Music of Weather Report is an exciting record, not just for the rejigged familiar pieces from the original band Weather Report, which Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous formed with dynamic keyboards visionary Joe Zawinul in 1970. It is exciting too because there are three new tunes from Vitous himself and the hitherto unreleased track, Juggler’s Issue.
Through a few line-up changes here and there - they were protean in every sense of the word - Weather Report were sly giants of musical intelligence and vaunted greatness who charmed audiences in the USA, Europe (and Japan too) 40 years ago. Their kind of wandering fusion caught something in the psychotropic 1970s air and ran with it through a series of boldly-executed, supple-sounding albums.
Look at them live in their heyday on YouTube, cool as feck, shadowy professionals who didn’t do showbiz. Rather, they pace their entries and exits with careful grace and imaginative hauteur. It was about fun but it was kind of lofty too and the guiding principle of the band was as follows: “Everyone solos and no one solos.”
Weather Report had Wayne Shorter on sax and Miroslav Vitous on bass. (The self-destructive genius Jaco Pastorious replaced Alphonso Johnson who had in his turn replaced Vitous.) They had at some time or other Airto Moreira on percussion and Peter Erskine on drums. Erskine is happily still with us and about to release an album through ECM. Both Zawinul and Pastorious, who was a driven wizard of the fretboard, have sadly passed on to the great gig in the sky.
The late Joe Zawinul in 2002
On this new record, Weather Report pieces such as Seventh Arrow, Scarlet Woman, Pinocchio and Morning Lake are updated with a wildly energetic determination to do something different.
Making up the bass legend's lively and committed team are sax-players Gary Campbell and Robert Bonisolo, drummers Gerald Cleaver and Nasheet Waits and Turkish keyboards maestro Aydin Esen.
It’s not just about a fresh lick of paint for the old rooms - these guys have scraped off the plaster and bored holes in the infrastructure. Listen to what they do with Birdland, taking some of the vintage street funk jauntiness out of it. They repeat and splice the signature riff like a theme, make it light and airy, deliberately slow it down almost po-faced, and then, for good measure, inject a bit of dark undertow. They turn it verily into a glittering 21st century artifact.
Listen to Scarlet Woman and dig those bubble-gummy pitch bends on the keyboards. Listen to the reprise Scarlet Reflections and Vitous’ own vibrantly murky work-out Multi Dimension Blues 3. Bask in the delicate, film-like finish of Morning Lake. Through the guts of an hour, Music of Weather Report is essential listening.
Paddy Kehoe
