Weather Report - Mysterious Traveller (1974)

After two initial exploratory records (links below) and something of a transitional third one, Weather Report were well on the way to the tighter compositions and funkier grooves they became famous for.  This didn't suit everyone on board, and amid general acrimony, founding bassist Miroslav Vitouš headed for the exit, represented here only by his brief co-write with Zawinul, American Tango.  Still a couple of years away from the arrival of their definitive bass player, WR's journeys into funk on this album, Cucumber Slumber and the title track, were underpinned by Alphonso Johnson.

As well as it being increasingly tighter and well-composed throughout (Zawinul writing the lion's share, with a Shorter feature in the middle), I love Mysterious Traveller primarily as an album full of atmospheres.  The production still sounds great, making all the more vivid (as does the cover art) the title track's evocation of visitation by the galaxy's funkiest aliens.  Also on the album's second side, Scarlet Woman is similarly eerie, and the closing Jungle Book returns to earth with the wide open space atmosphere of Pat Metheny's later experimental ventures like As Falls Wichita.

link

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Previously posted at SGTG:

s/t debut

I Sing The Body Electric

Weather Report - I Sing The Body Electric (1972)

Weather Report's second album was another small step towards becoming a fusion juggernaut, and does fill out the rhythmic/percussive base more, helped in no small part by Dom Um Romão.  For the most part though, it was still pretty off-beam and experimental, even more so than their debut (link below), and swims nicely in the primoridal soup emanated from the big bang of Bitches Brew.

 

The album opener Unknown Soldier displays both Zawinul's increasingly complex compositional skill, and his first use of synthesiser, having just bought an ARP 2600.  Wordless voices and guest brass arrangements fill out the evocation of Zawinul's memories of the end of WWII.  Next up, on The Moors, is a sound unusual for any WR record - 12 string acoustic guitar, in a guest spot from Ralph Towner - before the track starts to groove.  A more obtuse composition from Miroslav Vitouš and another great Zawinul tune fill out the album's first half.

The rest of I Sing The Body Electric is recorded live, in excerpts from a January 1972 concert in Tokyo (the Japanese market also got a double-LP's worth, called Live In Tokyo).  The edits here just hint at the complex firepower that this lineup were capable of on stage, but it's enough to still be very impressive.  This was clearly a group that could take the experimental ethos of electric Miles Davis and run with it in their own unique style.

link

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Previously posted at SGTG: s/t debut

Weather Report - s/t (1971)

A low-key start for one of jazz fusion's most high profile groove machines, especially considering the Bitches Brew alumni involved.  Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter's decade and a half as WR mainstays began here with fellow founder Miroslav Vitouš, drummer Alphonse Mouzon and percussion from Airto Moreira, Don Alias & Barbara Burton.

Weather Report's still striking debut is a journey into the possibilities of group improvisation and sound manipulation, right from the ambient shimmer of Milky Way, which Robert Christgau memorably likened to "a carrilon approaching a time warp".  Next, Vitouš' distorted bass underpins the first rhythmic drive of the album, with Zawinul's effects-laden electric piano prefiguring his all-consuming adoption of synths.  Other highlights include Zawinul's Orange Lady, also recorded with Miles, and the spacious grooves of the last three tracks that would point the way forward for Weather Report.

link
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