Best Weather Report album tracks ...?

[Trane]

OK, so I've just bought both of the Weather Report 5 disc Original Album Classics "cheap as chips" box sets.

So now own: Weather Report (first) / Tail Spinnin' / Heavy Weather / Mr Gone / Weather Report / I Sing The Body Electric / Sweetnighter / Mysterious Traveller / Black Market / Night Passage

Quick question: Where to start on these - what are the best albums / stand out tracks?

Thanks.

Those two cheap boxsets should give you all the first 10 studio albums, but not the two double live albums


However, I own another boxset (much better and less cheap as well), which has the first five albums plus the Tokyo live stuff.

Personally I break down WR by bassist era...
The Miroslav Vitous era is my fave, includes WR, Body Electric & Sweetnighter, plus the Tokyo >> this is adventurous & torrid fusion stuff >> they smoke... And Vitous bleeds slightly (one track) in Mysterious Traveller
The next bassist was Alphonso Johnson (recently RIP, if memory serves), and the band is more in a funky groove. I still like and do listen to it once in a while
the Jaco Pastorius is really not my kind of stuff... The albums are very diverse and all over the place, from almost standard jazz to ethnic jazz to fusionaria
Victor Bailey replaced Jaco in the 80's, but IMHO, it's no improvement.

Their best album (imo) isn't included in those box sets.
It's a live album, and it's called 8:30.

I'll definitely prefer Tokyo to 8:30

Start from the beginning.
Its different bands & styles, I like most of it, but returns most often to the pre-jaco albums.

Pretty much my sentiments as well,except i have none of the Jaco era stuff.

Ditto... and I also don't own anything with Jaco on it.

Live In Tokyo(1972) is a must have.

Yup, it's now easily available everywhere.

[Zeuhlmate]

Alphonso Johnson is still alive & kicking

https://www.facebook.com/AlphonsoJohnson.OfficialPage/

[Nashorn]

Alphonso Johnson is still alive & kicking

https://www.facebook.com/AlphonsoJohnson.OfficialPage/

It was Victor Bailey, WR's bassist in the 80s, who recently died (November 11, 2016).

[Trane]

It was Victor Bailey, WR's bassist in the 80s, who recently died (November 11, 2016).

my bad

Sorry Alphonso

[rcarlberg]

Weather Report goes through bassists like Spiñal Täp goes through drummers.

[Trane]

Weather Report goes through bassists like Spiñal Täp goes through drummers.

Funny, but kind of wrong... the bass was a fairly stable spot in WR

I'd say that there were a lot more drummers/percussionists that came and went through the band than bassists

[Dedatolo]

My favorite WR track from my favorite WR album

Exactly the same here.

[PaulPb]

Havona = one of my favorite tracks = Fun to play on drums (challenging to learn) ......

[pb2015]

Funny, but kind of wrong... the bass was a fairly stable spot in WR

I'd say that there were a lot more drummers/percussionists that came and went through the band than bassists

They had a different drummer on almost each album until Peter Erskine had a run of a few years with them around 1978 to 81.

[rcarlberg]

I'd say that there were a lot more drummers/percussionists that came and went through the band than bassists

Looks like you're right.

Drummers/percussionists who came through Weather Report:

• Alphonse Mouzon
• Don Alias
• Barbara Burton
• Airto Moreira
• Dom Um Romāo
• Eric Gravatt
• Greg Errico
• Herschel Dwellingham
• Muruga Booker
• Ishmail Wilburn
• Darryl Brown
• Alyrio Lima
• Chuck Bazemore
• Leon Ndugu Chancler
• Chester Thompson
• Alex Acuña
• Narada Michael Waldon
• Manolo Badrena
• Jaco Pastorius
• Tony Williams
• Peter Erskine
• Steve Gadd
• Bobby Thomas, Jr.
• Omar Hakim
• José Rossy
• drum machines and samplers
• Mino Cinélu

Bassists who came through Weather Report:

• Miroslav Vitouš
• Alphonso Johnson
• Jaco Pastorius
• Victor Bailey

[Trane]

Looks like you're right.

Drummers/percussionists who came through Weather Report:

• Alphonse Mouzon
• Don Alias
• Barbara Burton
• Airto Moreira
• Dom Um Romāo
• Eric Gravatt
• Greg Errico
• Herschel Dwellingham
• Muruga Booker
• Ishmail Wilburn
• Darryl Brown
• Alyrio Lima
• Chuck Bazemore
• Leon Ndugu Chancler
• Chester Thompson
• Alex Acuña
• Narada Michael Waldon
• Manolo Badrena
• Jaco Pastorius
• Tony Williams
• Peter Erskine
• Steve Gadd
• Bobby Thomas, Jr.
• Omar Hakim
• José Rossy
• drum machines and samplers
• Mino Cinélu

I guess I must've forgotten these two.

[JJ88]

Narada Michael Walden is on the first two songs on Black Market, the title track and 'Cannonball'. The shift of mood halfway through 'Cannonball' is probably my all-time favourite moment on a Weather Report album...his drumming is a big part of that.

[pb2015]

Tony Williams played on a few tracks from Mr. Gone (they used some outside players before Peter Erskine became the permanent drummer replacing Alex Acuña).

[calyx]

If you're going to include people like Narada Michael Walden, Tony Williams or even Jaco in your list of WR drummers, then Andrew White deserves mention as playing electric piano to Miroslav's double bass on a couple of tracks on "Sweetnighter".

[Dave (in MA)]

Looks like you're right.

Drummers/percussionists who came through Weather Report:

• Alphonse Mouzon
• Don Alias
• Barbara Burton
• Airto Moreira
• Dom Um Romāo
• Eric Gravatt
• Greg Errico
• Herschel Dwellingham
• Muruga Booker
• Ishmail Wilburn
• Darryl Brown
• Alyrio Lima
• Chuck Bazemore
• Leon Ndugu Chancler
• Chester Thompson
• Alex Acuña
• Narada Michael Waldon
• Manolo Badrena
• Jaco Pastorius
• Tony Williams
• Peter Erskine
• Steve Gadd
• Bobby Thomas, Jr.
• Omar Hakim
• José Rossy
• drum machines and samplers
• Mino Cinélu

Imagine if they were in the band all at the same time. It would be like KC.

[rcarlberg]

If you're going to include people like Narada Michael Walden, Tony Williams or even Jaco in your list of WR drummers, then Andrew White deserves mention as playing electric piano to Miroslav's double bass on a couple of tracks on "Sweetnighter".

How do you figure a pianist deserves mention on a list of drummers/percussionists? Jaco is listed because he actually played drums on two tracks of Mr. Gone, "The Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat" and "River People."

[pb2015]

He meant that Andrew White played electric bass. I don't remember any other guest bassists.

[rcarlberg]

Fair enough.

Andrew White III had returned to play occasional English horn on the album, but Zawinul also employed him on bass guitar on three tracks to get the style of funk playing required.

No other "guest bassists" are listed -- unless you count the numerous times Zawinul played bass from his keyboards.

[jkelman]

Night Passage[/B] 1980, Weather Report 1982 and Procession 1983 are where they began to run out of steam for me, eventually becoming just Zawinul's backup band with little or no input from anybody else.

Funny you should say that about Night Passage; I always think of it as (a) the best Jaco-era record; and (b) the record where they came back from trying to deliver radio hits and get back to playing some distinctly swingin' (opening track and doing a synth-heavy take on Ellington are amongst my faves) but still very electric jazz. It's one of my all-time faves, in fact, so was thrilled when Peter E curated the four-disc live set a couple years back, which has two discs of stuff from 1980 tours where they played, amongst other things, all of NP. That was reason enough to have it.

The self-titled 1982 final album from that lineup was ok, but Zawinul was definitely pushing hard towards more writing and less improvising, and that's exactly where he took it when Jaco and Peter left, and Omar and Victor joined; the last WR albums all had their moments (except for the very last album, This is This, which was a contractual obligation record and feels like it), but I like Procession the best, because if WR was going to be about writing, they did it better there than on the studio albums that followed, at least imo. And the Live in Cologne that was released a few years back along with Offenbach 1978 and Freezing Fire, live in 1975, shows that the new band, focusing almost entirely, barring a medley or two of older stuff, on the new music really made clear that Zawinul saw this as a brand new WR, and one with a different direction than what came before.

But funny, isn't it? The album you think was the beginning of the end turns out to be one of my faves....!!

[calyx]

Really embarrassed at my stupid typing error above. I did mean electric bass of course ! ;-/

[Finch Platte]

Looks like you're right.

Drummers/percussionists who came through Weather Report:

• Alphonse Mouzon
• Don Alias
• Barbara Burton
• Airto Moreira
• Dom Um Romāo
• Eric Gravatt
• Greg Errico
• Herschel Dwellingham
• Muruga Booker
• Ishmail Wilburn
• Darryl Brown
• Alyrio Lima
• Chuck Bazemore
• Leon Ndugu Chancler
• Chester Thompson
• Alex Acuña
• Narada Michael Waldon
• Manolo Badrena
• Jaco Pastorius
• Tony Williams
• Peter Erskine
• Steve Gadd
• Bobby Thomas, Jr.
• Omar Hakim
• José Rossy
• drum machines and samplers
• Mino Cinélu

Bassists who came through Weather Report:

• Miroslav Vitouš
• Alphonso Johnson
• Jaco Pastorius
• Victor Bailey

Why is Jaco on both lists?

[Dave]

Because he played drums/percussion on a few studio recordings. I think Teen Town was his most notable contribution behind the kit. He actually started out playing drums as a youth but a broken arm and other factors steered him to the bass.

[Chuck AzEee!]

Everything up the maligned Mr. Gone is excellent with Live In Tokyo, Black Market and Heavy Weather as the finest of the bunch. Post Jaco/Erksine Domino Theory is superb.

Charles

[pb2015]

Funny you should say that about Night Passage; I always think of it as (a) the best Jaco-era record; and (b) the record where they came back from trying to deliver radio hits and get back to playing some distinctly swingin' (opening track and doing a synth-heavy take on Ellington are amongst my faves) but still very electric jazz. It's one of my all-time faves, in fact, so was thrilled when Peter E curated the four-disc live set a couple years back, which has two discs of stuff from 1980 tours where they played, amongst other things, all of NP. That was reason enough to have it.

The self-titled 1982 final album from that lineup was ok, but Zawinul was definitely pushing hard towards more writing and less improvising, and that's exactly where he took it when Jaco and Peter left, and Omar and Victor joined; the last WR albums all had their moments (except for the very last album, This is This, which was a contractual obligation record and feels like it), but I like Procession the best, because if WR was going to be about writing, they did it better there than on the studio albums that followed, at least imo. And the Live in Cologne that was released a few years back along with Offenbach 1978 and Freezing Fire, live in 1975, shows that the new band, focusing almost entirely, barring a medley or two of older stuff, on the new music really made clear that Zawinul saw this as a brand new WR, and one with a different direction than what came before.

But funny, isn't it? The album you think was the beginning of the end turns out to be one of my faves....!!

That is close to my opinion except that the self titled 80's album is also one of my favorites.

Incidentally, the more writing/less improvising idea was not only evident with Zawinul, but also Shorter (on his 80's solo albums too).

[wideopenears]

That is close to my opinion except that the self titled 80's album is also one of my favorites.

Incidentally, the more writing/less improvising idea was not only evident with Zawinul, but also Shorter (on his 80's solo albums too).

Indeed. Atlantis was almost completely through-composed. Also one of my favorite albums ever. Just amazing.