Black Market (Weather Report album)

Black Market
Studio album by Weather Report
Released	March 11, 1976
Recorded	December 1975 – January 1976
Studio	Devonshire Sound Studios (Los Angeles)
Genre	Jazz fusion world
Length	37:20
Label	Columbia
Producer	Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter
Weather Report chronology
Tale Spinnin' (1975) Black Market (1976) Heavy Weather (1977)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	[2]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[3]
Sputnikmusic	[4]

Black Market is the sixth studio album by American jazz fusion band Weather Report. Released in 1976, it was produced by Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. It was recorded between December 1975 and January 1976 and released in March 1976 through Columbia Records. ^[5]

This is Weather Report's first studio album to feature bass player Jaco Pastorius; he appears on two tracks, one of which was his own composition "Barbary Coast". The back cover photo shows Pastorius, Chester Thompson, and Alex Acuña with the band, although bass player Alphonso Johnson played on the majority of the record's tracks. The album draws heavily from African influences, and its style could be described as "world fusion". The second track, "Cannon Ball", is a tribute to saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, Zawinul's employer for several years during the 1960s. Adderley died a few months before Black Market was recorded.

Track listing

Side A

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Black Market"	Joe Zawinul	6:28
2.	"Cannon Ball"	Zawinul	4:36
3.	"Gibraltar"	Zawinul	8:16
Total length:			19:18

Side B

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
4.	"Elegant People"	Wayne Shorter	5:03
5.	"Three Clowns"	Shorter	3:31
6.	"Barbary Coast"	Jaco Pastorius	3:19
7.	"Herandnu"	Alphonso Johnson	6:36
Total length:			18:20

Personnel

Weather Report

• Joe Zawinul – Yamaha Grand Piano, Rhodes Electric Piano, 2 × ARP 2600, Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer, orchestration
• Wayne Shorter – Selmer soprano and tenor saxophones, Computone Lyricon
• Alphonso Johnson – electric bass
• Jaco Pastorius – electric fretless bass (tracks 2 & 6)
• Narada Michael Walden – drums (tracks 1–2)
• Chester Thompson – drums (tracks 1, ^[6] 3–7)
• Alex Acuña – congas, percussion (tracks 2–5, 7)
• Don Alias – percussion (tracks 1 & 6)

Production

• Joe Zawinul – producer
• Wayne Shorter – co-producer
• Ron Malo – engineer
• Nancy Donald – cover design
• David McMacken – cover illustration
• Ed Caraeff – photography

References

1. Ginell, Richard S. "Black Market - Weather Report". AllMusic. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
2. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1475. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
3. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 204. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
4. Campbell, Hernan M. (November 25, 2012). "Review: Weather Report - Black Market | Sputnikmusic". sputnikmusic.com. Retrieved April 9, 2013.
5. "Black Market". June 25, 2015.
6. Chester Thompson: 10 albums that define my career - "The funny part is, I actually taught Phil Collins the In The Air Tonight drum fill" - article by Stuart Williams in Music Radar, 20 February 2024

External links

• Weather Report Annotated Discography: Black Market