Weather Report

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Weather Report
1977: Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter
1977: Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter
General information
Genre (s) Jazz , fusion
founding 1970
resolution 1986
Founding members
Joe Zawinul
Wayne Shorter
Miroslav Vitouš (until 1973)
Alphonse Mouzon (until 1972)
Barbara Burton (until 1971)
Last occupation
Joe Zawinul
Wayne Shorter
Victor Bailey (since 1982)
Peter Erskine (1978–1982, since 1986)
Mino Cinelu (since 1984)
former members
Alphonso Johnson (1973-1975)
Jaco Pastorius (1975 to 1982)
Eric Gravatt (1972-1973)
Greg Errico (1973)
Narada Michael Walden (1975)
Chester Thompson (1975)
Leon Ndugu Chancler (1975)
Alex Acuña (1975-1978)
Omar Hakim (1982-1986)
Airto Moreira (1971)
Cathedral Um Romão (1971–1974)
Steve Muruga Booker (1972-1973)
Ishmael Wilburn (1973–1974)
Alyrio Lima (1974–1975)
Don Alias (1975)
Manolo Badrena (1976-1977)
Robert Thomas, Jr. (1980-1982)
Jose Rossy (1982-1984)
Joe Zawinul
Wayne Shorter
Jaco Pastorius
Weather Report 1980

Weather Report was one of the most artistically significant and commercially successful jazz and fusion bands in the 1970s and 1980s, and many musicians of various styles are based on them to this day.

The band was initially led jointly by Austrian-born keyboardist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter and Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš. Other prominent members at various points in the band's life were bassists Alphonso Johnson, Jaco Pastorius and Victor Bailey, and drummers / percussionists Peter Erskine, Alex Acuña, Airto Moreira and Chester Thompson. For most of its existence, the band was a quintet made up of keyboards, saxophone, bass, drums, and percussion.

The music journalist Josef Woodard described Weather Report in an article about the group in the US jazz magazine Down Beat in January 2001 as the "best jazz band of the last 30 years of the 20th century".

history

Early phase: 1970–1975

The founders and core of Weather Report in December 1970 were Joe Zawinul ( keyboard ) and Wayne Shorter ( saxophone ), who had known each other since 1959 and talked about forming a band together when they recorded Miles Davis ' In a Silent Way . Until 1973 the bassist Miroslav Vitouš was a member of the band; he was already involved in Zawinul's first solo album in 1970. In addition, were Alphonse Mouzon on drums and Airto Moreira involved. These musicians had all worked with Davis before and - together with percussionists Don Alias and Barbara Burton - continued the concept of In a Silent Way on the group's first album of the same name when they “rock in a musically very free, improvisational flow , Jazz and Latin grooves interwoven. "

The use of a drummer in conjunction with a percussionist promoted the dynamics and the playing of complex polyrhythms . Zawinul broke away from the old 32-bar system, broke with the theme-solo-theme scheme and introduced new forms.

During the first studio recordings the band was very experimental; A role model for the interaction was Attila Zoller's The Horizon Beyond . With the album Sweetnighter , the band oriented themselves towards clearer compositional structures, played more melodically and made their breakthrough on the mass market.

In 1973 Vitouš was replaced by bassist Alphonso Johnson , Vitouš was paid off as a former partner. A new drummer came for Mouzon almost every year over the next few years, until a permanent line-up was found in 1978 with Peter Erskine . The percussionists also changed with almost every new album, for example Alex Acuña , Manolo Badrena , Dom Um Romão .

High phase: 1976–1981 with Jaco Pastorius

With the arrival of Jaco Pastorius in 1976, who remained in the band until 1981, and his contributions as a composer and bass virtuoso, the band's worldwide success began. “The Jaco Years” ( a weather report compilation called The Jaco Years was also released in 1998 ) are considered the high phase of the group. On the albums Black Market (1976) and Heavy Weather (1977) "an artistic cohesion was found that was rarely heard on later albums."

The band had great commercial success with the songs composed by Zawinul Black Market (1976) and Birdland (1977).

Today's world music was played to some extent by Weather Report , and conversely, the band influenced African music. For example, the intro to Black Market was the signature tune on Radio Dakar in Senegal for more than 20 years . In particular, the album Black Market was very well received in Africa.

In 1978, when recording Mr. Gone , the drummer Peter Erskine joined the group, who harmonized better with Jaco Pastorius. The band did without a percussionist for the next two years. In 1979 Weather Report released the live album 8:30 as a quartet , which showed the band at a climax.

“Every band needs a driving force, a motor. And in this band Jaco was the engine. "

- Joe Zawinul

In 1980 the album Night Passage was released . In 1981, after the debut album, the second album entitled Weather Report was recorded. It was meant to be the end of the band. Both Shorter and Zawinul wanted to go their own way. The album was released in 1982.

In 1981, Weather Report had to cancel their tour because both Zawinul and Shorter wanted to take care of their dying mothers. They then had to pay over $ 100,000 in damages.

In 1981 Pastorius had recorded his second solo album Word of Mouth and then put together his big band Word of Mouth with Peter Erskine on drums; because concert dates were booked in 1982, Pastorius wanted Weather Report to pause as a live band in 1982. When the band was forced to go on tour in this situation, Zawinul took the opportunity to replace Pastorius, who had become increasingly unreliable due to alcohol problems. Erskine also left the band.

Late phase: 1982–1986

When the record company requested another album by contractual option in 1982, Omar Hakim and Victor Bailey were hired to replace Pastorius and Erskine to record the album Procession . Both stayed in the band for two years until the last concert in 1984.

After the albums Domino Theory (1984) and Sportin 'Life (1985) Zawinul and Shorter wanted to end the band for good. In 1986, however, an album was again requested from the record company by contractual option when the band no longer existed. The result was This is This with Carlos Santana as a guest musician. Shorter had already left the band, brought no composition and only played in three of eight tracks. The tour band that was supposed to support the album was already called Weather Update . Guitarist Steve Khan played instead of Shorter . This band already referred to the soon-to-be-formed Zawinul Syndicate .

Discography

Studio and live albums

  • 1971: Weather Report
  • 1972: I Sing the Body Electric
  • 1972: Live in Tokyo
  • 1973: Sweetnighter
  • 1974: Mysterious Traveler
  • 1975: Tale Spinnin '
  • 1976: Black Market
  • 1977: Heavy Weather (UK: silversilver)
  • 1978: Mr. Gone
  • 1979: 8:30
  • 1980: Night Passage
  • 1982: Weather Report
  • 1983: Procession
  • 1984: Domino Theory
  • 1985: Sportin 'Life
  • 1986: This Is This

After the band broke up

Quotes

“We fiddled around for a long time in my apartment in New York, as we can call it. It can't be our names. We do something that people know and that is somehow in the ear every day. 'News' or 'Daily News' - that doesn't sound good. And Wayne says: "Weather Report - that's it." "

- Joe Zawinul, 2007

"We wanted to play music that you hear every day - like the weather report - and that changes constantly - like the weather."

- Joe Zawinul, 1996

“The music of Weather Report evolved from relatively free experiments with electronic effects to fairly solid structures, with melodic riffs and difficult rhythms borrowed from Slavic and other folklore and smoothly adapted. Strikingly beautiful chord progressions reflected the globally scattered sound sources as if in a focus - that is to say: in Joe Zawinul's keyboard, where he saved various clips and reworked them into kaleidoscope songs. His outstanding talent for creating stylistically coherent syntheses from exotic grooves , melodies suitable for singing and typical jazz phrasing acted like a catapult for the success of Weather Report. "

- JazzZeitung, 2001

Publications

Web links

Commons : Weather Report  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Peter Niklas Wilson (ed.), Jazz Klassiker , Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-030030-4 , p. 545 f .: “With its enormously powerful groove, the multi-colored 'ethnic' percussion and the collective improvisations led by Shorter and Zawinul, alternating fast-paced or introverted, made Weather Report the most influential fusion band worldwide. "
  2. ↑ Josef Woodard Weather Report: Storm Surge , Down Beat, January 2001, pp. 22-28
  3. ↑ Zawinul, A Life in Jazz , p. 100
  4. ^ Zawinul, A Life in Jazz , p. 106
  5. ↑ See background on the creation of the first album (English)
  6. ↑ a b Wolf Kampmann (Ed.), With the assistance of Ekkehard Jost : Reclams Jazzlexikon . Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5 , p. 544.
  7. ↑ Zawinul commented on this in the liner notes of the first album: "We always solo, and we never solo"
  8. ↑ To Zawinul, their music sounded like a seascape, snowstorms and spring. "Your band sounds like a weather report," he said to Zoller. A few months later, he and Shorter called their band Weather Report . According to Géza Gábor Simon, immensely good. Attila Zoller. His life and his art. Budapest 2003, p. 83
  9. ^ Zawinul, A Life in Jazz , p. 115
  10. ↑ In: Gunther Baumann : Zawinul. A life of jazz. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg 2002, p. 129
  11. ↑ Wolf Kampmann (ed.), With the assistance of Ekkehard Jost: Reclams Jazzlexikon. Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-15-010528-5 , p. 545.
  12. ↑ Interview with Zawinul 2003 , "I lifted my own rhythm" , Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , September 11, 2007
  13. ↑ This is the art , Weltwoche , 2006, No. 12 (interview)
  14. ↑ Bill Milkowski: Jaco: The Extraordinary And Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius , Miller Freeman Books 1995, pp. 80-81
  15. ^ Zawinul, "A Life in Jazz", p. 144
  16. ↑ a b Zawinul, "A Life in Jazz", p. 144
  17. ↑ a b Zawinul, "A Life in Jazz", pp. 130-132
  18. ↑ [1]
  19. ↑ Zawinul, "A Life in Jazz", p. 149
  20. ↑ allmusic: Review by Richard S. Ginell
  21. ↑ musicianguide.com: Weather Report Biography
  22. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK
  23. ↑ "Keyboard king of jazz-rock. On the death of pianist and world musician Joe Zawinul ” , Deutschlandfunk , September 11, 2007, also as an mp3 file  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / ondemand-mp3.dradio.de
  24. ↑ “Interview” , Der Neue Tag, December 7, 1996
  25. ↑ "High Pressure Hits. Joe Zawinul in large format “ , JazzZeitung , 2001, No. 1