Weather Report: Joe Zawinul (vocals, piano, synthesizer, melodica); Jaco Pastorius (vocals, fretless bass, mando-cello, drums, steel drums); Manolo Bandrena (vocals, percussion); Wayne Shorter (soprano & tenor saxophones); Alex Acuna (drums, percussion). Recorded at Devonshire Sound Studios, North Hollywood, California. Includes liner notes by John Ephland. Probably the best fusion album ever made, and the coming together of five precociously talented musicians. Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter assembled the unit with little knowledge that the complex music would become so accessible. Two compostions stand out; the graceful 'A Remark You Made', an evocative love song without words, and the hit single 'Birdland' (so successful it was even used by Akai for a major advertising campaign). On these two Zawinul compostions their genius bass player Jaco Pastorius gives a taste of what he was capable of. He bent the notes to make them talk, and that high octave solo on 'Birdland' is still a treasured moment.