8:30

by

Weather Report

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Best heard loud. The only thing wrong with this recording is that it isn't substantially longer. Erskine and Jaco form a disciplined and enormously powerful rhythm section that Zawinul and Shorter ride like a thousand foot wave. Scarlet Woman is expertly treated with sci-fi sound effects, from rocket launch to space accident. Teentown is, frankly, overcooked and scattered. A Remark You Made is really beautifully performed. Slang showcases Jaco and his digital delay (incredible that this wall of sound could be performed live by one man). But the real highlight is Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz. It features Jaco's frenetic bass licks, frenzied drumming and almost wobbles entirely out of control until a huge close decays into the sound of a train. The audience is hugely enthusiastic, which makes this a very good listen. The studio tracks are interesting (exception: The Orphan), particularly 8:30, which features Jaco on drums(!). This should be reissued in a box set with bonus tracks. Twenty years after it was issued, it's still the best live fusion album ever made, and an important document of the incredible musical phenomenon that was Weather Report.

....

I saw Weather Report in London at the Hammersmith Odeon on the tour from which this was made, though I have no way of knowing whether any of the recordings came from that concert. '8:30' is a pretty accurate souvenir of those concerts, with all their histrionics, sound effects and solo spots. (Somehow Jaco's bass solo, which normally exceeded 20 minutes, is kept to under five here.) Pete Erskine does a grand job on drums, but this album cannot convey the disappointment that, in order to get Erskine, we lost TWO percussionists. I know nothing about drumming, and for all I know Acuna and Badrena may have been just merely good at their craft. But they brought a wonderful spirit to Weather Report concerts -- sometimes competitive, sometimes collaborative, but always energetic and in good humour. With no percussionists from Latin America, the new four-man band was very much the first-world Weather Report; save Shorter, it was white men playing jazz.

As other reviewers have said, it was a mistake by Sony to remove one track from the CBS double album to squeeze it onto one CD, particularly as it is my favourite, if not the best track. 'Scarlet Woman' had a wonderful spacey intro, a brand new riff from Jaco replacing the Al Johnson lick, one of the biggest decibel ranges between the loud and quiet passages, and a bizarre sotto voce sound-effect ending. But there's no point in my telling you that. You get all the rest of the tracks from the original album, all of which are good, even if few are marvellous. But, if given the choice, I would prefer to listen to the studio version of every track here.

The 'Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz' medley plays much the same role as the 'Goin Ahead/Wichita Falls' pairing on the Pat Metheny 'Travels' album: an exquisite melding (on side 3 of the LP) of two tunes from different albums. If that track achieves nothing more than persuading a few more people to dip into the back-catalogue and buy the outstanding 'Sweetnighter', then it was well worth doing.

The studio tracks unnecessarily tacked onto the end are unremarkable. Goodness knows why any studio material was needed, as every Weather Report concert I attended lasted a good 1.75 hours. Having let down their many fans with 'Mr Gone', the band redeemed themselves a little, but not much, with this album.

If you enjoyed this album and don't know the group's earlier material, then you are in for a wonderful treat: 'Sweetnighter', 'Mysterious Traveller', 'Tale Spinnin', 'Black Market' and 'Heavy Weather' are all five-star, toe-tapping jazz-rock. (If you go back even further, things become not quite so catchy or commercial.)