Night Passage

Artist: Weather Report
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 074643679329
EAN: 0074643679329
ASIN: B0000025K7

Release Date: 1990-10-25

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Listmania:

The Best of Weather Report
10 Great Weather Report CD's
Body and Soul
What's Going on in the modern jazz world
The Harder They Come
New and old Chill Jazz and Pop
Trip Acid Funk Pop
Chill Jazz and Pop Sounds
Chill Out
Unique Trip Hop with a World Jazz Flavor

Tracks:

Night Passage
Dream Clock
Port Of Enttry
Forlorn
Rockin' In Rhythm
Fast City
Three Views Of A Secret
Madagascar

Similar Items:

Mr. Gone
Black Market
Heavy Weather
8:30
Weather Report

Customer Reviews:

A nice mixture of moody and high energy tunes.......2007-03-26

This 1980 album really surprised me with its vitality and freshness; an amazing feat given the year of release. Although I may be a bit too fond of the albums released during the "Jaco-years", I feel that Night Passage sits comfortably alongside the excellent jazz rock albums Black Market (1976) and Heavy Weather (1977). Come to think of it, Night Passage also forms a nice bookend to the definitive works released by the band during the 1970's.

The lineup on Night Passage is fantastic and includes Joe Zawinul (synthesizers, electric piano, and acoustic piano); Wayne Shorter (soprano and tenor saxophones); Peter Erskine (drums); Robert Thomas Jr. (hand drums); and finally, the great (late) Jaco Pastorius (fretless electric bass guitar). Although the performances by all members are fantastic (especially those by Wayne and Joe), I need to single Jaco out here: his playing is simply breathtaking on Night Passage, particularly on the "live in the studio" track Port of Entry. His gymnastics on the electric bass seem to temporarily suspend the laws of physics: he pulls off (I am guessing here) 128th note triplets with ease - let me put it to you this way, he can play really, really fast. More importantly however, his playing is also very sensitive and thoughtful on Night Passage, which is actually a very quiet album. He had an incredible ability to play the perfect (single) note; really listened to what the other musicians were playing; and his use of harmonics and false harmonics made everything richer and more...resonant.

The eight tunes on Night Passage range from 3'55" (Forlorn) to the lengthy 10'56" closing track Madagascar. In large part, the pieces alternate between those with a great deal of energy (Night Passage; Port of Entry; Rockin'in Rhythm; Fast City) and slow, moody, and synth heavy tracks (Dream Clock; Forlorn; Three Views of a Secret; Madagascar). There are also a few bouncy and catchy melodies on the album (e.g. Night Passage); bebop (Fast City); and even a big band sound here and there (Rockin' in Rhythm) - for the most part however, this album was written somewhat in the vein of Heavy Weather, albeit a bit quieter. I have to confess though, that as a huge prog fan, the dark and vaguely experimental track Madagascar is a personal favorite.

I really wish that this album was remastered. There are a few dodgy moments in the sound quality and the liner notes are pretty skimpy.

Well there you have it. Night Passage is a great album and is recommended along with Black Market and Heavy Weather.

One of their best.......2006-11-27

This album is one of their best, the selection "Forlorn" is one of Shorters best sax pieces ever. Walk, don't run to buy this one.

if you love weather report and jaco's playing...this is a MUST!!!an absolute 5 stars!.......2006-08-24

some consider this album as the best from weather report: i'm one of them.I love the other ones, don't get me wrong.......i love this group.but this album for me reatches the everest peak with the jacos'flag!! and his flag for me (but not just for me) is the best song he ever composed and (for me) one of the best songs ever composed by a jazz musician! "three views of a secret".it will make you feel angry at the person who killed him (luc havan) in 1987.and then the other songs! NIGHT PAAAASSSAAAGEEE!!! this is the perfect example of what weather report truly were:a team. and then rockin'in rhythm,fast city, port of entry.....every song here is a piece of art.trust me.if like me you are a musician,you love weather report,and you get excited,i mean REALLY excited, about superb chord changes,solos,great rhythm and melodies from the heart......THIS-IS-THE-ALBUM-YOU-MUST-GET! i think i made it clear,didn't I?
ciao,
alessandro from firenze,italy.

Overlooked Classic.......2006-04-12

The reason I have said overlooked is because it seems that when ever people mention Weather Report everybody thinks Birdland and its album Heavy Weather. I think that Heavy Weather is definitely a classic but I think that Night Passage holds much more for the listener. The tunes are a return to a more jazz rooted style. The title track is a cool laided back shuffle type groove with Jaco turning up the heat towards the end. I think this album will please the Jaco fans greatly. The second track is Dream Clock which is a ballad very similar to Heavy Weather's A Remark You Made with Jaco making the theme statment on his frettless. Supposedly Zawinul was trying to convie the passage of time through the night,slow at first and dream like and then fast after midnight. This album is just that. The tunes increase in speed and intensity as the album progresses. My personal favorite is Shorter's Port of Entry which contains one of Jaco's best bass solos.Shorter goes back to his days with the Miles Davis Quintet with his solo on Fast City a up tempo swinger by Zawinul. They cover Duke's Rockin in Rythmn and it smokes. Overall I would say you can't go wrong with this record especially if you already dig Weather Report. check this one out!

A Sleeper Masterpiece.......2006-03-02

I know. Someone shoot me for the pun. But about this time in Weather Report's career, 1980, co-leaders Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter were starting to exhaust their creativity within the colorful, funky, world-music styles that had characterized their previous album and the classic sound of the 70s. As a result, they had to search for inspiration outside of the style, and came back to their roots. Weather Report had always been jazz in its approach and the mentality of the musicians, but this album was the first since "I Sing the Body Electric" in 1972 in which they were predominantly jazz in the stylistic sense. Thus, "Night Passage" is the most conservative of all Weather Report releases in that it looks back to jazz of the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s as inspiration, which ironically gives it its freshness given the historical context; fusion was undergoing an identity and popularity crisis at the time, so a return to where it came from was a positive thing. At the same time, Zawinul in particular had the experience and the technology to approach older styles in new ways and color them differently. The result is a more jazz-oriented effort in which any of the quirky directions that characterize Weather Report can come out at any time to remind the listener of how current the music still was. The best example is the title track, a heavy shuffle that swings hard and takes interesting yet almost traditional harmonic turns until about four and a half minutes when a haunting climax builds a foreboding tension against the sunny groove. It's an absolutely brilliant twist.

But the best part of this album is the last 17 or so minutes. Jaco Pastorius' "Three Views of a Secret" is a beautiful tune in a more classic jazz style yet with all the contemporary harmonic knowledge included and completely done up Weather Report style. Then "Madagascar" is an 11 minute live performance which documents the most creative, enjoyable, subtly funky (music can in fact be funky without heavy rock rhythms) group improvisation in Weather Report history. Finally, Jaco decides to be a team player and really digs in.

A warning to Weather Report fans: those of you who love the "classic" sound of Black Market, Heavy Weather, and albums of that period will initially be bored with this album. Given its nature, it's much more subtle than those (still great) albums. It's still Weather Report, but they choose not to hit you over the head with it this time. It took me three or four listens to really dig this music, not something I'm used to with Weather Report. I didn't like it initially, but it has grown on me since I've opened my mind to it, and I would almost go so far as to call it my favorite. Buy it and let it grow on you too.

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