Being a weeklie podcaste from Madison, Wisconsin featuring several remarkable curiosities therein occurring being a compendium of live music from divers artistes
Show #137: Weather Report
September 26th, 2007
Joe Zawinul passed away earlier this month. At the time I noted that I should find some Weather Report to post here and that time has come.
(Photo found here.)
Zawinul was an Austrian born to a poor family. He took up the accordion at age six and attended the Vienna Conservatory. In 1958 he emigrated to the United States where he landed a gig with jazz great Maynard Ferguson. Within a couple years, he was was in Cannonball Adderley’s band and, before the decade was out, he was with Miles Davis helping pioneer jazz fusion on the seminal albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. Shortly after recording the latter album, Zawinul and Davis sax player Wayne Shorter founded Weather Report, a pioneering fusion band.
Honestly, I don’t know that much about fusion. If I were a better listener, I’d be able to blather on about Weather Report and its place in music history but I cannot. I’d love to be able to compare WR to, say, Mahavishnu Orchestra, but I don’t have much to say other than MO had John McLaughlin so there’s much more geetar. Instead I know what I like. And I also don’t know much about Zawinul but I do know that he composed “In a Silent Way” and “Pharoh’s Dance”. This plus his pioneering use of electronic keyboards makes him a legend.
(Photo found here.)
This week’s show is a bit on the short side and I apologize. It was the only pre-Jaco Weather Report recording of any quality that I’ve been able to get my grubby little hands on. Nothing against Jaco Pastorius but I can only handle his fretless bass gymnastics in smaller does and I do love me some Alphonso Johnson! Now, the notes that came with this recording date it as being from 7 January 1976 in Stockholm, Sweden but this WR tourography doesn’t show any gigs from January of that year. It does list the band as having played there on 24 November of the previous year. However, the notes also indicate that this recording is different from the tape of the November performance. A possible line-up includes Chester Thompson about a year out from joining the live Genesis:
Wayne Shorter – saxes
Josef Zawinul – keys
Alphonso Johnson – bass
Chester Thomson – drums
Alex Acuna – percussion
Setlist:
Freezing Fire
Lusitanos
In a Silent Way/Boogie Woogie Waltz
YouTube pulls through yet again. Here’s “Boogie Woogie Waltz” from 1975.
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