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Stooge View Drop Down
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    Posted: 10 Jan 2014 at 10:44pm
I've got to give some love to the band that got me into jazz music.  I basically got to them when I started to learn to play bass, and I kept seeing the name Jaco Pastorius being brought up.  I started off with Heavy Weather since I heard the "Teen Town" was one of his signature songs.  From there, I believe I went on to get more Jaco WR albums (Night Passage, 8:30, Mr. Gone) before branching out into other eras.  I've yet to get any post-Jaco WR albums, but I usually see them cheap at flea markets so I'll get to them eventually.

Anybody aware the a Weather Report documentary is in the works.  Joe Zawinul's son Tony is leading the project, and has been looking for contributions.  The campain only has 7 days left, but maybe they'll extend it.  There are some cool rewards for those that donate. 
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Points: 35494 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote js Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jan 2014 at 4:38am
When I was young, Weather Report was still fairly new and very exotic sounding compared to what else was going on at the time. Their concerts sounded like no one else, particularly in their early days. I saw them with Alphonso on bass, and then later, with Jaco on bass.

I like all the different phases the group went through, particularly the first version of the group, as well as the superbly rhythmic version with Alphonso Johnson on bass. In their later years, I lost touch with the band as their music became more commercial.
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Cannonball With Hat View Drop Down
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Points: 1212 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cannonball With Hat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Jan 2014 at 11:12pm
Weather Report is certainly near the top of my jazz enjoyment scale. I love the first four albums, especially. And even in their mid to later years, when the studio albums became to glossy for me, the live stuff still continued to be full of fun, interesting, and energetic musical moments. That said, I do have a little bit of a soft spot for Mr. Gone even though most people seem to dislike it.
 
Top 5:
I Sing The Body Electric
Live In Offenbach '78
Mysterious Traveler
Weather Report
Live & Unreleased
Hit it on Five.

Saxophone Scatterbrain Blitzberg

Stab them in the ears.
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wideopenears View Drop Down
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Points: 27 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote wideopenears Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Feb 2014 at 2:01pm
My favorite band ever.  I have all their official recordings,  a bunch of vids, and several ROIO too....
 
Love all incarnations of this band, from the post-Miles freewheeling intensity of the early years, through the funk and Synth Big Band Jaco era, and into the World Fusionish later period with Victor and Omar.  I don't know that they "went commercial"--Heavy Weather was certainly the big seller, but all the subsequent releases seem less commercial to me.  In fact, I'm not sure Heavy Weather was a conscious stab at commerciality.....heck, even the later vocal features on Domino Theory, etc., were pretty "strange," I think.
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FromArmstrongtoZappa View Drop Down
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Points: 63 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FromArmstrongtoZappa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Feb 2014 at 11:12am
There was a guitarist who I worked with in the early 80's who turned me on to Weather Report; it was at the time of Heavy Weather.  I purchased the lp, and also the first one.  I still have both of them, along with Jaco's first one and Word of Mouth.
www.FromArmstrongtoZappa.blogspot.com
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Shrdlu View Drop Down
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By far my favorite WR albums are "Tale Spinnin'" and, second to that, "Black Market".

"Tale Spinnin'" is an absolute musical masterpiece, and is their only album with Alphonso Johnson on bass throughout. His funky sound gives a great groove.

(Although he was a virtuoso, Jaco was a bit of a pain and I never cared for him much. I saw him with WR in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1977, and he was acting the fool onstage, even going so far as to kick his amplifier over. Not for me, thanks.)

"River People", from the "Mr Gone" album, is a good bit of progressive house if you loop it after the two-minute intro. (I am also a house DJ.) I mentioned it to the progressive house remixer, Jimpster, and he agreed.
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Points: 35494 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote js Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2014 at 8:39am
Welcome to the site Shrdlu, and I have to agree, the Alphonso version of WR was WR at their peak, possibly the fusion genre at its peak.
Speaking of unexpected loops, the first couple bars of the live version of ELP playing "Hoedown" from their big 3 LP live set makes for an excellent loop. The beat is similar to Funky Drummer and there is this nice synth glissando too.
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Shrdlu View Drop Down
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Thanks for the welcome!

When I went to see WR in Ottawa, I was interested to see how Joe Zawinul coped with all the keyboards. Obviously, there was a lot of overdubbing when the albums were recorded, but when they were live, Joe was able to produce the same multitude of sounds. No doubt he used recorded passages on some of his equipment.
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js View Drop Down
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Points: 35494 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote js Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31 Jul 2014 at 3:49pm
I saw WR twice, once with Alphonso and later with Jaco. I'm pretty sure at both concerts, Joe was playing everything live. The songs didn't sound exactly like the record, but I didn't really expect them to, but most of the melodic lines were there, and pretty close to the sound of the album. No easy trick when he was using a couple of analog Arp Odysseys, a difficult keyboard to keep under control.
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Points: 32 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ProgMetaller2112 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Sep 2014 at 7:23pm
Jaco was in this band, right?
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Points: 35494 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote js Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11 Sep 2014 at 8:10pm
He was in the band the second time I saw them.
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Points: 1966 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote darkshade Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Sep 2014 at 6:43pm
Jaco joined around the time of Black Market. I think he was on one or two tracks for BM, and was the full time bassist by Heavy Weather.
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ProgMetaller2112 View Drop Down
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Originally posted by darkshade darkshade wrote:

Jaco joined around the time of Black Market. I think he was on one or two tracks for BM, and was the full time bassist by Heavy Weather.

OK. Thanks Smile
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I love Night Passage and Heavy Weather so much! I love all the trade-offs between Zawinul, Jaco, and Shorter for sure.
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I`ve heard of the band but heard nothing of them so if could point me in the right starting point...
music is life, life is music
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js View Drop Down
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Points: 35494 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote js Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 May 2015 at 1:43pm
Here is our site page for them, you can hear songs and check out reviews etc.
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Cannonball With Hat View Drop Down
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Points: 1212 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cannonball With Hat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 May 2015 at 6:17pm
Originally posted by geekfreak geekfreak wrote:

I`ve heard of the band but heard nothing of them so if could point me in the right starting point...
 
I prefer the early stuff...so I recommend I Sing The Body Electric & Mysterious Traveler. These are much more 'traditional' 60/70s jazz-rock. If you'd prefer slicker 'cleaner' sound & music, Black Market & Heavy Weather are good too.
 
They were also good live, at any stage in their career...Live In Tokyo & Live In Offenbach are perhaps my favorites in that regard.
 
 
Hit it on Five.

Saxophone Scatterbrain Blitzberg

Stab them in the ears.
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