I put on Sweetnighter today while making dinner and remembered how much I love it. Such an underrated album in their catalogue IMO. Although some tend to think of it as a bit 'directionless' (particularly the lengthy opening track "Boogie Woogie Waltz"), I love the sound and feel of the album from beginning to end. One of my favourites of the pre-Jaco period.
Your thoughts on the mighty Weather Report?
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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I actually prefer the pre-jaco period.
Boogie Woogie Waltz is just awesome,attempting, implying, building up, exploding at last. Love it.
I tried to listen to them as a teen and frankly wasn't really ready for it. They were a little closer to straight jazz than the rock side of fusion. I really need to go through it all again...
You should try Sweetnighter which has its share of rock and funk and may be considered less 'jazzy' than some of the others. And some terrific players, of course. Worthy of being mentioned alongside any of the other big fusion bands who sprouted from the Davis sessions.Originally Posted by trurl
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
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I love Weather Report! My favorite albums by them are 'Mysterious Traveler', 'Tale Spinnin', 'Black Market', 'Heavy Weather' & 'Live And Unreleased'. And the albums after 'HW' all have something to offer which keeps me coming back to 'Mr. Gone', 'Procession' & 'Domino Theory'. 'Sweetnighter' doesn't quite do it for me but "Boogie Woogie Waltz" & "125th St. Congress" do set the tone for the albums that followed.
Their first four records are my favorites.Zawinul had such a great touch on the Fender Rhodes.
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I've heard about them many years ago but like Camel, I never investigated them. An ex-gf had Mr. Gone and I wasn't impressed. I also was just starting to investigate fusion, about 20 years ago. I forgot about them until about 6 or 7 years ago and picked up Black Market because Chester Thompson was on drums. I was shocked on how good that album is. I am hooked.
Last edited by Tangram; 02-16-2014 at 01:44 AM.
Great band that had an impressive run.
I'm also more fond of their earlier post Miles work.
Joe Zawinul's first solo album Zawinul is also great.
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
I don't have many by them at the moment. I was listening to "heavy weather" a few months ago which I think is pretty good. I also have their first but haven't heard the whole thing yet.
I know this woman who is planning on having a "jazz party" at her house at some point. I'll maybe bring the first WR there. We'll see.
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Still today I consider "I Sing The Body Electric" the best, real, progressive music ever, simply my best record of all the times. Although at times interesting I've never appreciated much the "Jaco/later" years, regardless the members value (always stellar". After WR I think Zawinul outputs were dull...
I think I prefer their albums after Live in Tokyo. I had Live in Tokyo, but to me it sounded like an incoherent mess and I gave it away to someone about the same age as my dad, who was more into jazz and early Weather Report.
Love them, probably the band that got me into the jazz-rock/funk stuff. Bought 'Black Market' on a whim in a sale about ten years ago, often heard about them (largely down to the Chester Thompson connection, I guess) but never heard them until then. That album got to me instantly, great tunes, terrific drum grooves and brilliant keyboard playing. 'Cannonball' in particular I find a gorgeous composition, and that shift in the middle from Narada Michael Walden is one of my favourite ever drum moments.
The obvious next step was 'Heavy Weather'...truth be told, I thought that one was a bit disappointing at first after 'Black Market' because of the smoother sound. However I got to enjoy that one a lot too. Worked backwards and forwards (up to 'Night Passage' anyway, have nothing after that) over the years. The first few didn't instantly appeal to me because the sound is very different but I kept returning to 'I Sing The Body Electric' in particular.
The 5th studio release 'Tale Spinnin' strikes me as more of a place-holder than 'Sweetnighter'...'Sweetnighter' is where they first got into the funk/soul-influenced grooves, I think, and so it's an important album in that respect. 'Tale Spinnin' is a solid album- 'Bahia' in particular is great- but doesn't show as much artistic growth, I don't think.
The first four albums I like particularly.
Just a thought for those of us who are Weather Report fans ... here are a couple of others with very similar sounds to check out when you get a chance
- Zawinul Syndicate (well, obviously)
- Tribal Tech (with guitar instead of sax)
- Sixun (the European Weather Report)
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Many band geeks in my high school had the Heavy Weather record, so I remember hearing WR a lot as a kid. But I never really got into WR until purchasing two of their DVDs: Montreux 1976 and the 1971 Beat Club disc (it is the one on Voiceprint). Both of those are brain-melters!
I notice there are some more official DVDs out from '75, '78, and '83. Anyone got those? I assume they are great too.
I was never much of a "fusion" guy. The only LP of theirs I own is I Sing The Body Electric, which is OK.
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
Thanks for this, I've been meaning to check out Tribal Tech and I've never even heard of Sixun!
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
I might have some live Zawinul with Henderson on guitar. I also like Mysterious Traveller as well. Saw them pre Jaco and with Jaco and both bands were great.
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This site has about 50 Weather Report concerts for DL (along with tons of MO, RTF, etc...) See other thread on this topic
http://jazzfusion.tv/bootlegaudio.name.html
I've just started exploring Weather Report from the beginning. Picked up the Columbia Albums box set 71-75 pretty cheap on Amazon.
Greats stuff.
despite my screen-name, they just don't Rock enough for me. They are one of the few Jazz bands (and I realize their use of Synthesizers probably put them into the Prog realm for some, but their lack of electric Guitar and Rock style Drums lose me) that I own more than a couple albums by. For me, I suppose when I want to try Jazz on record, this is the stuff that scratches that itch... and McCoy Tyner and occasionally Coltrane.
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
The first four are definitely where it's at, as the kids say. (And I Sing... and Mysterious Traveler are the ones I'd recommend for prog fans re: the studio albums) But even after that, live they were still pretty good. Wouldn't want to be without Live & Unreleased and Live In Offenbach '78.
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Weather Report is my favorite band. If such a thing can be said. I mean, I love Yes in their prime, and The Second Miles Quintet. And so many other bands. But Weather Report is an obsession.
They certainly did not stagnate; from their early, post-Miles free/modal/soundscape stuff of the first incarnation, through the incorporation of more R & B/Funk grooves starting with Sweetnighter, through their later, World-Music fusion, I love all their periods. I love the Jaco period, but I can't say it outshines any of their other periods.
I do agree, they are closer to the "jazz" end of the Jazz Rock spectrum, than to the Rock end.
Sixun is another of my favorite bands--they are like Late-era WR, with a dominant guitar as well.....Paco Sery and Michel Alibo are maybe the best rhythm section on earth, for this sort of music, if you ask me. Relatively unknown in the USA, which is a shame, as they are consistently High Quality, very melodic, and they groove like mofos. All the other suggestions on this thread are great too--I'm in agreement with all of them. You should also check out the "Human Element" which was a Kinsey/Garrison/Novak/Tuncboyaciian project. Don't know if they're going to do another....but their self titled debut brings the goods.
Love Weather Report. One of my favourite bands. As a saxophone player in high school, I was drawn to the power of Wayne Shorter. My first WR CD was "Tale Spinnin". I was hooked from the first track "Man in the Green Shirt'. They are the one band I wish I could have seen live (ok, and Gabriel-led Geneses). I love all periods of the band, pre-Jaco, post Jaco. I remember the Down Beat one star review of 'Mr Gone' and their demand to be interviewed by Down Beat after that (Zawinul said-"We don't make one star records"). Weather Report was my springboard to electric Miles. The other posts here are very correct, in that Weather Report was more 'jazz' than 'rock' in the fusion era (could it be because of having no guitar in the band?).
Couple of recommendations for those wanting to hear more: on the Zawinul live CD '75" (one of the last ones he did before he died) Wayne Shorter joins him for a magical 15 minute duet of 'In a Silent Way'. Haunting. Breathtaking. The other recommendation (for you Flower Kings fans): a Flower King off shoot called 3rd World Electric. The CD is called Kilamanjaro Secret Brew. It's a scary good representation of the weather Report sound (and Jonas Reingold really shows off his Jaco influence).
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