Sweetnighter

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Sweetnighter
Weather Report studio album

Publication
(s)

1973

Label (s) Columbia Records

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Jazz rock

Title (number)

6th

running time

44:41

occupation
  • Drums : Herschel Dwellingham, Eric Gravatt
  • Percussion: Muruga Booker

production

Shoviza Productions

Studio (s)

New Haven (Connecticut)

chronology
Live in Tokyo
(1972) 		Sweetnighter Mysterious Traveler
(1974)
Single release
1973 Boogie Woogie Waltz (Edited Version) / Adios

Sweetnighter is Weather Report's third studio album . The album reached number 2 on the Billboard Jazz Charts in 1973 ; After its publication, the formation was voted "Jazz Group of the Year" in the Down Beat readers' poll .

History of origin

In early 1973 the band Weather Report had artistic success, but the commercial breakthrough failed to materialize. The band's concerts were - depending on the form of the day - either outstanding or fizzled out despite the interesting sounds, since the band's pieces had previously served more as a vehicle for collective improvisations. So it was decided to turn the band more into a commercial direction. Joe Zawinul suggested using pieces that emphasized funk and groove as a basis for the next album .

Wayne Shorter and Miroslav Vitouš were apparently ready to allow such a change. Zawinul therefore had a great influence on Sweetnighter . He wrote half of the pieces and also arranged pieces by Shorter. Zawinul brought in other musicians for the record, such as drummer Herschel Dwellingham and multi-instrumentalist Andrew White, who had a fun-oriented bass in both Fifth Dimension and Stevie Wonder . The album, which was named after a Wayne Shorter composition, was recorded with changing line-ups (from quintet to octet ) between February 3 and 7, 1973 by Phil Giambalvo in the Connecticut Recording Studio in New Haven.

With his contributions, Zawinul began to steer Weather Reports music from collective improvisation to structured compositions with an emphasis on rhythm, groove and funk. In interviews Zawinul said later that he had with the pieces "125th Street Congress" and "Boogie Woogie Waltz" the hip-hop - Beat invented. In addition to these two tracks, Sweetnighter also contains tracks that are more reminiscent of the previous albums.

reception

In the down beat, Sweetnighter was seen as so central that it was discussed several times in the same issue. Joe Klee, who gave the album the highest rating (five stars), stated that Weather Report was not the first band with multiple percussionists, but the most successful. The team Grávátt, Dwellingham, Romão, Muruga produce more than polyrhythms : they play percussion with the same intensity and freshness that Shorter produces on his horns, Zawinul on his keyboards and Vitouš on the bass. On the other hand, Will Smith only gave Sweetnighter three stars and said that the album, similar to its two predecessors, was nice, but not really convincing. Despite the groove, the band doesn't bring enough.

Richard S. Ginell rates the album 4.5 out of 5 stars on Allmusic and writes "The disappearance of the loose ensemble interaction is more than offset by the increase in rhythmic pressure". On sputnikmusic.com, Hernan M. Campbell rates Sweetnighter with 4.5 out of 5 points as "superb" and sums up his review with "Sweetnighter leaves all the avant-garde tendencies of its predecessors behind and focuses on more jubilant music".

The critics Richard Cook and Brian Morton , who rated the album with the second highest rating of 3½ stars in The Penguin Guide to Jazz , described Sweetnighter as a work of "consolidation" and highlighted the Boogie Woogie Waltz , who (before release von Birdland 1977) was the most accessible composition of the band, as well as the more exposed aspect of the post-production , which mainly concerns "the juicy reverberation of the keyboards and the percussion". This brought the group sound on a more solid basis and was responsible for the fact that from now on the best productions of the band reach the studio. Boogie Woogie Waltz and 125th Street Congress apparently emerged from jam sessions , creating a hypnotic feeling; Miroslav Vitouš ' Will is a particularly beautiful composition that revolves around Zawinul's piano licks .

Track list

  1. Boogie Woogie Waltz (J. Zawinul) - 13:06
  2. Manolete (W. Shorter) - 5:58
  3. Adios (J. Zawinul) - 3:02
  4. 125th Street Congress (J. Zawinul) - 12:16
  5. Will (M. Vitouš) - 6:22
  6. Non-Stop Home (W. Shorter) - 3:53

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.discogs.com/Weather-Report-Boogie-Woogie-Waltz-Edited-Version/master/394425
  2. ↑ a b c d Sweetnighter | The Weather Report Annotated Discography (English)
  3. ↑ Michele Mercer Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter Penguin 2007
  4. ↑ Stuart Nicholson Jazz Rock. A History Schirmer, New York 1998, p. 169
  5. ↑ Michele Mercer Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter Penguin 2007
  6. ↑ Reviews of Sweetnighter on the baby blue pages
  7. ↑ Joe Zawinul: " I invented the hip hop beat! " - laut.de - Interview
  8. ↑ Sweetnighter at Allmusic (English)
  9. ↑ Review on sputnikmusic.com (English)
  10. ^ Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD . 6th edition. Penguin, London 2002, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 , p. 1528.

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b Zawinul began to assert greater control of the band, steering it away from the collective improvisation that marked its live performances toward more structured compositions emphasizing funk and groove. This was exemplified by the album's two dominant tracks, “Boogie Woogie Waltz” and “125th Street Congress,” as well as the closer, “Non-Stop Home.” Other tracks were reminiscent of Weather Report's previous albums, making Sweetnighter a transition from the band's first phase to what one might call its mature phase. ( Sweetnighter | The Weather Report Annotated Discography)
  2. ↑ Miroslav Vitous summed it up this way: “Improvisation was the mark of the band, but Joe Zawinul wanted to get more commercial, in a sense. It's a questions of money in the US, and what the music business is doing to music. The band had to change - it was in a bad financial situation. It moved into a steady rhythm section, black funk type of thing. " (Glasser, Brian, In A Silent Way , Sanctuary Publishing Limited, 2001., quoted on Sweetnighter | The Weather Report Annotated Discography)
  3. ↑ The wane of freewheeling ensemble interplay is more than offset by the big increase in rhythmic push
  4. ↑ Sweetnighter leaves behind all of the avant-garde tendencies of its predecessors, and focuses on a more jubilant musical environment.

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