Weather Report - Tale Spinnin' (1975)

Percussive fireworks and melodic fusion from Weather Report at the top of their game.  In his only appearance with WR, Leon 'Ngudu' Chancler of Herbie Hancock/Santana/many others fame is the drummer, with Alyrio Lima handling percussion and the core trio of Zawinul, Shorter and Johnson carried over from the previous album.  Tale Spinnin' gets off to a flying start with one of Weather Report's most memorable album openers, Man In The Green Shirt, and grooves onwards with a sublime Shorter composition and another lengthy Zawinul piece.  It's not all funky fusion - the highly atmospheric Badia is a definite standout, with Zawinul's eerie electronics continuing the band's early experimental strand.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

s/t debut

I Sing The Body Electric

Mysterious Traveller 

Black Market

Jaco Pastorius - s/t (1976)

This album came up in the comments recently on the last Weather Report post, so here it is.  Just over 40 minutes of smoking grooves, deft arrangements and a stellar cast of guests, all wrapped around the elastic basslines of a 25-year-old virtuoso who would cast jazz fusion in his image for years to come.

Announcing itself with bass up front, and no accompaniment but Don Alias' congas on the opening version of the standard Donna Lee, Pastorius' self-titled album features only one other tune he hadn't written or co-written, a medley setting of Herbie Hancock's Speak Like A Child.  Hancock himself is heavily featured on keys throughout the album, which is heavily percussive in places, has sumptuous arrangements in others, and gives guest spotlights to everyone from Hubert Laws to Sam & Dave.  Essential summer listening.

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pw: sgtg

Jaco Pastorius at SGTG:

Weather Report - Black Market

Joni Mitchell - Mingus

Joni Mitchell - Shadows And Light

Weather Report - Black Market (1976)

Been listening to this one a lot lately, so here comes another spotlight on the ever-shifting landscape of 1970s Weather Report.  Percussion-heavy, with plenty of groove to spare, the album kicks off with the bright melodic title track, bass handled by Alphonso Johnson as is the case for most of the album.  Not so for the track that follows, though - here comes the first entry of one of the group's most auspicious arrivals, with the slippery basslines of a 24-year old Floridian who had introduced himself to Zawinul as "the greatest bass player in the world".

There's only one other Pastorious performance on this transitional (even by their standards) Weather Report album, the strutting Barbary Coast from his own pen.  Otherwise, Zawinul and Shorter turn in an increasingly slick set of funky numbers influenced by Latin and African rhythms, some more atmospheric pieces and generally set the stage for Weather Report's commercial superstardom that would follow within a year.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

s/t debut

I Sing The Body Electric

Mysterious Traveller

Joni Mitchell - Mingus (1979)

Writing collaboration between an ailing Mingus, who died shortly before its completion, and Joni Mitchell at the height of her jazz era.  The stellar cast of musicians, based around Weather Report plus Herbie Hancock, is the perfect lineup to back Joni's vocals and minimalist, percussive acoustic guitar.

Out of six tunes Mingus sang into a tape recorder for Joni, three made the album, and a fourth is her sterling setting of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.  The remaining two are credited solely to Mitchell, but carry the spark of inspiration from the collaboration, especially God Must Be A Boogie Man.  Interspersed between the songs are audio verité recordings provided by Mingus' wife Sue, providing an intimate window into the final years of his life.  One of the most underrated albums in the Joni Mitchell canon, and a fine tribute to a jazz legend.

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Joni Mitchell at SGTG:

Miles Of Aisles

Shadows And Light

Miles Davis - Live-Evil (1971)

First in a three-Friday look at some of the many double-live albums released by Miles Davis in the 1970s (already posted: Agharta, see list below).  This one does actually include short tracks of studio material, three of them by Brazilian composer Hermeto Pascoal and recorded in June 1970; Pascoal also contributes vocals, percussion and electric piano to those pieces.  All the rest are live recordings from The Cellar Door in Washington DC, 19 December 1970.  Joining Miles on stage were Gary Bartz, John McLaughlin (a quick end-of-residency addition), a rare electrified Keith Jarrett before he swore off amplified keyboards, and a cracking rhythm section of Michael Henderson, Jack DeJohnette and Aitro Moreira.

The album title, and a couple of the track titles, come from the mirror-text effect on the vinyl gatefold: MILES DAVIS LIVE = SELIM SIVAD EVIL.  Sivad is the first lengthy live jam - might that be Jarrett's (in)famous vocalising halfway through? Could be Airto.  What I Say turns up the tempo for an even funkier exploration - Jarrett sounds like he's about to play LA Woman in the intro there.  The brief studio tracks by Pascoal are mellow, drifting drones, and completing Record 1/CD1 is a studio take of Gemini/Double Image by Davis/Zawinul, which actually dates back to February 1970.  That last one adds Khalil Balakrishna on electric sitar, and all the studio material adds Chick & Herbie to the keyboard section.

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Over on Disc 2, Selim provides a quick overture in the form of a Pascoal piece sounding similar to the other two, then it's Live Evil all the way in the two remaining long tracks.  Funky Tonk does what it says on the tin, with plenty of Jarrett grooves, McLaughlin solos and storming percussion.  To close, Inamorata is a great straight-ahead funk jam, with the "Narration By Conrad Roberts" being a brief voice-over poem near the end by the titular actor, for reasons I've never quite seen explained.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Miles Davis at SGTG:
Conception
Walkin'
Blue Moods
Bags' Groove
Miles Ahead (with Gil Evans)
Sketches Of Spain (with Gil Evans)
Quiet Nights (with Gil Evans) 

A Tribute To Jack Johnson
On The Corner

Big Fun
Agharta

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

pw: sgtg

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

pw: sgtg

 

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
pw: sgtg

Wayne Shorter feat. Milton Nascimento - Native Dancer (1975)

For Wayne Shorter's first solo album since the takeoff of Weather Report, it was perhaps inevitable that the great saxman would continue in a similar fusion groove - and Native Dancer is certainly that.  What lifts it into another dimension entirely though is that Shorter didn't just follow through on his desire to make a Brazilian-influenced album, he got Airto Moreira in on percussion and the gorgeous voice of Milton Nascimento up front and centre.

The result was a damn fine album that sounds almost as authentically Brazilian as it does mid-70s jazz fusion.  On the four non-Nascimento tracks, Shorter breezes through the grooves with Herbie Hancock acting as the perfect foil (and composer of closing track Joanna's Theme) on piano.  And with summer officially kicking off, copious amounts of Fender Rhodes are mandatory, at least in my ears - the main electric pianist here is another Brazilian, Wagner Tiso.

Brazilian music in general from the 60s onwards is another summer must-have in my book, as longtime readers will be aware (more in the coming weeks naturally), and the star of Native Dancer has to be Milton Nascimento - this album was my introduction to his unique, soaring voice.  The remaining five compositions on the album are Nascimento's, picking from the cream of his catalogue up til then.  Milagre Dos Peixes gets anglicized to Miracle Of The Fishes here (but still with the Portuguese lyrics) and gets a fine MPB-jazz fusion makeover, as do Ponta De Areia, Lilia and more.  From The Lonely Afternoons actually reminds me of late 80s Pat Metheny Group sans guitar solos.  Grab a caipirinha and download.

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