads. The humidity on my gauges says 64 per cent.
ReplyDeleteThe ferocious headwinds made today's bike ride quite a chore but at least they blew away last week's brutal heatwave.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'll play this one! For some reason this WP release slipped by me (probably because I always preferred the Live in Tokyo to virtually all their subsequent releases.) So, weather: living at the far northern reaches of the great Sonoran desert (that is, in the Thompson-Okanagan region of British Columbia) we have so far escaped the rampant wildfire events of the past few years, although our drought conditions (and rapidly diminished snowpacks) are still problematic. Temps have been mostly below normal, but, hey! Summer is likely coming (along with the 60's, we do seem to lag behind our friendly neighbours to the south).
ReplyDeleteIn Seville, its been bizarre. Temp changes exceed more than 10 degrees in the same week as of late, with some days a high of 24, followed a few days later by 36.
ReplyDeleteThe only surprise here on the south coast of England is that summer has finally arrived after the longest and seemingly wettest winter ever. It’ll soon be getting too hot for me, I’m a real lightweight when it gets over 25°. I have friends who live in permanent 32° who say it’s no big deal, last time it got over 30° here I didn’t leave the house during daylight hours.
ReplyDeleteNight Passage passed me by too.
Hot, upper 80's into the 90's every day & sunny with clouds randomly floating by. Nighttime temps in the early to mid 70's. Overall clear with occasional large clouds. That was for all of last week from Sunday.the 16th thru Saturday, the 22nd. AC was on all week.
ReplyDeleteA little cooler so far this week. AC is off again and windows are open. Tomato & Indica plants really loved last week's warm weather, they like the hot nights. Thanks Babs
I'm on an island in San Francisco Bay. Summer weather...which means a cycle of fog and sun. It gets hot for a few days, heat rises, pulls fog in, cools down. Yesterday we had the air conditioner on, this morning we have the heat on because the fog returned overnight. This week the daily highs will be 68 to 73 degrees F.
ReplyDeleteIn C, that's 20 to 22 degrees. And speaking of Weather Report, does anyone have the single edit of "Birdland?" Not the long LP version, the 3:45 edit.
ReplyDeleteNight Passage Link
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/REL4L54VcSR
Did someone mention Live In Tokyo?
Here’s a 2014 remaster from Sony Music Japan’s Jazz Collection 1000 series, that sounds sweet.
https://workupload.com/file/dfn5BqJaQJT
Cleveland Ohio much cooler the last few days—allowed me to play / work in the flower garden.
ReplyDeleteAfter a day like today the answer can only be:
ReplyDelete"What's the weather like out there? "It's hot. Damn hot! Real hot! Hottest things is my shorts. I could cook things in it. A little crotch pot cooking." Well, can you tell me what it feels like. "Fool, it's hot! I told you again! Were you born on the sun? It's damn hot! I saw - It's so damn hot, I saw little guys, their orange robes burst into flames. It's that hot! Do you know what I'm talking about."
Rainy season kicking in - a sweet relief.
ReplyDeleteRabbit season!
DeleteFetid and muggy in the foothills of the Pennines. How I long for a cool breeze.
ReplyDeleteNP was the second Weather Report LP I bought a couple of months after 'Heavy Weather' in 1983 and is likely still my fave. Thank God they thought better of the road they had tried to follow up HW with on 'Mr Gone' and found a way back into Duke-tinged electric-jazz for the period. The title track swings like a monster on a pin-head.
It's hot. We had a toad, he was trying to jop across the patio, we decided to help him out. He seemed ok with me picking him up, till he peed on my hand. Great. Now he needed water.
ReplyDeleteI understand about the toads. We are always surprised to get one. But if they pee you got to give them water.
DeleteOr mud. We used to have a pond that attracted them But since my wife died I've let everything go. I occasionally get a tortoise coming through too.
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ReplyDeleteAfter a serious heatwave of which my wife (& most Thais I know) complained bitterly, the rainy season has started. Nice but still very humid at times. I love the sound of the frogs after the rain though!
DeleteHot and humid with scattered afternoon thunder storms which is pretty much the forecast for every day in the Summer here in Central Florida.
ReplyDeleteI was away for a week and enjoyed the weather of Long Beach Island on the Jersey shore: warm, and relatively humid but with cooling breezes off the ocean, and a tumultuous thunderstorm on Monday evening.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Weather Report, and all the weather reports.
D, back in California