Jazz

Weather Report: Heavy Weather

Heavy Weather

Music
by Weather Report | Feb 01, 2012

Music

Sonics

Where some album titles seem like an afterthought, Heavy Weather and its surreal cover art match the music perfectly. Less groove-oriented and more atmospheric than previous Weather Report records, it sounds like the soundtrack to a movie where, to borrow the first words of an otherwise-forgotten novel, it was a dark and stormy night. As such, it makes sense that the mix is dense and even, at times, deliberately cluttered. With its decision to remaster and reissue this classic on 180- gram 45rpm vinyl, ORG clearly took on a project where artifice wins out over a more natural sound. Though the original recording retains its own appeal, the ORG is decidedly better, and—this is no small thing—the improvements are in the spirit of the original. The highs are clearer, the bass more natural, and the music has more room to breathe. The difference is especially pronounced on “Havona,” where the weather is more turbulent than ever; the interplay among the musicians (and there’s a whole lot of it) is much sharper, and you can feel the excitement of a band that suddenly experiences a new burst of energy.

More Info

Media	LP
Label	Original Recordings Group
Contributors	Weather Report Primary artist

By Jeff Wilson

This will take some explaining, but I can connect the dots between pawing through LPs at a headshop called Elysian Fields in Des Moines, Iowa, as a seventh grader, and becoming the Music Editor for The Absolute Sound. At that starting point—around 1970/71—Elysian Fields had more LPs than any other store in Des Moines. Staring at all the colorful covers was both tantalizing and frustrating. I had no idea who most of the artists were, because radio played only a fraction of what was current. To figure out what was going on, I realized that I needed to build a record collection—and as anyone who’s visited me since high school can testify, I succeeded. Record collecting was still in my blood when, starting in the late 1980s, the Cincinnati Public Library book sale suddenly had an Elysian Fields quantity of LPs from people who’d switched to CDs. That’s where I met fellow record hawk Mark Lehman, who preceded me as music editor of TAS. Mark introduced me to Jonathan Valin, whose 1993 detective novel The Music Lovers depicts the battles between record hawks at library sales. That the private eye in the book, Harry Stoner, would stumble upon a corpse or two while unraveling the mystery behind the disappearance of some rare Living Stereo platters made perfect sense to me. After all, record collecting is serious business. Mark knew my journalistic experience included concert reviews for The Cincinnati Enquirer and several long, sprawling feature articles in the online version of Crawdaddy. When he became TAS music editor in 2008, he contacted me about writing for the magazine. I came on board shortly after the latest set of obituaries had been written for vinyl—and, as fate had it, right when the LP started to make yet another unexpected comeback. Suddenly, I found myself scrambling to document all the record companies pressing vinyl. Small outfits were popping up world-wide, and many were audiophile-oriented, plus already existing record companies began embracing the format again. Trying to keep track of everything made me feel, again, like that overwhelmed seventh grader in Elysian Fields, and as Music Editor I’ve found that keeping my finger on the pulse of the music world also requires considerable detective work. I’ve never had a favorite genre, but when it comes time to sit down and do some quality listening, for me nothing beats a well-recorded small-group jazz recording on vinyl. If a stereo can give me warmth and intimacy, tonal accuracy, clear imaging, crisp-sounding cymbals, and deep, woody-sounding bass, then I’m a happy camper.