8:30 is the second live album from the jazz fusion group Weather Report, issued in 1979 by ARC/Columbia Records.[2] The album rose to No. 3 on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart and No. 47 on the Billboard 200 chart.[3][4] 8:30 also won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance.[5]
| 8:30 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | August 1979 | |||
| Recorded | November 28, 1978 (and other dates in late 1978)[1] | |||
| Venue | Terrace Theater, Long Beach, California (plus "other locations") | |||
| Genre | Jazz fusion | |||
| Length | 80:58 | |||
| Label | ARC, Columbia | |||
| Producer | Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius | |||
| Weather Report chronology | ||||
| ||||
Recording
editThe album takes its name from the band's habit of starting their performance at 8:30 PM. At the time of the tour, the band was a quartet and would take the stage continuously for around two and a half hours, each of the members taking a solo. Wayne Shorter sometimes plays percussion instead of saxophone on stage, and on one of the studio tracks, the calypso inspired "Brown Street", Joe Zawinul's son Erich plays percussion with Erskine and Pastorius.
Jaco Pastorius played a notable solo on "Slang"[6] which started with an out-of-time rendition of "Dolores" by Wayne Shorter, then melded a multi-part bass solo using a rack-mounted MXR digital delay, leading into references to "Third Stone from the Sun" by Jimi Hendrix,[6] "Portrait of Tracy" from his solo work, then "The Sound of Music". He finished playing his bass with its own strap.
According to Peter Erskine, the band had planned for the entire album to be live, but an engineer accidentally erased some of the material, prompting the band to go into the studio to record the fourth side.[7]
Release
editThe album was originally a double gatefold LP. In the US, the reissue on CD dropped "Scarlet Woman", as the album's running time narrowly exceeds the Red Book standard's maximum running time for a single CD. The album was released as a 2-CD set outside the US.
Critical reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [6] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | B+ [8] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |  [11] |
| Record Mirror | [10] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [9] |
Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau wrote: "The live double their more bemused admirers have waited for years is indeed Weather Report's most (if not first) useful album. But it also defines their limits. This is a band that runs the gamut from the catchy to the mysterioso. Joe Zawinul is the best sound effects man since Shadow Morton. And when he gives himself room, Wayne Shorter can blow."[8]
Track listing
editAll tracks are written by Joe Zawinul, except where noted
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Black Market" | 9:47 |
| 2. | "Scarlet Woman" (Alphonso Johnson, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul) | 8:42 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Teen Town" (Jaco Pastorius) | 6:03 |
| 2. | "A Remark You Made" | 8:01 |
| 3. | "Slang" (Pastorius) | 4:45 |
| 4. | "In a Silent Way" | 2:47 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Birdland" | 7:13 |
| 2. | "Thanks for the Memory" (Leo Robin, Ralph Rainger) | 3:33 |
| 3. | "Medley: Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz" | 9:32 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "8:30" | 2:36 |
| 2. | "Brown Street" (Zawinul, Shorter) | 8:34 |
| 3. | "The Orphan" | 3:17 |
| 4. | "Sightseeing" (Shorter) | 5:34 |
Personnel
edit- Joe Zawinul – keyboards, ARP Quadra synthesizer bass, Korg Vocoder VC-10, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, percussion
- Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
- Jaco Pastorius – fretless bass guitar, percussion; drums on "8:30" & "Brown Street"
- Peter Erskine – drums
- Erich Zawinul – percussion on "Brown Street"
- The West Los Angeles Christian Academy Children's Choir – vocals on "The Orphan"
References
edit- ^ Bianchi, Curt. "8:30". www.WeatherReportDiscography.org. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
- ^ Weather Report - 8:30. ARC/Columbia Records. 1979.
- ^ "Billboard Best Selling Jazz LPs". Billboard Magazine. Vol. 91, no. 46. November 17, 1979. p. 56 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Weather Report: 8:30 (Billboard 200)". billboard.com. Archived from the original on April 15, 2019.
- ^ "Weather Report". grammy.com. The Recording Academy.
- ^ a b c Meredith, Bill. "Weather Report - 8:30 (1979) album review, credits & releases". AllMusic. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
- ^ Glaser, Brian (2001). In a Silent Way: A Portrait of Joe Zawinul. Sanctuary Publishing. pp. 213–214. ISBN 1860743269.
- ^ a b Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: W". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 22, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
- ^ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. US: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 204. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
- ^ Kluth, Susan (September 29, 1979). "Weather Report 8:30". Record Mirror. Vol. 26, no. 39. p. 22.
- ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1475. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.