7 November 2008

Weather Report and "friends" - Berlin 1971

JThe appearance of a Weather Report recording here may raise some highbrows amongst the more serious-minded of you. I also think that the later WR stuff, after they became successful, left much to be desired, but this early recording, I think, is really special because of the artists guesting on it. If you've enjoyed the recent Surman postings, you'll like this. (and Skids is not bad either !) Details: Weather Report Funkausstellung, Berlin, 3 Sep 1971 Weather Report: Joe Zawinul, piano & electric piano Wayne Shorter, tenor & soprano sax Miroslav Vitous, bass Alphonse Mouzon, drums Dom Um Romao, percussion & flute with Eje Thelin, trombone Alan Skidmore, tenor sax & flute John Surman, bass clarinet, soprano & baritone sax CD1 (65:31): 01 - I Will Tell Him On You / Early Minor / Firefish / Early Minor 24:16 02 - Sunrise 15:29 03 - Moto Grosso Feio 13:45 04 - Directions 12:00 CD2 (47:11): 05 - Morning Lake / Waterfall 9:22 06 - Umbrellas 6:48 07 - Orange Lady 10:58 08 - Dr Honoris Causa 15:39 09 - Eurydice (incomplete) 4:22 NDR Radio Broadcast I think all the tunes are WR's, I'm not familiar with all their repertoire. The distinctive WR sound is still there, but much freer than their later recordings. I would be interested to now how Surman, Thelin and Skidmore came to play this gig, and whether it was a one-off or repeated. Surman went on to play in a quartet led by Vitous some years later. I found this some time ago on a torrent (not dime). It's only ripped at a fairly modest 192kbps. Perhaps, as it comes from a radio show, it was broadcast at 192 digital and this is as good as it gets. If anyone has a genuine higher bit rate copy, please feel free to post it, but to my ears this sounds pretty good.

13 comments:

Boromir said...

MP3 @ 192 kbps

http://rapidshare.com/files/161446127/WRBerlin.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/161454259/WRBerlin.part2.rar

Wallofsound said...

This is a fascinating recording. Thanks for sharing. I have not heard this before, and wasn't fully aware of such a direct connection between WR and Surman and Skidmore. JS has cited WR as an influence, but I don't recall a mention of playing with them.

Some part of this radio recording seem to have been released on the Jazz Workshop '71 LP NDR065496351 in Germany. The Suram discography at http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8f4kf/surman.htm suggests Surman is only on Sunrise. I'll give the whole concert a listen to find out if this is the case.

Anonymous said...

wow!

thanks alot for this recording. i haven't even listened to it all yet, but it is very captivating. early WR did a very interesting floaty and aggressive style that they lost later. the idea of adding other players to the mix is going to show alot about how they worked.

this site rocks!

andy

Anonymous said...

Boromir:
If one can't be "serious minded" and enjoy ANY type of music then one could be charged with elitism.
That said, this post is a fine companion to the sublime Live In Japan CBS/Sony from approximately the same period.
Zawinul/Shorter subsequently chose a less exploratory method of music-making, our loss!!

SOTISE said...

thanks for this .. a great show, sounds good too for 192 lame.
a pity the "guests'dont appear on more tracks.

Thad said...

This exists as a bootleg DVD, as well. Someone put some examples up on YouTube. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVfOMy_vBbI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BGn7olcJQo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfh36yldmvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EHsZdPkU8c

I'll second the recommendation for "Live in Japan". It's even more aggressive that the performances here. Eric Gravatt does some amazing work - you can hear excerpts on the second half of "I Sing the Body Electric".

sasha said...

Many thanks for this one!! Have never felt particularly drawn to the Shorter/Zawinul stuff before..I've always found myself more taken with Herbie's Mwandishi explorations from this period..Am interested to see if this recording changes my opinion.

wightdj said...

Yeah, that was the most adventurous version of Weather Report. Very nice surprise. Thanks.

fritz the cat said...

The 'more serious-minded' amongst us should take their raised eyebrows and shove them where the sun don't shine.

I hate musical elitism.

Anonymous said...

id love to see this here again.
also, ive been tryng to track down a copy of the dvd with 0 luck. this set kills.

Anonymous said...

WOW. I NEED THIS SO BAD!
WOULD ANYONE BE ABLE TO RE-UP THIS RARE, BUT IMPORTANT SET?

THANK YOU!

David said...

Possible to repost please? Thanks!

Ernst Grgo Nebhuth said...

This recording will be reissued by GAD on 2 x CD (complete concert) and as 2 x LP (in three variants: black and two different colours).
https://kultowenagrania.pl/product/weather-report-live-in-berlin-1971-2cd/
Date of release October 27, 2023 - pre-order is possible as of now.