Weather Report-Weather Report (1971)

Taking its cues from Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew", Weather Report's debut album is a logical continuation and a step beyond the musical adventures of that emblematic and turbulent record, as well as the jazz fusion of another masterpiece, "Silent Way". It's no coincidence that this first release from Weather Report features two of the musicians who were fundamental to those albums (Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter), who, along with Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous and percussionists Alphonzo Mounzon and Airto Moreira, crafted an album far darker and more experimental than their later, more cleverly appealing and commercially viable releases. From the strange funk jazz track "Milk Way", which opens the album, we are presented with the jazzy atonality so typical of Miles Davis; something very similar is present in the cosmic and extravagant "Seventh Arrow", while the musical sanity of "Orange Lady" is one of the album's highlights. Among the other tracks are the magical "Morning Lake", the haunting "Tears", and the conventional jazz of "Eurydice". This was undoubtedly a promising start for the band led by Zawinul, an impeccable and quite avant-garde album compared to any subsequent Weather Report recording.