Alphonso Johnson’s “Black Market” Performance
Alphonso Johnson is a favorite of ours, and he proves once again how Joe Zawinul really knew how to pick bass players.
Alphonso was replaced by Jaco Pastorius, and both appeared on Weather Report’s Black Market. Many people think Jaco held down the bass for the title track, but it was indeed Alphonso Johnson. Jaco performed on two of the seven tracks.
All of the live recordings we’ve heard featured Jaco, except this one, recorded in 1995 during a Weather Report reunion (sans Wayne Shorter!):
Nice! Alphonso Johnson is great!
Alphonso Johnson is a great bass player first bass line i learned was “hip pockets” when he was with The Billy Cobham/George Duke band.Bass line was just so in the pocket i also learned his Bahama Mama bass line i was quite proud when i had mastered that when i was just learning to play.