Review by Joe McGlinchey @ Ground and Sky:

Mysterious Traveller was the very first Weather Report album that I ever picked up, in the heat of fervor from my initiation into the fusion world, having discovered the Mahavishnu Orchestra just several months earlier. As I was expecting something approximating the thunderous virtuosity and exotic Eastern melodic approach of McLaughlin & Co., this one turned out to be a head-scratcher indeed. At the time, I thought it sounded interesting, but didn*t track what I was hearing immediately.

Take “Nubian Sundance,” a marvelous testament to this band*s idiosyncratic ways. In the opening notes of “Sundance,” the listener is slammed right in the middle of a musical phrase, and a weird one at that, ending on a piercing dissonant note followed with a roar of applause from an unexpected crowd. The dissonant note hangs in the air for a good 20 seconds with nothing else happening except a forceful, syncopated beat from drums and percussion (that surely must have been an influence on Phil Collins* beat for Genesis* “Wot Gorilla?”) before the piece proper finally begins. I remember how much this opening caught me off guard the first time I put it on, and even years later, I*m hard pressed to think of any albums that open up quite as strangely as Mysterious Traveller. But as the music continued onward, I was intrigued by this band*s ability for boundary blurring. I couldn*t immediately make out if this was a studio track or (with the continued bursts of applause) a live track. The way the band would obsessively hover around certain angular notes, patterns, and motifs… and yet not exactly… made me wonder if I was listening to a work of variations improvised around a few core ideas, or else a very intricately composed work that was painstakingly rehearsed. I couldn*t discern whether the vocal effects I heard were real singers or samples from a keyboard (I smile now, as hearing the vocals totally brings me back to the 70s). There was also the way that no instrument seemed to predominate and a merging of foreground and background (the famous Zawinul quote: “We always solo, we never solo”). Even the way the key center of the piece shifts a little more than halfway through, imperceptibly because the piece just flows so well. This is an excellent track.



But even besides that, this album is still loaded with goodies. “Cucumber Slumber,” co-written with newcomer Alphonso Johnson is fantastic, a nighttime funk dominated by Johnson*s slippery bass and Rhodes from Zawinul. I*ve heard this piece sampled in hip-hop and it makes a perfect selection. The title track, composed by Wayne Shorter, represents another strong moment on the disc: Shorter*s punctuations on tac piano juxtaposed by a wavy, angular-in-unison theme, as the piece gains in tension and urgency by a subtly quickened pacing. “American Tango” and “Scarlet Woman” are basically defined by their respective main, repeated melodies. The former one is easy-going, presenting a sizeable contrast between a lush bed of Rhodes and shrill synth from Zawinul. The latter one is much more mysterious, evoking an Egyptian influence. The piece*s closing tune, “Jungle Book,” finds Zawinul sitting under the vines and trees with an army of instruments, singing with a soft, inaudible warmth. Another highlight, this track reclines in a pure, gentle beauty. Much like “Nubian Sundance,” the music you hear evokes the question of “loose variations or tightly composed?”

Maybe it*s the primacy effect, but this is my personal favorite Weather Report album. In retrospect, it*s not an unreasonable starting point to recommend to others, because it makes a decent bridge straddling the experimentation of the band*s earlier Vitous era with the polished refinement as the band headed into the Pastorius era. This was the point where the band was really expanding on their use of studio and instrument technology in service of the music. Sound and production, excellent. The result here is music that is sophisticated, but nonetheless sounds organic, earthy, and rooted in the human experience.



Tracklisting:
1. Nubian Sundance (10:43)
2. American Tango (3:42)
3. Cucumber Slumber (8:25)
4. Mysterious Traveller (7:22)
5. Blackthorn Rose (5:05)
6. Scarlet Woman (5:44)
7. Jungle Book (7:23)

Total Time: 48:24

Line-Up:
- Alphonso Johnson / bass
- Don Um Romao / percussion, drum
- Wayne Shorter / soprano & tenor saxophones, tac piano
- Miroslav Vitous / bass (2)
- Ishmael Wilburn / drums
- Joe Zawinul / acoustic & electric pianos, synth, kalimba, organ, tamboura, clay drums, tac piano, melodica

Additional musicians:
- Don Ashworth / ocarinas, woodwinds (7)
- Billie Barnum / vocals (1)
- Ray Barretto / percussion (3)
- James Gilstrad / vocals (1)
- Skip Hadden / drums (1-4)
- Isacoff / tabla, finger cymbals (1)
- Steve Little / tympani (6)
- Marti McCall / vocals (1)
- Meruga / percussion (1)
- Jessica Smith / voocals (1)
- Edna Wright / vocals (1)

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