Weather Report

In the year since I Sing the Body Electric, Weather Report has added an ethereal
electronic quality to its acoustic soundscape. Their music is now colored by eerie
synthesized qualities, haunted by saxophone lyricism and nervous South American
rhythms. Musical thoughts are as much implied as real, likewise the suggestions of foreign
places are both geographical and neurological. Thus, Sweetnighter is strictly a t... More >

Ask yourself: What kind of a jazz (or rock) (or jazz-rock) group would conceive its sonar identity around electric keyboards and soprano sax? A pretty dinky (not dunky) one, right? So while I'm pleased that they're going for a drum groove a little solider than anything Dom Um Romao can move and shake, I'm not surprised that they get it only--just barely, in fact--on "125th Street congress." And that "Boogie Woogie Waltz" is fatally cute, ace improvisations and all. (Grade: B)