Wayne Shorter’s memorable but oft-forgotten ballad first appeared as a relatively ‘minor’ track on Heavy Weather, sandwiched between the more famous ‘Teen Town’ and ‘Palladium’.

But, like most Wayne tunes of that era, the power of ‘Harlequin’ has only increased over the years – not surprising considering its stunning chord changes, spine-tingling harmony and arresting arrangement.

Shorter apparently hasn’t talked about ‘Harlequin’ much (a harlequin is a comic servant of 16th century Italy, often associated with the city of Bergamo), nor does it appear in his official songbook or Michelle Mercer’s biography.

It also seems that neither Weather Report nor Wayne ever played it live in concert, though Curt Bianchi has unearthed some interesting info about the track in his WR book.

Looking back, along with the discovery of Steely Dan’s Katy Lied and Aja albums, I think the tune represented the beginning of my love affair with the sound of the piano, during my early teens.

I was instantly hooked by Joe Zawinul’s opening A7sus4 chord, and then the hike up to C#min7. From there, we hear arguably his greatest acoustic piano playing on a Weather Report tune. At 1:55, there’s even a lick with a touch of Art Tatum via Bud Powell.

According to Bianchi, ‘Harlequin’ was the first tune recorded for Heavy Weather. He reports that Zawinul asked drummer Alex Acuna to steer clear of a backbeat, so Acuna attempted to play the ballad in more of a bolero or bachata style.

This helps his leisurely groove no end – there are no rushed triplets (though two sets of triplets are written into Shorter’s chart), the curse of every itchy-fingered jazz/fusion drummer since. Acuna also overdubs a fine solo at the end – apparently Jaco’s idea (Jaco called Acuna the ‘Latin Tony Williams’!).

There are a few other notable features of the track – close listening reveals the almost subliminal sound of an air-raid siren under Zawinul’s chords at the beginning. Then there’s the copious use of the famous Devonshire Sound (a studio in North Hollywood) echo chamber.

The chamber seems to have been used to add echo to all of Zawinul’s keyboards – also listen out for Manolo Badrena’s vocal and percussion overdubs at around 2:22.

All in all, it’s a wonderful piece and performance, though some have questioned Zawinul’s use of the synth to play the main melody, but it has never bothered this writer much. In fact it adds a pleasingly ‘kitsch’ element to proceedings.

‘Harlequin’ is seldom covered but keyboard player/programmer Jason Miles produced a great version in 2000 for his Weather Report tribute album, emphasising the slinkier/more seductive aspects of the composition.

It features a memorable piano performance from the legendary Joe Sample. I asked Jason for his memories of recording the track with Sample and why he chose ‘Harlequin’ for the album:

‘Since, to me, one of the most important things in music is melody, I looked for the songs with the strongest melodic content. I tried to keep the balance of songs as even as I could between Wayne and Joe. I wanted to create something that had very good space in it that wouldn’t be too cluttered and had a sort of ambience around it. So ‘Harlequin’ was the perfect choice. It was actually Jay Beckenstein, saxophone player and leader of the band Spyro Gyra, who came up with the idea for me to do a whole album of Weather Report songs. He asked me to create an original version of ‘Black Market’ on his solo album Eye Contact. I had so much fun doing it and really knew that I could do ‘Harlequin’ in a fresh and cool way with Jay. He’s a very melodic player, and I thought he would be a great choice to play on it. As far as Joe goes, I have no problems putting other keyboard players on my projects. He was a great friend and we had worked together a number of times. He created the right space and the right vibes with the chord changes as well. Joe was in New York because he had been writing songs with George Benson. He told me that he could give me from 11am to 2pm to do the track and then he had to go to the airport. Perfect, except I told him: ‘It’s not gonna take three hours, but let’s see how we do… ‘ Right at the end of the session at Live Wire in Tribeca, at about 1 o’clock, he got a call from his management who told him that his flight was going to be delayed by three hours and he was like, ‘Wow, I checked out of the hotel and I gotta figure out what to do…’ So we had a really nice lunch across the street at one of the best Italian restaurants in New York – Acappella. I learned from Tommy LiPuma that there were moments that happen when you just say screw it and you go for a great meal… Well, we had an amazing meal for two and a half hours. I sat there and listened to some incredible stories, drunk some grappa… It was a $200 lunch that I took off the budget and sent him on his way to the airport… I got a great photo from that day as well (available to see in Jason’s book – Ed.). He was always such an amazing guy, and I was privileged to be his friend and certainly learned a lot from him. So there’s my story…’

Other notable versions of ‘Harlequin’? Warren Wolf did one during lockdown but it’s a little laboured and arguably the vibes don’t suit the melody too well. Better though is this recent live version by Shawn McGowan, the excellently named NYC-based keyboard player who brings out the beauty of the melody and also adds some neat piano licks of his own (though the drummer can’t resist those triplet fills…).