Released in October of 2002, this 2-CD release is a collection of live recordings from 1975-1983, featuring a wide variety of musicians that made up the group over the years. Jaco fans will be pleased with the number of tracks he performs on as well, including a live performance of “Portrait of Tracy”. This album was released to critical acclaim and is the first “new” music from Weather Report in many years.
Night Passage
The music for Night Passage was created during Weather Reports tours from 1979 and 1980, following the live album, 8:30. The album was recorded live in front of 250 people at the Complex in Los Angeles over four shows in two nights. Jaco’s “Three Views of a Secret” composition, which later appeared on his Word of Mouth album, first appeared on this album.
Mr. Gone
Mr. Gone is one of those recordings which causes debate among fans of Weather Report and Jaco. The album features two Jaco compositions, including “River People” and “Punk Jazz”. Jaco elaborated about “River People” during an interview with the BBC’s Clive Williamson: “I have a tune, ‘River People’, and I wanted a certain kind of feel, so I decided to play drums on it. We were in a transformation period, I broke my right wrist and we had some time off, and just Joe and I were in the studio. So we did ‘River People’ that way, building the tune up on the spot. It was all written out, so all Joe had to do was play his parts, and I played mine, and it just all gelled together, and I did some overdubs. In fact, we played the bass parts together ‘coz he got this synth sound, sort of a little twang, almost like a little guitar on the top, with my bass rolling on the bottom. So we just played to the click track, and I went back and overdubbed the drums with that, as opposed to ‘Teen Town’ where I played the drums first, and overdubbed the bass part afterwards.”
8:30 (Live)
Weather Report’s best-selling album is also Jaco’s first as a co-leader. Here, Zawinul’s mega hit “Birdland” leads off the album, followed by Jaco’s lyrical fretless work on “A Remark You Made” and Jaco’s own “Teen Town” (with Jaco on bass and drums). Jaco was nominated for a Grammy (Best Jazz Soloist) for his work on this album.
Heavy Weather
Weather Report’s best-selling album is also Jaco’s first as a co-leader. Here, Zawinul’s mega hit “Birdland” leads off the album, followed by Jaco’s lyrical fretless work on “A Remark You Made” and Jaco’s own “Teen Town” (with Jaco on bass and drums). Jaco was nominated for a Grammy (Best Jazz Soloist) for his work on this album.
Black Market
Jaco’s first album with Weather Report, performing on two tracks, one of which was his own composition, Barbary Coast. Alphonso Johnson, Weather Report’s former bass player, performs on the other tracks. This recording led to Jaco officially joining Weather Report.
Birthday Concert (Live)
On Jaco’s 30th birthday (December 1st, 1981), he held his own “surprise” party at Mr. Pip’s in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This recording documents the birthday party concert with 11 tracks.
The Peter Graves Orchestra and other Jaco favorites were brought together as The Word of Mouth Band for this spirited performance. Peter Erskine contributes liner notes for this release and is also the album’s producer.
Word of Mouth
In 1981, while still with Weather Report, Jaco created the Word of Mouth Big Band, featuring Toots Thielemans on harmonica as well as an all-star cast made up of Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Peter Erskine, Jack DeJohnette, Michael Brecker, Don Alias, and others.
Jaco Pastorius
The album that started it all — Jaco’s debut solo album. Features a blistering rendition of Charlie Parker’s Donna Lee and two of the tracks that changed bass playing forever: Continuum and Portrait of Tracy. Reissue liner notes provided by Pat Metheny