#Night Passage

[audiemurphy1945]

Night Passage(1957)

[boydswan]

James Stewart in Night Passage (1957)

[moviesben]

Audie Murphy and James Stewart in Night Passage, 1957

[randomcollectionitem]

Weather Report - Night Passage

https://www.discogs.com/release/11535112-Weather-Report-Night-Passage

That was a bit of a longer hiatus than I'd wanted, but I'm glad to be back... and what stranger note to be back on than Weather Report's meandering first step into the 80s, Night Passage? If anyone ever accuses me of cherry picking albums for clout on this blog, posts like this will remain my ironclad defense. There's not much cool about Weather Report (unless you're a bassist, which is inherently uncool), and there's certainly nothing cool about 80s Weather Report. That being said, I'm a huge sucker for jazz fusion, and a big Weather Report fan, so let's dig in.

Weather Report has a strange history. The core of the band, and only two reasonably consistent members, are the legendary Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul. Shorter and Zawinul formed the group after their time together in Miles Davis' band, where they helped gestate the beginning of his controversial (but, in my humble opinion, excellent) electric era on the In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew sessions. (Before some nerd corrects me: Wayne, of course, was in Miles' band well before Joe as part of the second great quintet). Early Weather Report was on the more improvisational and experimental end of fusion, then found a fascination with world music, followed by a transition into more accessible synth-laden tunes as Zawinul began to take more and more of the role of sole band leader as opposed to the original co-leader configuration with Shorter. As anyone with marginal familiarity with the genre knows, Weather Report struck gold in 1977 with the release of Heavy Weather and its hit single Birdland. Heavy Weather sold half a million copies, a truly staggering feat for a jazz fusion album, rocketing the band to the closest thing to stardom a jazz musician can expect (short of Miles Davis himself, or perhaps Kenny G if you want to broach the controversial topic of whether or not he counts as "real jazz").

Night Passage finds the band at a turning point. Their previous two releases (Mr. Gone, and the live album 8:30) had failed to find the critical or commercial success of Heavy Weather. Wayne Shorter was becoming increasingly uninvolved, as evidenced by his single songwriting credit on the album compared to Joe Zawinul's five (incidentally, Shorter's tune Port of Entry is one of highlights of the album). Jaco Pastorious had already launched into a successful solo career and was beginning to find crossover success of his own following a number of years playing with Joni Mitchell. Consumer tastes and music technology were changing rapidly, turning towards digital production and catchy, synth laden pop tunes, with significantly decreased interest in the meandering double albums and 10+ minute songs of the 70s. The band had brought on a secondary percussionist, Robert Thomas Jr, presumably to shake things up a bit and to bring back a sound more reminiscent of their earlier output.

Night Passage falls in an interesting spot in their discography, serving as a link between the Weather Report of the 70s and the Weather Report of the 80s. It, in many ways, feels like the last "true" Weather Report album. Its self-titled successor (not to be confused with their self-titled debut album) was the last to feature Jaco Pastorious and Peter Erskine and found all members except Zawinul sonically and compositionally alienated, muffled and overwhelmed by his vision and "synthesized big band" compositional approach. Night Passage, while anticipating that sound, manages to still maintain a sense of musical unity and group participation that their later discography is sorely lacking.

Compositionally, Night Passage is hit-or-miss. Jaco and Wayne each contributed a single composition (Three Views of a Secret and the aforementioned Port of Entry respectively), both of which are highlights. They also play a smokin' version of the classic Ellington tune, Rockin' in Rhythm; while all the band members had become fairly far-removed from straight-ahead jazz stylistically, it's a good reminder that all of them come from the top of that world and can play the hell out of a jazz standard. Zawinul's compositions are spottier, and often feel like they're part of a different album entirely.

Sonically, the album is technically well-recorded but feels a bit flat and lifeless. While the documentation I can find claims this album was recorded in analog, it has a sonic signature that I associate more with the primitive days of digital recording in the early 80s. I suspect that The Complex in LA (where all tracks except the final live track were recorded) were taking advantage of some "cutting edge" digital studio pieces in the earlier stages of the signal chain. Columbia was still pumping some good money into the production at this stage with the hopes of producing another Heavy Weather.

If you've never listened to Weather Report, this probably isn't your place to start (I recommend the classic Heavy Weather, or I Sing The Body Electric if you're more inclined towards experimental sounds). But if you're a fan who's written off their 80s output entirely without listening, this one is the most worthy of your time and attention in the era, showing glimpses of a very different future than the one we got.

The copy in front of me is a fairly standard US-made mass-market CD issue. The reissue year isn't discernable from the runout info and barcode, but I would guess late 80s or early 90s based on the packaging. The sound is solid, and as mentioned previously, likely held back more by the source material than the quality of the release itself. While I don't have an original to compare it to, this copy doesn't appear to be remastered and is likely identical to the original CD issue. The booklet is a basic one-sided four-panel foldout "road map style" affair, copied and lightly reformatted directly from the original LP sleeve. Seeing as I likely paid no more than $4 used for the disc (likely a fraction of that), I'm certainly not going to complain. My only other note on the physical release is that, for some reason, Joe Zawinul decided to rebrand himself simply as Zawinul in the credits, while the rest of the band members maintain their full names. He's hip with the kids, one might say.

And with that I think we can put a pin in it, a bow on it, and, if you play your cards right, maybe even a cherry on top of it. Til next time, may your transitional albums take you to greener grass and may your synth orchestration stay tasteful. Hoping to be back with more much, much sooner than before 🙂

[cinemaquiles]

O "ATOR HERÓI DE GUERRA" AUDIE MURPHY EM SUGESTÕES DE FILMES QUE VOCÊ PRECISA CONHECER!

[just-bee-lieve]

i’m tired of looking at this. have some mike

[nicheguides]

First Date Ideas

Skip the coffee date! Entice the next hottie you meet with a brand new experience✨

[jstor]

https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2pzbkcg.14

As Tumblrinas we’ve surely witnessed the evolution of music consumption into a participatory process.

Naturally, we looked into it on JSTOR and found this 61-page, open access chapter about the state of music post-internet.

Enjoy 🎧

[crancisfrozier]

Anybody have a spare $20,000 to give me so I can go to beechey island and sit on the rocks and stare at the Franklin graves for 12 hours while considering the unstoppable force that is the passage of time

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

Les passagers de la nuit (Mikhaël Hers, 2022) 

Watching Le pont du nord (Jacques Rivette, 1982)

[freshmoviequotes]

The Passengers of the Night (2022)

[alexturner2005]

Body Paint @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre 18th Sept. 2023, By adventuresofvictoria

[vole-mon-amour]

I LOVE when a character is at least 200-300 hundreds old and they TALK like one, too. Thinking of Astarion, Halsin, Dracula (in all media, but I am especially fond of Castlevania and Penny Dreadful ones), Alucard, The Outsider (yes, hi, he's 1500 years old God). My fav pals.

All of them coming up with such exquisite compliments, insults, and general comments. L O V E that.

[stockholmgf]

i have to mute myself every day on the phone with my bf so i can “tell” him all about the surprises i’m working on for him cause i simply cannot keep my mouth shut

[michyeosseo]

I want to become stronger sooner to help Master wipe out the miasma from the Immortal Realm to free the people from oppression.