This Is Jazz 40: Weather Report - The Jaco Years
	previously released material
	Released on April 28, 1998
	no chart information
	Find it at GEMM
CK 65451 cover [high resolution scan]

T he Martyr’s uncorruptible body of work, on digital display with ten pretty seraphim called Havona or Barbary. This Is Jazz sought to set it all down for posterity: Miles in several guises, Billie Holiday and Art Blakey, Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington. Weather Report became the tenth name in the magickal numerology, a solo Wayne Shorter sooner than later at (hey!) nineteen, and the ghost of Jaco surfaced at volume forty. Jaco wasn’t merely one of the great fusion bass players; he was one of the great fusion players period. He took an instrument synonymous with understatement and created a whole new musical lexicon with it. Jaco could bend it smooth (“A Remark You Made”), twist it into fantastic and groovy shapes (“Teen Town”) or smack you in the face with it (“Punk Jazz”). Pastorius was closest in spirit to Zawinul, since both were interested in expanding the language of jazz with new sounds, of fusing the traditional with the nontraditional. Whether “The Jaco Years” is a banner the band would be comfortable under, well, no. By drawing all of Jaco’s compositions onto a single disc, The Jaco Years is speculative history. Weather Report never released an album like this, and the reality is tracks like “Speechless” and “Havona” often got lost behind Zawinul’s compositions. Likewise, you wouldn’t make the case that Mr. Gone or Night Passage (each contributing two tracks) represent the best of Weather Report. As you might expect, This is Jazz/10 has better Weather, while This Is Jazz/40 serves as a collection of songs in consideration of Jaco’s canonization. It’s hard not to concede the miraculous at work on a “Port of Entry,” or marvel at the concentrated funk in the fingertips that deliver the bass lines on “Barbary Coast.” As a composer, Jaco was primarily a bass player, but as a bass player he had no equal. This is the Gospel According to Jaco, six years of serendipity when jazz titans roamed the earth and left heavy weather in their wake.

CK 65451 back sleeve

TRACK LISTING

1. PUNK JAZZ    5:08
2. RIVER PEOPLE    4:50
3. A REMARK YOU MADE (LIVE)    (Joe Zawinul)    8:00
4. HAVONA    6:00
5. THREE VIEWS OF A SECRET    5:52
6. TEEN TOWN (LIVE)    6:05
7. SPEECHLESS    (Joe Zawinul)    5:57
8. PORT OF ENTRY (LIVE)    (Wayne Shorter)    5:07
9. BARBARY COAST    3:07
10. SLANG (BASS SOLO) (LIVE)    4:48
    
    All compositions by Jaco Pastorius unless noted

CREDITS

JACO PASTORIUS -- fretless electric bass, drums, tympani, voice
WAYNE SHORTER -- tenor and soprano saxophones
JOE ZAWINUL -- keyboards, synthesizers, ARP and Prophet synthesizers, Oberheim Polyphonic & ARP 2600 synthesizers, Prophet V synthesizer, Quadra bass, piano
Alex Acuna -- drums
Peter Erskine -- drums
Robert Thomas, Jr. -- hand drums
Tony Williams -- drums
Eric Zawinul -- percussion
Seth Rothstein -- project director
Howard Fritzson -- art direction
Alice Butts -- cover design
Ken Fredette -- graphic artist
Sandy Speiser/Sony Music Archives -- photography
James Isaacs -- liner notes

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