Mysterious Traveller

Seven brilliant compositions which set the stage for Weather Report's next phase...

Recorded between February and May 1974, 'Mysterious Traveller' was the fourth studio album by Weather Report. It was the first on which Alphonso Johnson assumed the bass role from founding member Miroslav Vitous, who nonetheless played on "American Tango," (co-written by Vitous and the keyboardist / composer / Weather Report co-founder Joe Zawinul). While Vitous was acknowledged as a younger master of the acoustic bass, Johnson's work on its electric counterpart was deeply funky. His arrival, writes Hal Miller in his authoritative liner notes, "moved the band into it's next and most enduring stage."

Additionally spurred on by the two-drummers-plus multi-percussionist team of Ishmael Wilburn, Skip Hadden, and Dom Um Romao, Mysterious Traveller evinces an approach that is at once more synthesizer-dominated, ensemble-oriented, and studio-geared while simultaneously upping the Latin-funk content. Zawinul and co-leader / saxophonist / composer Wayne Shorter offered an especially fascinating acoustic duet on the latter's "Blackthorn Rose."

'Mysterious Traveller' was Weather Report's most electrifying album up to that point - and promised astounding things to come.