Weather Report

Liner notes

Writing on the back sleeve of the album, Clive Davis, the then president of Columbia Records, opines: "There have always been two kinds of musicians-those who create and those who imitate. Weather Report creates. It is that rare thing in music, an original […] Together these gifted young musicians have created Weather Report, a soundtrack for the mind, the imagination, for opening up heads and hearts."

Critical reception

Reviewing in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau called the album "In a Silent Way played mostly for atmosphere", and went on to write: "The Milesian demi-jazz of side two sounds pretty finky (no misprint intended), but the tone-poem impressionism of side one does its mysterious work. Highlight: the opening mood piece, 'Milky Way,' in which two Silent Way vets, soprano saxophonist Wayne Shorter and pianist Joe Zawinul, make sounds that suggest a carillon approaching a time warp."

Track listing

Note: "Eurydice (Full Length Unedited Version)", which runs for 10:44, appears on the later compilations Forecast: Tomorrow (2006) and The Columbia Albums 1971-1975 (2012).

Personnel

Credits for Weather Report adapted from liner notes.

Weather Report

Joe Zawinul – electric and acoustic piano

Wayne Shorter – soprano saxophone

Miroslav Vitouš – electric and acoustic bass

Alphonse Mouzon – drums, voice

Airto Moreira – percussion

Other musicians

Barbara Burton – percussion (uncredited)

Don Alias – percussion (uncredited)

Production

Wayne Tarnowski – engineering

Ed Lee – cover design

Ed Freeman – cover photography

Shoviza Productions, Inc. – production

Awards

"Jazz Album of the Year", DownBeat Readers Poll.

Swing Journal magazine Grand Prix Award (a gold record given for winning the Journal's Readers' and Critics' polls).