This Is This

This Is This! contains a number of surprises to please longtime followers and enhance the final chapter of music’s most esteemed fusion outfit. The title song is immediately striking for the presence of guitar, something that's conspicuously absent from most Weather Report songs. That guitar is played by none other than Carlos Santana, a longtime compatriot and supporter of the group. Also in the fold is drummer Peter Erskine, who played in the band’s revered 1978-to-1982 lineup. Erskine’s deft but muscular playing elevates “Face to Face” and “Update” and makes listeners wish the group had invited Jaco Pastorius back for a valedictory run (Jaco would die tragically one year after this recording). “Jungle Stuff Pt. 1” displays Zawinul’s burgeoning interest in Brazilian and African chanting, and it almost makes you wish he'd conducted at least one a cappella album. The album closes with the brooding “China Blues,” a Zawinul solo track that serves as the keyboard maestro’s resigned farewell to the group he led for almost two decades.