BLACK MARKET

As this album review appeared at the first page of this site my memory jumped back to the seventies era when my blood was predominated with progressive rock music especially symphonic prog with the like of Genesis, Yes, ELP, King Crimson. You guess! I was not interested at all with the release of Weather Report "Black Market" when it was released in the form of music cassette. By that time my only collection was in the format of cassettes nothing else because it's affordable to me and quite practical - I could bring it anywhere I wanted unlike vinyl let alone its unaffordable price. I purchased the cassette of Black Market BUT I did not have time to spin it - or put it honestly ..... I had no intention at all to get across other music than prog rock because at that time it was THE only music that I loved most.

It was my prog colleague, Ian Arliandy who stayed in Bandung, forced me to have a listen of this album when I took engineering degree in Bandung on 1979. I met Ian only on 1980, I think, and that meant it was already four years the album had been released officially. Oh man .... I was surprised the first time I listened to this album. It's not the kind of jazz that I thought the album would sound - it's totally out of my prediction! I was blown away by the opening track which happened to be the album title Black Market .... Oh my God! I loved it very much! The first time I listened to it I put my attention on the dynamic basslines that eally sounded great to my ears. But later I also found the brass section especially by Wayne Shorter (a name that I was familiar already at that time - I do not remember how I knew this name at first place). Finally I loved the total track; the music is so wonderful.

I then started exploring some other tracks and found 'Cannon Ball' (4:40) not so interesting the first time I played but it then grew on me as part of overall music offering - it provides great musical break after the dynamic of the first track. 'Gibraltar' (7:49) is also a nice track as it's dynamic and has many tempo changes. It starts silent but after the first minute the music is very dynamic and it has many textures combining all instruments including very good drumming / percussion work augmented with sax and keyboard work. Of course bass guitar still play important role.

The whole album is excellent one and I love the last two tracks at the end of the album: 'Barbary Coast' (3:10) and 'Herandnu' (6:38). Since then I kepte an eye on the development of Weather Report as well as Jaco Pastorius / Joe Zawinul. An album that you should not miss...... Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW