WEATHER REPORT

Opening with a spacey, borderline-ambient piece (Milky Way) before launching into the post-Bitches' Brew fusion of Umbrellas, the debut album by Weather Report finds Joe Zawinul and his bandmates taking the creative vision of Zawinul's collaborations with Miles Davis and seeking ways to take it forward. A bit murkier and darker than the slick, commercially appealing material the band would be turning out by the end of the decade, this is perhaps the missing link between the turbulent realms of Bitches' Brew and In a Silent Way on the one hand, and the mid-1970s style of fusion practiced by acts such as Return To Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra. When Miroslav Vitous and Zawinul get into it, you end up with perhaps the closest thing an American act got to the sort of material Soft Machine were making on Third.