Recorded in 1971, the eponymous debut album from Weather Report advanced and quietly refined the emerging sound of the jazz-rock fusion elucidated on the Miles Davis classic In a Silent Way. Keyboardist Joe Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and percussionist Airto Moreira were all veterans of Davis's band, both live and in the studio. Rounded out by drummer Alphonse Mouzon and bassist Miroslav Vitous, they forged a less-aggressive but equally searching sound fueled largely by group improvisation, with haunting, spaced-out results, particularly on tracks like the aptly named "Milky Way," a drifting, gently churning exploration of shifting textures and concise gestures that manipulated natural overtones using only acoustic piano and sax, while Zawinul's beautifully moody "Orange Lady" distends the post-Miles melody — which sounds like something off of Nefertiti — with all kinds of shifting colors and rhythmic accents.

While the quintet's finely tuned lines and chords was ultimately responsible for such airiness, Zawinul had already found innovative ways to turn is electric piano into a mood machine, devising ingenious ways to suggest sonic clouds and viscous sensations, a trait he continually developed through the band's fifteen-year history, especially when synthesizers entered the fold.

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