Scattered showers

Press, 28 July 1977, Page 23

Scattered showers

NEVIN TOPP

Weather Report “Heavy Weather (cbs spb 23497) In spite of such an interesting title, this latest album by Weather Report is anything but good news for forecasters. In fact for the cognoscenti of jazzrock this album suffers from scattered showers, that otherwise brighten a dull album.

The problem is that the eight tracks are too short to show the full versatility of the group, and in addition the group are still waiting for the great cross-over hit in the sky. Only two tracks really show any possibilities of how fine Weather Report actually are.

The first track on side one called “Birdland” contains some interesting fretless Fender work by Jaco Pastorious, which saves it from the oblivion of the other tracks. The second track is “A Remark You Made,” with an interesting saxophone/bass run followed by an equally good saxophone/synthesizer unison passage. But, that is the end of it. None of the other tracks really spring out, but instead are fractured and short.

There is a live song on the album — “Rumba Mama” — but it is simply the two percussionists, Manola Badrena and Allejandro Neciosup Acuna beating time in a perverse fashion. The Allan Parsons Project “I Robot” (Arista AL 7002): This is the second concept album by The Allan Parsons Project, the first being “Tales of Mystery and Imagination,”

based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe.

This second project is based on taking a futuristic look at science fiction through the eyes of modern day man, but whether it reaches a successful conclusion is another matter. Musically the album is interesting. In parts it seeems to borrow from the Stanley Kubrick film, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” There is the use of the English chorale on the title track, “I Robot,” and on “Total Eclipse” which reminds one of the wailing in 2001. On “Nucleus” there is an interesting use of strings which again sounds thematically like 2001. There are a number of excellent musicians on the album, Allan Clark of the Hollies, Steve Harley, former Cockney Rebel, and the group, Pilot.

Allan Clark comes through strongly on “Breakdown,” a song that would satisfy any Hollies fan. But, the best of the album is saved up as it gets into side two, such as the song “The Show Must Go On,” with slow drumming and repetition of chorus, which sounds like Pink Floyd. And surprise. Allan Parsons helped engineer “Dark Side of the Moon” for Pink Floyd, and “I Robot,” as it nears its conclusion, sounds similar in style to Floyd.

The last track is a trick though. It is titled Genesis i: 32. However, someone has pulled a fast one because Genesis i has only 31 verses.

Valerie Carter “Just A Stone’s Throw Away” (CBS SPB 239011): What has 29 musicians, three producers, three arrangers, and six assistant engineers?

Why, Valerie Carter’s debut album, and in spite of being over-run by musicians like Earth, Wind and Fire, Little Feat, John Sebastian, Jackson Browne, and Linda Ronstadt, her album survives this Southern California jam to be distinctive. Carter has one advantage over her contemporaries from the Sunshine State in that she writes most of her own material — in conjunction with Little Feat’s Lowell George. »In fact, George’s influence comes through strongly, in the way that Carter uses her voice and some of the backing arrangements. This applies particularly to “A Stone’s Throw Away,”- a song that Little Feat could easily do with George on lead vocals. Another of the arrangers is Maurice White from Earth, Wind and Fire. On “City Lights” its a clear case of EWF overkill as the funky rhythms get in the way of Carter’s singing. However, he redeems himself a little on “So, So, Happy.”

The finest of the arrangers is Little Feat’s William Payne, who captures Valerie Carter’s vocals beautifully on the soul number “Ooh Child,” then bounces back on “Back to Blue Some More” a song of resignation which Carter, George and Payne wrote together.