Mysterious Traveller

Mysterious Traveller marked a rebirth for Weather Report, who'd finally reached a point of blossoming after a few years of growing pains. They welcomed into the fold bassist Alphonso Johnson, who helped spark the band’s newfound focus on dexterous electric funk. The music may have been as spacy as a late-night visit to the planetarium, but this was clearly a group with R&B in its bones. “Cucumber Slumber” might be the most limber and wiggly song in the group’s entire career, while Wayne Shorter’s “Mysterious Traveler” offers a lesson in old-fashioned odorous funk, even as the chorus surges forth with a monstrous riff worthy of Led Zeppelin. The opening track, Joe Zawinul’s “Nubian Sundance,” unifies all the group’s divergent impulses in a single track. The song’s percussive underpinning is relentless and doesn't let up for the entirety of is 10 minutes. Yet the band still manage to inhabit moments of total tranquility, thanks in large part to the lush and liquid tones that Zawinul was able to pull from his newly minted arsenal of synthesizers.