MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER

[Joe Garage]

The Mysterious Traveller is one of my favourite Weather Report albums! Alphonso Johnson is a great bass player and he got such an awesome sound!

Anybody else like this album?

[JimK]

I imagine every fan of the band likes that album!

...it's transitional, too.
Miroslav was getting the boot as AJ was coming aboard.
(Notice how Vitous is barely on the cover?).

[narud]

if you havent already, the japanese mastersound is worth checking out. it has a bonus track called "miroslav's tune". its pretty interesting.

but, yeah. this is one of my favorite wr albums. im a pretty big weather report geek as i have all the studio releases and about 20 cd's worth of boots. i just got done yesterday transcribing shorter's lusitanos off of tale spinin' yesterday to play with my group. there's some cool stuff going on in that tune.

these are my fav wr discs-
sweetnighter
mysterious traveller
tale spinin
black market
night passage
sportin life

if you're a fan of johnson's work, you should check out his message board. ive asked him some questions about his era of wr and he had some interesting insights.

[bassbrad]

Mysterious Traveller, Tale Spinnin and Black Market are my favorites of all the WR albums and I really enjoy the AJ tracks on Live and Unreleased as well. Between the Thighs and Cucumber Slumber are 2 of the coolest tunes ever mainly due to AJ's bass.

[Passinwind]

Originally Posted by bassbrad

Mysterious Traveller, Tale Spinnin and Black Market are my favorites of all the WR albums and I really enjoy the AJ tracks on Live and Unreleased as well. Between the Thighs and Cucumber Slumber are 2 of the coolest tunes ever mainly due to AJ's bass.

+1

Nothing much to add, except that I've enjoyed seeing Alphonso with Cobham/Duke, Santana, and Bob Weir quite a bit too.

[Joe Garage]

Thanks for your suggestions! I must check out Tale Spinnin and Black Market.

[DaveBeny]

Dare I say that I like the Miroslav / Alphonso periods more than the Jaco and Victor bands?

I have some video of WR when it was Zawinul/Shorter/Vitous/Mouzon/Um Ramao and they are great! Playing in a looser 'Bitches Brew' vein than the later more tightly arranged groups.

I also video of the same lineup playing 'Dr Honoris Causa' in Germany with the great British saxophonists John Surman and Alan Skidmore joining in - great stuff. Mouzon's negative remarks about Surman and Skidmore contributed to his leaving WR.

[jivetkr]

cucumber slumber is one of my favorite WR tunes.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by David Benyahia

Dare I say that I like the Miroslav / Alphonso periods more than the Jaco and Victor bands?

I pretty much agree.
More Wayne with the pre-Jaco/Victor versions.
Too bad Ndugu Chancler only lasted the one record(Tale Spinning)...hearing Gregg Errico on cans with WR woulda been interesting, too.

[jerry]

Mysterious Traveller was also one of the first jazz albums that used the studio to full effect....kinda like Steely Dan did in later years. Probably my favorite WR album....as much as I love Jaco, My favorite WR albums are the ones with Alphonso on them.