10762 - WEATHER REPORT - THE LEGENDARY LIVE TAPES 1978-1981, DISC ONE (2015)
WEATHER REPORT
''THE LEGENDARY LIVE TAPES: 1978-1981, DISC ONE''
NOVEMBER 20 2015
247:20
**********
DISC ONE (61:14)
1 8:30 02:16 (Joe Zawinul)
2 Sightseeing 07:33 (Wayne Shorter)
3 Brown Street 11:16 (Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul)
4 The Orphan 01:51 (Joe Zawinul)
5 Forlorn 04:10 (Joe Zawinul)
6 Three Views of a Secret 07:33 (Jaco Pastorius)
7 Badia; Boogie Woogie Waltz 10:57 (Joe Zawinul)
8 Wayne Solo 07:34 (Wayne Shorter)
9 Jaco Solo (Osaka 1980) 07:59 (Jaco Pastorius)
*****
DISC TWO (60:41)
1 Joe and Wayne Duet (Tokyo 1978) 08:37 (Duke Ellington)
2 Birdland 06:17 (Joe Zawinul) (Joe Zawinul)
3 Peter's Solo (Drum Solo) 04:43 (Peter Erskine)
4 A Remark You Made 07:34 (Joe Zawinul)
5 Continuum; River People 12:21 (Jaco Pastorius)
6 Gibraltar 21:07 (Joe Zawinul)
*****
DISC THREE (62:56)
1 Fast City 08:36 (Joe Zawinul)
2 Madagascar 17:43 (Joe Zawinul)
3 Night Passage 10:06 (Joe Zawinul)
4 Dream Clock 09:37 (Joe Zawinul)
5 Rockin' In Rhythm 04:19 (Harry Carney, Duke Ellington, Irving Mills)
6 Port of Entry 12:34 (Wayne Shorter)
*****
DISC FOUR (62:29)
1 Elegant People 09:15 (Wayne Shorter)
2 Scarlet Woman 11:52 (Alphonso Johnson, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul)
3 Black Market 13:13 (Joe Zawinul)
4 Jaco Solo (Osaka 1978) 08:19 (Jaco Pastorius)
5 Teen Town 08:58 (Jaco Pastorius)
6 Peter's Drum Solo (Osaka 1978) 03:58 (Peter Erskine)
7 Directions 06:50 (Joe Zawinul)
**********
Peter Erskine/Drums, Timpani
Jaco Pastorius/Bass Guitar, Drums
Wayne Shorter/Sax (Alto), Sax (Tenor)
Robert Thomas, Jr./Hand Drums, Percussion
Joe Zawinul/Electro-Acoustic Piano, Keyboards, Quadra, Synthesizer Bass
**********
REVIEW / AMG
Thom Jurek
These four discs offer completely unreleased performances by the Weather Report lineup of keyboardist Joe Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, bassist Jaco Pastorius, drummer Peter Erskine, and a bit later, percussionist Bobby Thomas, Jr. It was compiled for release by Erskine (whose historical essay and annotated track notes are fantastic) and Tony Zawinul, Joe's son. These are mostly soundboard cassettes made by WR's longtime live sound engineer Brian Risner, with choice audience tapes and commercial mobile rig selections mixed in. While it (mostly) sounds like an excellent bootleg, the sound here is remarkable given the root sources. Similar to 2002's Live and Unreleased, the material is not arranged chronologically. Disc one begins with the quintet in 1980/1981; disc four is from the quartet in 1978, and it skips around in between. The sequencing is peculiar to Erskine's and Zawinul's personal notions about what best constituted raw evidence of the band's collective ability on any given night of a tour -- warts and all. (An example is the inclusion of an abrupt, incomplete "Jaco's Solo" on disc one. It's here as a metaphor for the bassist's mercurial personality and the gap his absence leaves, but it's too much of a quirk for most listeners. (Thankfully, there is a full, more inspired version on disc four from 1978.) But the many highlights offset these moments. On disc one, "Brown Street" is taken from a rehearsal vastly overdubbed later for 8:30; the root version is revelatory. The scorching medley of "Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz" is fiery and intense -- tape collectors feel free to compare. Shorter's brief quote from "What's Goin' On" in "The Orphan" reveals how much R&B was part of his playing during this period, and his seven-plus-minute solo spot is magnificent. Disc two offers a gorgeous medley of Pastorius' "Continuum"/"River People" -- played in his hometown of Philly -- and is followed by a 21-minute, newly discovered "Gibraltar" from Erskine's second gig with WR. Disc three by the quintet is from 1980-1981 and contains excellent performances of "Madagascar," followed by a hard-grooving "Night Passage." (The latter tune was eventually dropped from public performance.) These tracks -- plus two more -- are from proper mobile recording equipment and as such they stand out. A spacy bebop reading of Duke Ellington's "Rockin' in Rhythm" precedes a ragged "Port of Entry" -- the only known version recorded by the quartet (just prior to Thomas' joining). The final disc offers long, kinetic versions of "Elegant People," "Scarlet Woman," and "Black Market," as well as a raucous "Teen Town" and a spacy, dubby version of "Directions." While The Legendary Live Tapes, 1978-81 is a glimpse of the complex, multifaceted -- and controversial -- persona that was WR, it is a long and fruitful one. It showcases the band at their jazz-funk best with improvisational and collective intuitive chops usually on stun. Hopefully there is more where this came from.
**********
BIOGRAPHY / AMG
Richard S. Ginell
Weather Report started out as a jazz equivalent of what the rock world in 1970 was calling a "supergroup." But unlike most of the rock supergroups, this one not only kept going for a good 15 years, it more than lived up to its billing, practically defining the state of the jazz-rock art throughout almost all of its run. Weather Report also anticipated and contributed to the North American interest in world music rhythms and structures, prodded by keyboardist/co-founder Joe Zawinul. And WR, like many of jazz's great long-lived groups, proved to be an incubator for several future leaders who passed in and out of the band in a never-ending series of revolving-door personnel changes. The original members of the band were Zawinul, Wayne Shorter (saxophones), Miroslav Vitous (electric bass), Airto Moreira (percussion) and Alphonse Mouzon (drums), with only Zawinul and (until 1985) Shorter remaining in place throughout the band's lifespan. Zawinul, Shorter and Moreira all had experience playing in and influencing the studio and live electric bands of Miles Davis -- and at first, WR was a direct extension of Miles' In a Silent Way/Bitches Brew period, with free-floating collective improvisation and interplay, combining elements of jazz, rock, funk, Latin and other ethnic musics.
With the release of Sweetnighter in 1972, Zawinul's influence upon the band's direction began to deepen; the groove became more important, structures were imposed upon the material (though the group continued its freewheeling interplay in live gigs). When the innovative bassist Jaco Pastorius replaced Alphonso Johnson in 1976, WR entered its most popular phase, with Pastorius becoming a flamboyant third lead voice, Shorter's sax receding into more epigrammatic form, and Zawinul rediscovering his commercial touch and sharpening his electronic sophistication. The best-selling Heavy Weather album (1977) actually served up a hit song that became a jazz standard ("Birdland"), and with the entry of Peter Erskine on drums (1978), the group finally had a stable lineup for awhile.
Contrary to accepted wisdom, the departures of Pastorius and Erskine in 1982 led to a recharging of WR's batteries; their replacements Victor Bailey (bass), Omar Hakim (drums), Jose Rossy and later, Mino Cinelu (percussion) were more amenable to Zawinul's deepening inclinations for Third World rhythms, sounds and textures. This edition of WR rattled off three more albums, including the outstanding Procession. But Shorter, who had gradually ceded nearly total artistic control to Zawinul, was getting restless; he took a leave of absence in 1985 and later that year, left WR for good. This Is This (1985), in which Erskine returns and Shorter plays only a limited role, was WR's swan song. Zawinul would tour in 1986 with a revamped version called Weather Update (a prelude to the keyboardist's own Zawinul Syndicate), and there was talk in 1996 about Zawinul and Shorter reuniting in the studio for a new edition of WR, but Zawinul later deflated the speculation.
