Editing Weather Report (section)

===1976: In transition===
[[File:Weatherreport.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Weather Report in Argentina. L to R: Shorter, Erskine, Zawinul, and Pastorius]]
1976's ''[[Black Market (Weather Report album)|Black Market]]'' album was perhaps the most rock-oriented work which the group had produced to date.<ref name="Larkin"/> Weather Report's music had evolved further from open-ended funk jams into more melody-oriented, concise forms, which also offered a greater mass-market appeal. Zawinul further consolidated his use of keyboard synthesizers, while Shorter experimented with an early form of wind synthesizer, the [[Lyricon]].

However, the album was recorded during yet another period of change for the group, with multiple personnel shuffles. Although Alyrio Lima played percussion on one track, he was replaced during the sessions by [[Don Alias]] (his first appearance with the group since the debut album) and by [[Alex Acuña]] (a Peruvian drummer and conga player based in Las Vegas, who had played with [[Elvis Presley]] and [[Ike Turner]], among others).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zawinulonline.org/galleries/1977_wr_program|title=1977 Weather Report Tour Program|website=Zawinulonline.org|access-date=September 30, 2019}}</ref> Alphonso Johnson was also worn out from the strain put on the rhythm by the band's frequent changes of drummer. During a break in activity halfway through the recording of ''Black Market'', Johnson opted to leave Weather Report to play with the [[Billy Cobham]]/[[George Duke]] Band (which featured a young [[John Scofield]] on guitar).

Prior to his departure, Johnson played on all but two of the new album's tracks. His replacement was [[Jaco Pastorius]], a [[virtuoso]] fretless bass guitarist from Florida, who had been in touch with Zawinul for several years and who came in to play on "Cannonball" and his own composition "Barbary Coast". Zawinul and Shorter had assumed that new drummer [[Chester Thompson]] would be departing alongside his friend Johnson and, for the second set of sessions, they replaced him (on Pastorius' recommendation) with the former [[Mahavishnu Orchestra]] drummer [[Narada Michael Walden]]. Although Walden played on several album tracks, he ultimately proved unsuitable. Thompson returned for the final ''Black Market'' sessions, but left again after failing to gel as a rhythm section with Pastorius (whose style was much busier than that of Johnson). Thompson subsequently joined [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]] as their touring drummer.

''Black Market'' continued Weather Report's ongoing run of success,<ref name="Larkin"/> selling well and being the fourth of the band's albums to win the album of the year award from ''[[DownBeat]]'' magazine. For the subsequent tour, [[Alex Acuña]] moved from percussion to the drum kit, and Don Alias was replaced by the young Puerto Rican percussionist [[Manolo Badrena]], who had previously played with various Latin rock bands and with [[Art Blakey]]. The band made a very well-received appearance in July at the [[Montreux Jazz Festival]] 1976, which was filmed for future release.