MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER

1. "Nubian Sundance" (live) (10:43) with this live performance--coming from quite an expanded stage lineup--we can definitely hear the "future" of this band's sound (including riff elements that will become "Birdland"). Newcomers Alphonse Johnson and Ishmael Wilburn sure bring a strong and steady presence to the rhythm section! This song also makes one wish for more vocals and/or choir presence in jazz-rock fusion. Though I still hear some of the textural approach to song and music building carrying over from their earlier albums (especially Sweetwater) I feel that there is a lot more polish and finish to this than anything from before. (18.75/20)

2. "American Tango" (3:42) a developmental step toward or preview of what will become "A Remark You Made." There's Joe still experimenting with the sounds he can get out of his synthesizers. (8.875/10)

3. "Cucumber Slumber" (8:25) gentle funk with congas to help usher along a fabric for Joe and Wayne to play over. Showing Joe still being enamored with his wah pedal effect on his electric piano. Not much on the top to make one shout out about this one. (17.5/20)

4. "Mysterious Traveller" (7:21) It feels odd to hear Joe's piano cuz it's been a while--and he's playing his electric one at the same time as well. Multi-tracking by Wayne on both his saxes. I like the way Joe is alternating his bass clef piano chords with the bass guitar's regular riffs. His electric piano play in the fifth minute is the song's highlight for me. (13.25/15)

5. "Blackthorn Rose" (5:05) a soft, spacious, and slow song of delicately played piano and sax. It starts out as a duet before Wayne's emotional playing calls for the joinder of a synth wash and melodica around the two minute mark. This one shows the duo definitely toying around with space as Joe's piano support of Wayne becomes very short-lived chords played in syncopated patterns. The final minute allows some normal piano play with a little more melodica. Cute. (8.875/10)

6. "Scarlet Woman" (5:43) wind sounds are gradually joined by soft timpani before some horn and synth horn blasts shock the hell out of us. The foundation is so spacious and atmospheric--like Native American drums being played outside on the Great Plains--which makes the unpatterned appearances of the horn and synth blasts so unsettling--even at the end of the song! The fourth minute sees some sax soloing during a longer stretch of quiet but then this is spoiled by a prolonged attack of the horn blasts. The song fades out with wind as if the Scarlet Woman had just been passing through the area of an Native American encampment--like a wild animal or spirit/ghost. Interesting. (8.75/10)

7. "Jungle Book" (7:22) more gentle spaciousness with human voices and odd percussion instruments with distant upright piano, bass, and ocarina all mixed together as if being viewed from some rocky outcropping above the campfire. Happy and celebratory--preceeding some of those similarly happy and complex songs from Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays in the early Group days and especially with As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls. (13.25/15)

Total Time: 48:21

Man have the band progressed light years since their previous album with much more development than usual on some of the songs while, at the same time, this may be the most cinematic of all of the Weather Report albums I know.

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of forward-moving yet-still experimental jazz-rock fusion.

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