Joe Zawinul, Weather Report, Weather Update & Zawinul Syndicate ...

Agree that all of those lineups were great, not only the Jaco period.

That said, though, Montreaux 1976 (with Jaco) has long been one of my top few concert videos of all time.

 

Like Joe Z...a lot. One of my favourite all-time musicians. Eclectic to say the least.
Sometimes, though, WR became the Joe/Jaco show...rendering Wayne Shorter into almost a non-member.
Sometimes, the synth sounds were crap. Hated the cheesiness of them back then...now they almost make the music unlistenable.
YMMV.

 

The Jaco movie sheds a lot of light on the Joe/Jaco relationship. Joe really dissed Jaco towards the end. But I have a deep respect for what Joe achieved over the years. And I love to hear him talk

 

One of my favorite musicians of all time, my favorite version of Weather Report was with Alphonso. In 1974 when everybody else were listening to Dark Side Of The Moon album as their favorite headphone album I was loving Mystrious Traveler as my headphones album. In my top five of best albums ever!

 

I agree that the Alphonso period of WR is underrated. Take Spinnin' is a terrific record. I also really like Sweetnghter, which is the last album Miroslav Vitous played on. And there was a Japanese release of the entire show that was excerpted on one side of I Sing The Body Electric that is well worth finding.

 

I still have the issues of Downbeat's 1-Star review of Mr. Gone & the band's rebuttal (mostly Joe/Jaco)-
Found this-
Mr. Gone | The Weather Report Annotated Discography

 

Miroslav has 1 track on Mysterious Traveler…and 1/2 a photo.

 

I have a live CD of the Zawinul Syndicate, with (IRRC) Lindley Marte (sp?) on bass. Great stuff.

 

some of the stuff with richard bona and paco sery is at a completely different level of amazing

 

It's a shame this music has all but disappeared. Really nothing coming out in the last few years in the Jazz Fusion genre. I think the legends (Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, Stanley Clark) still release stuff, but no new acts coming out in the Jazz Fusion genre. At least not in the USA.

 

Fusion does still exist and may be going through a rebirth. It's not really like Zawinul, but I saw CHON recently. Their latest release is about a week old and is still guitar-heavy but sounds pretty fusion to me:
Homey - YouTube

Interesting thing is the young crowd likes it. Moshing and all that. Seemed odd but I ignored it and listened to the show. Only gripe was the bass was too low in the mix live, the guy is pretty good. The guitars crush it though. and the drummer was amazing.

Polyphia is also worth a listen:

 

Thanks, Jim. That's excellent stuff. I'm with Joe, all the way - from the link,

"Man, I am a pop musician and a jazz musician. I think jazz is great because it is the music with the most spark, the most freshness. I think jazz is the pop music of the future."
Joe Zawinul

​

That's the way it is

 

Gotta admit, I LOL'd hard at this line: "Manolo Badrena was let go for non-musical reasons"

You could take that so many ways...

 

I liked his early work with Cannonball Adderley. There are a few black and white concert videos from the '60's on YouTube. Great stuff, including the original version of 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy', which was written by Joe.

 

Some of my favorite Joe stuff is with Trilok Gurtu.

 

...and the early Syndicate albums had Gerald Veasley on bass.

 

Check out Jimmy Herring (who's resume includes Lenny White, Jazz is Dead, and Widespread Panic), Alex Masacheck (? spelling), jam band Garaj Mahal (with Kai Eckhardt and Fareed Haque), Flying Lotus has been working with Herbie Hancock, even Squarepusher has more than a little fusion hidden under his hood.

Also along those same lines is Animals as Leaders. Tosin Abasi uses that Zawinul root-perfect fifth-Major sixth chord voicing all over the place. Plus so much of his slapping and 2 handed tapping style come almost directly from bassists.

C/S,
Rev J