Weather Report - Forecast: Tomorrow '2006

Tracks list

In an era when box sets are so plentiful and are basically de rigueur for any
major, and some not so major labels, its virtually a wonder that a Weather
Report box set didnt appear until the 21st century. Things take as long as they
must, evidently, and Legacy has done an outstanding job with this set.
Consisting of three CDs and a DVD of a phenomenal live concert from 1978 (with
Jaco Pastorius and Peter Erskine on the Heavy Weather tour), this document
considers every aspect of the bands career carefully and thoughtfully. It
actually commences on disc one with some of Wayne Shorters and Joe Zawinuls
pre-Weather Report ensembles, beginning with their joint membership in Miles
Davis band during the Bitches Brew era with In a Silent Way. Zawinul composed
it; he and Shorter both played on it. This short version of the tune was
recorded by Davis, but according to Hal Millers fantastic liner notes (there
should be a Grammy nomination for these), Zawinul never gave Miles the intro for
the tune, just the one-chord vamp; his own version is very different. Also here
is Shorters Super Nova, from his Blue Note record of the same name, along with
an excerpt of Zawinuls Experience in E with the Cannonball Adderley band (from
Adderleys Domination). The reason? Both men embraced concepts and tropes that
became part of the Weather Reports method of working.

The actual Weather Report tunes begin with Milky Way, from their debut album,
and continue with four more from that album, including the full version of
Eurydice. Weather Report was a free and progressive band which took its
composers frameworks and built floating, drifting, melding, sparkings of ideas
into them; members at this point also included bassist Miroslav Vitous,
percussionist Airto Moreira, and drummer Alphonse Mouzon. The bands sound got
bigger and stranger on the classic I Sing the Body Electric disc from 1971.
Moreira was in transition and Eric Gravatt entered the drum chair as Dom Um
Romão became the bands percussionist. There is one of two unreleased cuts
from these years: a different version of Zawinuls Directions with sparks
aplenty. The real emergence of a new Weather Report sound began in 1973 with the
underrated and classic Sweetnighter. While only 125th Street Congress is
included to round out the first disc, it is a mighty one, clocking in at over 12
minutes and showcasing for the first time the kind of deep funky groove the band
was capable of; the song included not only Vitous, but also electric bassist
Andrew White, who played English horn on Unknown Soldier on their previous
album. This is the point where the bass-heavy groove began to dominate the bands
sound, and rhythmic groove became the centerpiece not only for improvisation,
but composition as well.

Disc two kicks off with an unreleased live version of Nubian Sundance from 1974,
with electric bassist (Vitous had left by this point in time for a solo career)
Alphonso Johnson whod also played on Tale Spinnin. Pastorius made his first
appearance with the band on Black Market and thereafter Weather Report became a
different unit. The music became more progressive, funky, and complex, where the
groove was decorated with all kinds of syncopated keyboard and saxophone charts,
and Pastorius became the centerpiece of the bands sound, and its third composer.
(His loss is clearly felt on Procession and Domino Theory, with Victor Bailey
replacing him.) This sound becomes paradoxically more and more idiosyncratic and
complicated. All the predictable selections are here, from Birdland, Three Views
of a Secret, Palladium, Pursuit of the Woman in the Feathered Red Hat, Dream
Clock, and Dara Factor Two from the subsequent studio albums, by which time the
trio of Zawinul, Pastorius, and Shorter was aided and abetted alternately by
drummers Peter Erskine and Omar Hakim, and percussionists Bobby Thomas, Jr.,
Mino Cinelu, and Jose Rossy, among others, and there are some live cuts from the
8:30 album, including the stunning The Orphan, where Shorter and Zawinul played
with the West Los Angeles Christian Academy Childrens Choir. There is also a DJ
Logic remix of 125th Street Congress, perhaps to illustrate how the bands sound
has remained current after all this time. The DVD from the Heavy Weather tour
with Pastorius and Erskine is simply outstanding, whether watched or listened
to, it is a document that fans and collectors live for; there have been some
dodgy boots of the music out there, but nothing matches this sound quality. All
assembled, this is a fitting box set that represents a seminal part of jazz and
pop/rock history. The only gripes are that some more of the unedited material
from Live in Tokyo (the stuff that didnt make it to the flip of I Sing the Body
Electric) isnt here, since the album was never issued in the United States, and
there isnt more unreleased material. But in sum, this is perhaps really a teaser
to induce listeners to dig into the bands catalog. It serves not only as a
fitting introduction to Weather Report, but also as a definitive will and
testament to a band that was both a critical and popular success for over a
decade.

Tracks:

CD1
 1. In a Silent Way - 4:18
 2. Super Nova - 4:51
 3. Experience in E [excerpt] - 5:44
 4. Milky Way - 2:32
 5. Tears - 3:24
 6. Eurydice [full version] - 10:46
 7. Orange Lady - 8:42
 8. Unknown Soldier - 7:59
 9. Directions [take 1, previously unreleased] - 5:31
 10. Surucucu - 8:19
 11. Second Sunday in August - 4:12
 12. 125th Street Congress - 12:14

CD2
 1. Nubian Sundance [live/ previously unreleased] - 13:07
 2. Blackthorn Rose - 5:00
 3. Badia - 5:22
 4. Cannon Ball - 4:38
 5. Black Market - 6:33
 6. Three Clowns - 3:24
 7. Havona - 6:02
 8. Birdland - 5:58
 9. Palladium - 4:48
 10. The Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat - 5:03
 11. The Orphan - 3:17
 12. Sightseeing - 5:35

CD3
 1. Dream Clock - 6:29
 2. Three Views of a Secret - 5:54
 3. Port of Entry [live] - 5:08
 4. Dara Factor Two - 4:27
 5. Procession - 8:42
 6. Plaza Real - 5:31
 7. The Well - 3:58
 8. D-Flat Waltz - 11:12
 9. Domino Theory - 6:10
 10. Predator - 5:20
 11. Face on the Barroom Floor - 3:59
 12. Indiscretions - 4:08
 13. 125th Street Congress [DJ Logic Remix] - 5:03

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