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Weather Report - The Columbia Albums 1976-1982


mjzee

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20 hours ago, JSngry said:

Here, it's a word that is used by some people who don't want to take responsibility for their own bad behavior,

Kinda like these guys:

lil-ghosts.png

Very good explanation. I was afraid it would be perhaps the same. Is that Family Circus? The cartoon is very good. Ah, now I see it's actually Family Circus.

Edited by Bluesnik
Explanation for Family Circus added
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  • 1 month later...

They understood each other. I don't know if "like" really enters into it, I mean, you want to like the family nest door. Getting into this type of band for this long (long enough to survive the whole Jaco thing in one piece), I think "liking" each other was, like, something that had already happened, long before the band even formed.

At some point, they went their own ways, but damn, it took a while. Joe talks about it in his autobiography. Michelle Mercer talks about it in her Wayne bio (and that one did an autobiography and the other had a biography written, says something about the quality of each's personality, imo). Joe was always going to be the hyper Type A, Wayne the hyper Type-C. And if it's insight that you're looking for, both books should be read, imo. Joe's is as blunt as Wayne's is elusive. No surprise there!

The only WR album that sounds like they're both not in there is the very last one, and probably because...they weren't. Still got a damn good cover of "What's Going On?" out of the deal, though. Helluva band all the way through. Even ifthe post-Jaco editions got a little (or more, at times) self-referencing, they never coasted, especially live. And if you didn't see them live...they were a monster live. "Volcano For Hire" indeed!

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I actually put them on in concert once.  I was the head of the jazz concert commission at my college, and we booked them for November 1975.  I think we got them on the tail end of a European tour.  The current album was Tale Spinnin'.  Alphonso Johnson on bass, Daryl Brown on drums, and a percussionist (don't remember who).  Two shows; we charged $2.50 a ticket, in a room that held 700.  The first show was really good, but the second show...the walls were sweating, it was that hot.  I remember the contract called for a fresh fruit platter for Wayne, and (specifically) Courvoisier cognac for Joe.

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I caught that same band, only a year earlier, the Mysterious Traveler tour, Percussionist was Dom Um Romao.

My first time, far from my last. Eight times total, iirc. Not a dud in the bunch, all of them memorable, especially one with Jaco & the "power quartet", where Jaco got just a little TOO cocky and started to get predatory about Wayne's stage space...my god, don't be fooled by all that humbleselfeffacingdisappearing nonsense about Wayne. Jaco poked the bear, and the bear ROARED back. All through music, though, and not a whole lot of eye contact.

Joe and Wayne...different personalities altogether, and they each had egos (probably manifested in totally different ways), but..."like" is too basic for that duo, probably "love" is as well. Understanding, that's my view of it, and understanding up to the point of when to end it. No McCartney trying to plead to keep the band together type stuff here, at least not to my understanding.

All things considered, perhaps the ultimate/definitive 70s jazz band.

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So there are four WR albums left "unboxed": Procession, Domino Theory, Sportin' Life, and This Is This.  If they could come up with two discs of unreleased stuff or live concerts, there could be another boxed set here.  Alternately, maybe BGO could issue some twofers.

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17 hours ago, mjzee said:

So there are four WR albums left "unboxed": Procession, Domino Theory, Sportin' Life, and This Is This.  If they could come up with two discs of unreleased stuff or live concerts, there could be another boxed set here.  Alternately, maybe BGO could issue some twofers.

I bought this one when it came out late '17. It's a very good set, complete and sonically very nice.

51yyNgn9AWL.jpg

 

fye.000000400400602871_0.jpg

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And don't forget this key archival release:

81gyhZq3aHL._SL500_.jpg

IMO, it's right on par with the studio albums from the time -- and, in some regards, even more impressive.  Listening to it prompted me to re-consider my opinion of the late-70s and early-80s version of the band.  I used to be an "early Weather Report is best" sort of listener.  Not so much anymore. 

 

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21 minutes ago, jazzbo said:

I bought this one when it came out late '17. It's a very good set, complete and sonically very nice.

51yyNgn9AWL.jpg

 

fye.000000400400602871_0.jpg

Wow, I could have saved a lot of time and gotten born 30 or so years later and not missed a thing!

Who knew?

But seriously, for those who were, damn, that's pretty much everything that's so far "official"...but I keep thinking that thee's one cut from berlin 1971 that made it on to an MPS record...am I imagining that? I know there's boots of the entire gig, but one cut on MPS? Yes? No?

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I don't know anything about that, but if it was one cut on MPS I wouldn't expect it to be on a Columbia disc. 

I've chased this catalog since the 'seventies and have most of the LPs still. . .on cd I had some that sounded good, some that didn't, so with this complete set they all share the same mastering "style" and they all sound good.

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4 minutes ago, JSngry said:

No, certainly wouldn't expect it to be on Columbia. OCD-ish completists-collectorivists need to be aware, though, just for friends to be friends!

Thing is, I don't know where I saw it, or even that I did...

Do you mean this?

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Ossiach-Live/release/799088

[W2529]
Ossiach Live : Wayne Shorter (sop) Joe Zawinul (p,el-p) Miroslav Vitous (b) Alphonse Mouzon (d) Dom Um Romao (perc)
     Live, Ossiach, Austria, June 25-July 5, 1971
Eurydice    BASF (G)4921119-3/1-3
Note:    Other titles by other leaders on this 3 LP set.

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Just now, Mark Stryker said:

Do you mean this?

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Ossiach-Live/release/799088

[W2529]
Ossiach Live : Wayne Shorter (sop) Joe Zawinul (p,el-p) Miroslav Vitous (b) Alphonse Mouzon (d) Dom Um Romao (perc)
     Live, Ossiach, Austria, June 25-July 5, 1971
Eurydice    BASF (G)4921119-3/1-3
Note:    Other titles by other leaders on this 3 LP set.

I do, yes!

Thinking MPs, because there for a while, MPS was released in the US by BASF, but this was not anything to do with any of that...

Still, yes, IT EXISTS!

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and not Berlin, Ossiach. Berlin was something else, obviously.

1 minute ago, Mark Stryker said:

The good news: You haven't totally lost your mind.

The bad news: Yes, you have. 

Glass either half-full or half-empty. Determining factor = how thirsty are you right now?

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The Berlin date is amazing and should be officially released, if only for the octet version of Moto Grosso Feio.

Where did the studio version of Directions that was on the Forecast Tomorrow Box set come from? I suspect there are a number of out-takes, including the Miroslav's Tune discussed above.

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12 hours ago, bertrand said:

The Berlin date is amazing and should be officially released, if only for the octet version of Moto Grosso Feio.

I love the 3 1971 live WR recordings I’ve heard - Vienna, Ossiach and Berlin.  I agree Berlin is probably the best due to the extra horns.  Some great John Surman baritone on “Dr Honoris Causa”!

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