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