View source for 8:30

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{Infobox album
| name       = 8:30
| type       = live
| artist     = [[Weather Report]]
| cover      = Weather Report 830.jpg
| released   = August 1979
| recorded   = November 28, 1978 (and other dates in late 1978)<ref name="Bianchi">{{cite web |title=8:30 |last=Bianchi|first=Curt|url=http://www.weatherreportdiscography.org/eight-thirty/ |website=www.WeatherReportDiscography.org |access-date=11 September 2018}}</ref>
| venue      = [[Terrace Theater]], [[Long Beach]], [[California]] (plus "other locations")
| genre      = [[Jazz fusion]]
| length     = 80:58
| label      = [[American Record Corporation|ARC]], [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| producer   = [[Joe Zawinul]], [[Jaco Pastorius]]
| prev_title = [[Mr. Gone (album)|Mr. Gone]]
| prev_year  = 1978
| next_title = [[Night Passage (album)|Night Passage]]
| next_year  = 1980
}} 
'''''8:30''''' is the second live album from the [[jazz fusion]] group [[Weather Report]], issued in 1979 by [[American Record Corporation|ARC]]/[[Columbia Records]].<ref name=Album>{{cite book|title=Weather Report - ''8:30''|date=1979|publisher=[[American Record Corporation|ARC]]/[[Columbia Records]]}}</ref> The album rose to No. 3 on the [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] [[Jazz Albums]] chart and No. 47 on the [[Billboard 200]] chart.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CyUEAAAAMBAJ|title=Billboard Best Selling Jazz LPs|volume=91|issue=46|page=56|date=November 17, 1979|magazine=[[Billboard Magazine]]|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.billboard.com/music/weather-report/chart-history/billboard-200/song/314576|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190415174406/https://www.billboard.com/music/weather-report/chart-history/billboard-200/song/314576|url-status=dead|archive-date=April 15, 2019|title=Weather Report: 8:30 (Billboard 200)|website=billboard.com}}</ref> ''8:30'' also won a [[Grammy Award]] for [[Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance|Best Jazz Fusion Performance]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.grammy.com/artists/weather-report/16387|title=Weather Report|publisher=[[The Recording Academy]]|website=grammy.com}}</ref>

== Recording ==
The album takes its name from the band's habit of starting their performance at 8:30 PM. At the time of the tour, the band was a quartet and would take the stage continuously for around two and a half hours, each of the members taking a solo. [[Wayne Shorter]] sometimes plays percussion instead of saxophone on stage, and on one of the studio tracks, the [[calypso music|calypso]] inspired "Brown Street", Joe Zawinul's son Erich plays percussion with Erskine and Pastorius.

[[Jaco Pastorius]] played a notable solo on "Slang"<ref name="Meredith" /> which started with an out-of-time rendition of "Dolores" by Wayne Shorter, then melded a multi-part bass solo using a rack-mounted [[MXR]] digital delay, leading into references to "[[Third Stone from the Sun]]" by [[Jimi Hendrix]],<ref name="Meredith" /> "[[Portrait of Tracy]]" from his solo work, then "[[The Sound of Music (song)|The Sound of Music]]". He finished playing his bass with its own strap.

According to [[Peter Erskine]], the band had planned for the entire album to be live, but an engineer accidentally erased some of the material, prompting the band to go into the studio to record the fourth side.<ref>{{cite book |last=Glaser |first=Brian |title=In a Silent Way: A Portrait of Joe Zawinul |year=2001 |publisher=Sanctuary Publishing |isbn=1860743269 |pages=213–214 }}</ref>

== Release ==
The album was originally a double gatefold LP. In the US, the reissue on CD dropped "Scarlet Woman", as the album's running time narrowly exceeds the [[Rainbow Books|Red Book standard]]'s maximum running time for a single CD. The album was released as a 2-CD set outside the US.

== Critical reception ==
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name="Meredith">{{cite web |last1=Meredith |first1=Bill |title=Weather Report - ''8:30'' (1979) album review, credits & releases |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/830-mw0000198916 |website=AllMusic |access-date=11 September 2018}}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|Christgau's Record Guide]]''
| rev2Score = B+ <ref name="CG">{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: W|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=W&bk=70|access-date=March 22, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[Music Week]]''
| rev3score = {{Rating|4|4}}<ref name="mw rev">{{Cite magazine|date=October 6, 1979|title=Album Reviews: Weather Report — ''8:30''|magazine=[[Music Week]]|page=44|publisher=Pensord Press Ltd.|location=Gwent|url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1979/Music-Week-1979-10-06.pdf#page=44|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250301124755/https://www.worldradiohistory.com/UK/Music-Week/1979/Music-Week-1979-10-06.pdf#page=44|archive-date=March 1, 2025|access-date=April 5, 2025|via=WorldRadioHistory.com}}</ref>
| rev4 = ''[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings]]''
| rev4score = {{Rating|3|4}}<ref name="Penguin">{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=[[The Penguin Guide to Jazz|The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings]] |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]] |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=1475}}</ref>
| rev5 = ''[[Record Mirror]]''
| rev5Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Weather Report 8:30|author=Kluth, Susan|volume=26|issue=39|page=22|date=September 29, 1979|work=[[Record Mirror]]}}</ref>
| rev6 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide]]''
| rev6Score = {{rating|3|5}}<ref name=RSJRG>{{Cite book|editor-last=Swenson|editor-first=J.| year = 1985| title = The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide| publisher = Random House/Rolling Stone| location = US| isbn = 0-394-72643-X| page = 204}}</ref>
| rev7 = ''[[DownBeat]]''
| rev7score = {{rating|4|5}}<ref name=":0" />
}}
Reviewing in ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]'' (1981), [[Robert Christgau]] wrote: "The live double their more bemused admirers have waited for years is indeed Weather Report's most (if not first) useful album. But it also defines their limits. This is a band that runs the gamut from the catchy to the mysterioso. Joe Zawinul is the best sound effects man since [[Shadow Morton]]. And when he gives himself room, Wayne Shorter can blow."<ref name="CG"/> Bill Meredith of [[Allmusic]] declared, "Weather Report is generally regarded as the greatest jazz fusion band of all time, with the biggest jazz hit ("[[Birdland (Weather Report song)|Birdland]]") from the best jazz fusion album (1977's [[Heavy Weather (album)|Heavy Weather]]). But the group's studio mastery sometimes overshadows the fact that it was also a live juggernaut -- so don't overlook the outstanding live and studio album from 1979, 8:30."<ref name="Meredith" /> ''[[DownBeat]]'' reviewer Douglas Clark assigned the album 4 stars.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Clark |first=Douglas |date=December 18, 1979 |title=Record Reviews |journal=[[DownBeat]] |volume=46 |issue=18 |pages=42-43}}</ref> He wrote, "Weather Report live at last! . . . Weather Report is a good live act. In the past few years their stage show has become downright flashy, and these performances evoke vivid images . . . This is ''wonderful'' music".<ref name=":0" />

==Track listing==
{{Track listing
| all_writing = [[Joe Zawinul]], except where noted
| headline    = Side One
| title1      = Black Market
| length1     = 9:47
| title2      = Scarlet Woman
| note2       = <small>[[Alphonso Johnson]], [[Wayne Shorter]], [[Joe Zawinul]]</small>
| length2     = 8:42
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side Two
| title1   = Teen Town
| note1    = <small>[[Jaco Pastorius]]</small>
| length1  = 6:03
| title2   = A Remark You Made
| length2  = 8:01
| title3   = Slang
| note3    = <small>Pastorius</small>
| length3  = 4:45
| title4   = In a Silent Way
| length4  = 2:47
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side Three
| title1   = [[Birdland (composition)|Birdland]]
| length1  = 7:13
| title2   = Thanks for the Memory
| note2    = <small>[[Leo Robin]], [[Ralph Rainger]]</small>
| length2  = 3:33
| title3   = Medley: Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz
| length3  = 9:32
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side Four
| title1   = 8:30
| length1  = 2:36
| title2   = Brown Street
| note2    = <small>Zawinul, Shorter</small>
| length2  = 8:34
| title3   = The Orphan
| length3  = 3:17
| title4   = Sightseeing
| note4    = <small>Shorter</small>
| length4  = 5:34
}}

==Personnel==
* [[Joe Zawinul]] – keyboards, [[ARP Quadra]] synthesizer bass, [[Korg VC-10|Korg Vocoder VC-10]], [[Prophet-5|Sequential Circuits Prophet-5]], percussion
* [[Wayne Shorter]] – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone
* [[Jaco Pastorius]] – fretless bass guitar, percussion; drums on "8:30" & "Brown Street"
* [[Peter Erskine]] – drums
* Erich Zawinul – percussion on "Brown Street"
* The West Los Angeles Christian Academy Children's Choir – vocals on "The Orphan"

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.discogs.com/Weather-Report-830/release/1600795 Weather Report - ''8:30'' (1979) album releases & credits] at [[Discogs]]
* [https://open.spotify.com/album/28wOtMFI6i3HEbY6C2JAFy Weather Report - ''8:30'' (1979) album to be listened] on [[Spotify]]
* [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOmR_eXYHEFBLR0_bV9NPR06ZlZhyDCHX Weather Report - ''8:30'' (1979) album to be listened] on [[YouTube]]

{{Weather Report}}

[[Category:Weather Report albums]]
[[Category:1979 live albums]]
[[Category:Live jazz fusion albums]]
[[Category:Columbia Records live albums]]
[[Category:Columbia Records albums]]
[[Category:ARC Records albums]]
[[Category:Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance]]