Track Listing

1. Black Market
2. Cannon Ball
3. Gibraltar
4. Elegant People
5. Three Clowns
6. Barbary Coast
7. Herandnu

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6072 in Music
• Released on: 2002-06-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
Weather Report's Black Market, issued in 1976 and here offered in 24-bit digitally remastered form, was notable for the arrival of young bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius, the addition of the Oberheim Prophet polyphonic synthesizer to Joe Zawinul's bank of keyboards and the title track which, with its sweetly voiced melody, intensifying rhythms and doubled basses achieves the kind of unity you wouldn't expect from a band in constant flux. The album, which preceded the 1977 breakthrough, Heavy Weather, does not showcase Wayne Shorter to best effect--his pretty but banal composition "Elegant People", on which he plays the electronic Lyricon as well as tenor and soprano, is TV theme music crossed with smooth jazz. But with "Cannon Ball", Zawinul's heartfelt tribute to his former boss Cannonball Adderley and "Barbary Coast", on which Pastorius steps out with his fretless funkified axe, Black Market stands up as one of the more rewarding Weather Report efforts of the period. --Lloyd Sachs

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Music for Beautiful People
When I was first played this album, by a friend at school way back in the Seventies, I shut myself in his room and replayed it at least half a dozen times! I think my friends thought me a bit mad, but I had never heard such a completely integrated sound, delivered in such a professional way before. It was this record that prompted me to explore the avenues of Jazz/Rock, leading me to others of the genre such as Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock, Stanley Clarke and Billy Cobham to name but a few.
Chester Thompson and Narada Michael Walden, together with two percussionists, provide a solid foundation augmented by Alphonso Johnson and the inimitable Jaco Pastorius on bass. Wayne Shorter's mournful saxophone provides the lead and the whole thing is brought together by the masterful Joe Zawinul on keyboards and effects. Individually, the musicianship is undeniably brilliant, but the combined effect is nothing short of astonishing. While the earlier Tale Spinnin' had a more ebullient Caribbean flavour, Black Market has more of a Mediterranean feel to it - heavier and more powerful, with eastern overtones. Unequivocally recommended!

Simply Excellent
Not as easy listening as their follow up, the highly successful 'Heavy Weather' AND more compositional and less jam heavy than their earlier 'Mysterious Traveller' album, this album's music is the perfect balance between burning organic fluid improvisation and structured balanced composition. To my mind it is the best Weather Report album and the one I would recommend to first time listeners.

New to weather report? Start here...
This is my fave Weather report album; and a great introduction to the band if you don't know them. "Black Market" finds the band at their most colourful, with the late Joe Zawinul's distinctive synth sound unashamedly splashed across their sonic canvas and two bass legends (Pastorius and Alphonso Johnson) sharing low end duties. The Portishead-sampled "elegant people" leans towards their cheesier side but the closing cut "Herandnu" pulls everything back in line. More accessible than "Mysterious Traveller" (their other great album in my opinion) but without the big slices of cheese present on their biggest hit "Heavy Weather." New to weather report? Start here...