Weather Report

[Milestones]

Any thoughts on this legendary band?

I was into the group a little bit when I first got into jazz, which was 1981. They had been around for quite a while and had just had a few years left. I was mainly interested because they came from the Miles Davis tree. Despite the phenomenal talents of Zawinul and Shorter, I was not a big fan in those days. It was certainly a different kind of fusion from John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Larry Coryell, etc.

I have become familiar with Black Market and Heavy Weather, and there's no denying their importance to jazz--and they provide plenty of good listening. I've also got a nice anthology of the group's work.

In any case, I have come to more greatly appreciate the group's creativity and quality. Zawinul did essentially run the band, which I always thought was odd given Wayne Shorter's enormous talents as composer and player. I have to say, though, that Zawinul did sum up his talents well on Brown Street--the double CD big band record from late in his career, consisting mainly of Weather Report material.

[Eric]

This site is fantastic if you have not discovered it:

http://www.weatherreportdiscography.org

[jazzbo]

Previous discussion in "The Weather Report Corner":

Edited January 22, 2013 by jazzbo

[Milestones]

Yeah, that's a fine website. I had not seen it before; thanks for the recommendation. All groups and artists should have a website like this.

[CJ Shearn]

I have both the 1971-5 and Jaco era sets that Sony released, and the WR of 1971 and the WR of later are two totally different animals. WR and "Live in Tokyo" are my 2 favorite albums of that period and the Jaco period, I think "Night Passage" is certainly best after "Heavy Weather" and "Black Market", and "Speechless" and both parts of the "Dara Factor" are strong tracks on the second self titled album. The early WR is an extension of IASW Miles in sound and the collective improv approach, but there was always as Jim Sangrey said something substantial going on no matter the context. Though its controversial, I really like "Mr. Gone".

[Milestones]

What do people think of "Live and Unreleased"? I've gotten the impression these are the best WR live recordings, at least among those that are relatively easy to obtain. I know that it contains performances over a period of about 8 years.

[CJ Shearn]

Well, between both boxes you get most of the tracks on "Live and Unreleased" (which I used to have) there are some GREAT performances on that album, like "Cucumber Slumber" from the "Tale Spinnin" lineup with Chester Thompson on drums and Alex Acuna on percussion. Also the rest of the tracks from the "Night Passage" sessions at The Complex in California. All of the performances with Jaco on that set (12 in total) are in the 1976-82 Jaco era WR box.

[JSngry]

Helluva band, that's all I can say.

[king ubu]

Sorry, but I kind of don't get the point why this thread goes on when there's another one with lots of discussion. Might just be me though ...

[Milestones]

Well, I'm pretty new to Organissimo, and while I have looked at the older thread, the heart of it was years ago. There was eventually some weird some stuff on Zawinul regarding Hitler as a hero, and then the thread virtually stopped in the middle of 2010.

[danasgoodstuff]

What do people think of "Live and Unreleased"? I've gotten the impression these are the best WR live recordings, at least among those that are relatively easy to obtain. I know that it contains performances over a period of about 8 years.

I was disappointed, but then my expectations may have been too high - I think I wanted it to bring me back to being the fanboy I once was and I was also hoping for lots of otherwise unrecorded lineups (how many of those were there?)...

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

the music of the gods. my favorite is "Procession" of which i have a japan-for-japan 1st pressing CD, which sounds beyond incredible. my favorite 70s album is prob. mysterious traveller. so lucky to have seen joe z. 3 times in 1999.

[king ubu]

Well, I'm pretty new to Organissimo, and while I have looked at the older thread, the heart of it was years ago. There was eventually some weird some stuff on Zawinul regarding Hitler as a hero, and then the thread virtually stopped in the middle of 2010.

Yeah, I know you're new ... forgot about the disgusting Hitler stuff, but I generally prefer to see older threads revived rather than having multiple threads on the same topic. I do use this site as kind of an archive every now and so often, and the more threads you have on one topic, the more difficult it gets to locate any information.

But anyway, it's no biggie

[Guy Berger]

What do people think of "Live and Unreleased"? I've gotten the impression these are the best WR live recordings, at least among those that are relatively easy to obtain. I know that it contains performances over a period of about 8 years.

Well, I think that having a patchwork of performances from different concerts (rather than complete concerts) gives an inferior sense of what WR was like as a band. I also think that they weren't nearly as good live after 1977 so the set would have been better with less of the later material. Live in Tokyo is the best official live released by the band and there are dozens of amazing unofficial live recordings I would rank above Live and Unreleased.

[JSngry]

I also think that they weren't nearly as good live after 1977...

I would disagree with this...so musc as to say that the live shows after Jaco left were "better" than the ones from during his last year or so. Thye were certainly more focused on group playing than on individual star trips...although I once saw Wayne drive Jaco so hard that it was funny...Jaco was doing his shit and Wayne suddenly looked straight at him, bumped everythig up several notches and RAN with it. Jaco kept up, but it was obvious who was driving that bus!

I heard the band 8-9 times between 1974 and 1982, and although the presentation certainly evolved, the music never deteriorated, even when the egos were on full display. These were all egos with some really vast skill sets, ya' know? The closest anybody came to outright vapidity was Jaco, once that solo bass thing took root with the echoplex and all that. That was a drag after the first time. But that was it!

As for Live and Unreleased itself, again, all I can say is that that was one helluva band.

[six string]

They were a gateway group for jazz for me back in the early 70s and I still enjoy them from time to time. Sweetnighter is the one that blows me away these days. If you're going to play electric jazz then this album will rock your world. I tend to prefer the earlier albums to the latter but most of the albums have choice songs on them.