Track Listing

1. Dream Clock
2. Port Of Entry
3. Forlorn
4. Rockin' In Rhythm
5. Fast City
6. Night Passage
7. Three Views Of A Secret
8. Madagascar

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4996 in Music
• Released on: 1994-04-25
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

A Classic!
Weather Report was always the far most important band within the jazz-rock idiom, a fact that even becomes more clear in retrospect. In my opinion, all of the albums from 1974 through 1980 are all of them classics, each album paving the way for new types of musical expressions, influencing musicians worldwide. Out of this outstanding firmament, three of them shines even more: "Mysterious Traveller" (1974), "Heavy Weather" (1977) and "Night Passage" (1980). These are probably the faves among most hardcore Weather Report fans. On "Night Passage", the miraculous trio Zawinul, Shorter and Pastorius is followed by great drummer Peter Erskine, and the exciting percussionist Bobby Thomas Jr. This group was pure magic, I was lucky enough to see them in Oslo in oct 1980. The sound of the group is amazing, and hence the atmosphere of NP is something real special. In addition, the compositions are rea killers!
1) "Night Passage" (Zawinul) The title track may seem a little boring at first, but give it some time, and it grows and shines.
2) "Dream Clock" (Zawinul) Wonderful ballade, a bit like "A remark you made", i.e. Jaco playing a very lyrical theme on bass. Wonderful soloing by Shorter! A stark ballade!
3) "Port of Entry" (Shorter) A kind of heavy funk mood, with a touch of african jungle (?), including one of Jacos most legendary bass-solos, and with a all-stops-pulled-out ending. Great! I remember from the Oslo concert that during Jacos solo, all the others played percussions, and Zawinul walked over to Jaco, pushing Jaco to the max, and I thought to myself: "It doesn`t get any better than this, this is history!"
4) "Forlorn" (Zawinul) A rather unimportant but moody piece (used together with LASER-effects live).
5) "Rockin`in Rythm" (Ellington) A fun tribute (most probably from Zawinul) to this old jazz mentor. Great playing all over.
6) "Fast City" (Zawinul) A great up-tempo tune, the opener on the NP-tour. Stunning solos and great playing.
7) "Three Views of a Secret" (Pastorius) A beautiful composition by Jaco, and with fantastic solos from Zawinul and Shorter together with Jacos bass and the Erskine/Thomas fundament, pure magic!
8) "Madagaskar" (Zawinul) Another great Zawinul composition with that magic ethnic feel to it. The sound and feel of this piece is also pure magic!

Weather Report`s "Night Passage" is a timeless classic, and a must for WR-fans, Jaco-fans and jazz/rock-fans.

Lasse Postmyr, Norway

Confirmation that the end was upon us
'Night Passage' marked the point at which I stopped buying Weather Report LPs. 'Heavy Weather' had been brilliant, and 'Mr. Gone' a disaster which suggested that Joe Zawinul had very little understanding of why the previous album had done so well. The mostly live '8:30' that followed was an attempt to win back the many disgruntled fans who wanted the band to return to the styles of its classic era (from 'Sweetnighter' to 'Black Market'). But the replacement of two (often Latin) drummers/percussionists by the one very swing-oriented Pete Erskine was not a success, in my view, and resulted in a less visually exciting stage show.

The band added a percussionist, Robert Thomas Jr, for 'Night Passage', but it did little to rescue the group, as Zawinul's compositions were increasingly taking Weather Report down a 'big band' route. For once, the only decent tune on a Weather Report album was a Shorter composition: 'Port of Entry'. The rest is entirely disposable. No wonder Jaco left after this, although, as we now know, his departure solved neither the group's nor his own problems.

Leaner, groovier, moodier...majestic
Having taken commercialism & studio work to the point of pointlessness ('Mr Gone') Weather Report seem to have mercifully snapped out of it in early 1980, remembered the sorts of possibilities they were put on Earth to explore, and gone out playing a set of gorgeous compositions that evince more Bop-ish qulaities than they'd ever demonstrated so consistently (check out the irresistibly tight swing of the title track), superbly orchestrated and performed...and had the sense to make the live performances the heart of their next record. This group did a lot of music I love, but this one holds a special place in my heart. And 'Madagascar' has one of the all-time great bass-lines about 5 minutes in.