8.30

Weather Report: Joe Zawinul (keyboards, synthesizer, bass, vocoder); Wayne Shorter (soprano & tenor saxophone); Jaco Pastorius (bass, drums); Peter Erskine (drums, percussion); Erich Zawinul (percussion). Additional personnel: Ten members of the West Los Angeles Christian Academy Children's Choir. Reissue producer: John Snyder. Recorded live in January and February, 1979. Includes liner notes by Scott H. Thompson. Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music Studios). This is part of the Columbia Jazz Contemporary Masters series. Due to the standard length of all compact discs, "Scarlet Woman" has been ommitted from the Columbia/Legacy re-issue of 8:30 in order to accommodate the CD format. You think these cool fusion cats rewrote the jazz/rock songbook on record? Well, live, in person, and on a friendly stage, Weather Report easily smote the light fantastic, sang the body electric, and traveled mysteriously through lands brazen and bruised. 8:30 captures Zawinul, Shorter, et al, in absolutely stellar form, wringing yet more visceral energy from a good portion of their first five albums. They extend the already meaty compositional density of songs to include a variety of kaleidoscopic solos and wondrous incidental occurrences. Zawinul's keyboards are nothing short of electrifying. The synergy between him and Shorter harnesses the gut-level intensity of rock music and plugs it into jazz's vast improvisational resources. Weather Report's electronic iridescence teeters on the brink of joyful cacophony. Linear tensions are set up between Shorter's volcanic sax and Don Alias' galvanizing rhythm section, as Zawinul's multi-hued synthesizers color the surroundings in a lambent haze of pan-cultural sizzle. Note: the Japanese import of 8:30 reproduces the original double LP in its entirety, while the single-disc domestic release omits one track.