Weather Report

To me, everything after Jaco is overrated, too slick and overproduced, not really his fault, but I definitely Like the more Avant Garde style of the first few albums, to me, Live in Tokyo is the Peak of this band, from then on they got to formulaic and the World Fusion burned out quick. So my Vote is slightly overrated, Also for what it's worth, apparently Shorter was pushed to the back quite a bit from Black Market on. Though even his solo stuff after  W.R. disbanded, isn't all that great either. I happen to think the band Caldera from that same time period does a much better job with the style W.R. was shooting for.


Edited by darkprinceofjazz - 25 Dec 2011 at 5:10pm

I didn't vote, but I've seen that band several times. My favorite was the version with Alphonso on bass and the extra percussion, I also liked the original version of the band. Later versions of the band seemed to not have the same inspiration.

js wrote: I didn't vote, but I've seen that band several times. My favorite was the version with Alphonso on bass and the extra percussion, I also liked the original version of the band. Later versions of the band seemed to not have the same inspiration.

I agree with you, take Heavy Weather for an example, the chart busting single "Bird Land" I like that track, it's well composed and has a spontaneous feel, but the rest of the album is just so bland by comparison, a few good tracks, some of it borders on "light jazz"  They were selling a lot of record for a jazz artist during that period, so there was a big market for it, so I can't blame Zawinul and Shorter at all, considering their Legacy's were already etched in stone, It probably isn't fair to say underrated or overrated for the entire band, I think Time periods is more appropriate, pre Jaco post Jaco is probably a better way to state it, When you think of the self titled debut and I sing the Body Electric along with Live in Tokyo, Thats a whole different sounding band. then gradually things began to change, I still liked Sweetnighter and Mysterious Traveler, Tail Spinning showed what was to come to a greater degree, but I still liked it. Black market rolls around, and it was like the fire went out, the synths became almost completely dominate and the world music seemed watered down or generic to me, and pretty much it just stayed the same after Heavy Weather. it also didn't help that Shorter almost completely abandoned the tenor sax as well.

Overrated? Jaco's-period? After Jaco?

I'll agree with everyone. Weather Report, even though a really good band, is a bit over rated. They're grat musicians all in all and they make good music but there is better.

Ohhh! Well, everyone as got his opinion and I'm sure you can defend it very well.

I dunno. The albums, sure. And like you said, it's that slick, over-processed sound that does it. Even though it's not smooth jazz, it sounds like it is.