Abraxas In a Silent Way

After the musical exploration that Miles Davis with his ''electric bands'' had achieved, the members that formed these bands decided to explore even further for themselves. One of these seperate groups was Weather Report which featured the alliance between Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter.

From the three classic jazz fusion groups that triumphed in the 70's, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report and Return to Forever, Weather Report will always be the less recognised and loved by "rock" fans. The obvious reason is that Weather Report never had a guitarist and instead the leading instrument was the saxophone and different aural keyboards, and besides that, they actually never played jazz rock in the manner of Return to Forever and The Mahavishnu Orchestra which both headed mostly towards rock or funk and in a highly technical way(not that Weather Report weren't capable of pulling off technical music).

Weather Report instead of adventuring further the rock sensibilities that Bitches Brew and A Tribute to Jack Johnson had, they opted to explore further the jazz improvisation essence of those albums, the result being pretty much avant garde fusion similarly like Hancock's Mwandishi trilogy. The apex of this exploration was 1972's I Sing the Body Electric.

As for the debut, from 1971, the band clearly showed which path they had chosen and the result is very much in the vein of In a Silent Way by Miles Davis. Overall a pretty moody album with delicate saxophone notes and mysterious jazzy organ/electric piano bits. However, it's not a totally calm and ambient-esque sea, with Alphonse Mouzon and Miroslav Vitous on the rhythm section, there's some really energetic stuff going on, more akin to Davis' live performances from the time, just not as psychedelic. Also Zawinul's electrically modified Rhodes can be pretty wild, add to that the really fine melodies that Shorter and Joe came with, that's what made it pretty different from Miles' more vague melodic ideas from the time. There's also Airto Moreira contributing exotic percussion which is a real plus.

So, basically, if you're a fan of Miles Davis' 69-71 output, this Weather Report album and I Sing the Body Electric will surely satisfy you after repeated listens. Also there's a chance you'll like more Zawinul & Shorter doing this type of music, than Davis'.

FunkFreak75 The international conglomeration that is to be known as "Weather Report" makes its debut. Fun to see two Central European-born collaborate on a successful jazz-rock fusion band. (Joe Zawinul was born in Austria and Miroslav Vitous in what was then Czechoslovakia.) The band seems to have been very sure to evenly distribute the compositional duties (or credits) between its three principle songwriters as three are attributed to Joe, three to Wayne, and three to Miroslav.

A1 "Milky Way" (2:30) an atmospheric mood-setter by Joe and Wayne. (4.375/5)

A2 "Umbrellas" (3:24) an almost-funky (Miroslav does not quite have the comprehension for that which makes funk bass play yet) composition from the three principle songwriters is saved by a sharp turn in the final 45-seconds. Drummer Alphonse Mouzon and percussionist Airto Moreira are, surprisingly, not much better at bringing the funk. (8.66667/10)

A3 "Seventh Arrow" (5:20) an interesting song that seems to succeed despite not really hitting the funk on all cylinders nor presenting any melodies worthy of "earworm" status. I like Joe's use of experimental sounds from his electronic keyboard (a proclivity that he will continue to feed for the rest of his life). (8.75/10) A4 "Orange Lady" (8:40) soft and spacious (and drumless) sax and Fender Rhodes interplay for the first 3:30. Then spacey electric bass and playful percussives are allowed to join in. Interesting. Alphonse's wordless vocalese can be heard far in the studio background starting at the end of the sixth minute. I don't know if this was composer Joe Zawinul's intention, but the song has a simple, naïve lullaby-like feel. (17.25/20)

B1 "Morning Lake" (4:23) another spacious impressionistic lullaby--this time coming from the mind of Miroslav Vitous. Joe's creatively playful electric piano play is especially noteworthy. (8.75/10)

B2 "Waterfall" (6:18) a composition credited to Joe Zawinul, this one presents a whole-band weave that is the most satisfying on the album for its solid form and generous melody-making. (8.875/10)

B3 "Tears" (3:22) A Wayne Shorter tune, this one actually kicks in and moves--for several teasingly brief passages, dropping back to complete stops every 30-seconds or so each time it does. Alphonse Mouzon's very pleasant voice (again wordless vocalese) works very well here. Nice tune! (9.125/10)

B4 "Eurydice" (5:43) the only things that set this Wayne Shorter composition apart from more conventional jazz songs is its prominent placement of both Airto Moreira's playful percussion work and Joe's equally-prominent placement of his electric piano track despite its mostly-support role. Miroslav's walking bass lines are constant and perhaps more critical to driving the song forward than Mouzon's drum play. (8.75/10)

Total Time: 39:55

One of the things that really set Weather Report on its own is present here, from the very start: that is, the lack of guitars. Obviously, Joe and Wayne really wanted to be considered more jazz-oriented (which seems a bit ironic with so many atmospheric/impressionistic songs to their credit) than rock plus, I'm sure, they wanted the sound experimentations of their own instruments to garner all of the attention. Too bad that the electric piano Joe used predominantly at this time sounds so much like that of children's television host Fred Rogers. And too bad that both Kenny G and Najee chose to use Wayne's soprano sax as their main tools.

B/four stars; a nice exposition of fresh ideas from this group of idealistic breakaway artists--two of whom had found a partner for fruitful collaboration that would last for quite some time.

Sean Trane With two WR members emanating from Miles’ Bitches Brew line-up (Zawinul and Shorter), it was obvious that their first album would be heavily influenced by it. But to everyone’s surprise, WR’s debut only took BB as a starting point and expanded on it, pushing the musical adventure a notch further and improvising so well and inspired, that you’d swear the whole thing is written. The duo enrolled the Czech-born Miroslav Vitous, (which will become an indispensable early WR’s pillar) than secured Brazilian-born percussionist Airto Moreira and drummer Alphonse Mouzon, thus creating a real super group or an all-star line-up, as the jazz circles prefer it. Released in March 71 on the Columbia banner with a strange abstract artwork, WR’s debut would take the JR scene by storm.

Right from the first twitches of Milky Way, we just know we’re in for a long strange trip, as the music flirts with atonalities, then reaching a strange metamorphosed Miles jazz-funk (Umbrellas) that takes away the pleasantness and replacing it with cold hard improvising. On Seventh Arrow (a Vitous track), Zawinul’s Fender Rhodes takes us sky-bound with Shorter’s sax hovering like a mosquito around our ears until Zawinul derails the train into cosmic heights with his weird synths layers. The album’s highlight is the Zawinul-penned Orange Lady, starting out lazily under the noontime sun, and then simply roasting under the scorching zenith sun.

The flipside opens on the magical Morning Lake, with Zawinul’s Rhodes layering the track as to allow Vitous to soar with his bass, while Shorter’s sax is the cool breeze setting the mist apart to let the sunrays grace our ears. Waterfall, as you’d guess, is definitely more rapid than the Morning Lake, but obviously the cool Shorter breeze is not yet shaking the night’s torpor. Shorter was being short-changed in terms of songwriting credits up to now, but he gets to close the album with two tracks, first the again-slow (but brooding and menacing) Tears (astounding track with celestial voices) and the funkier Eurydice, which is much closer to conventional jazz than the Z-S duo had done in quite a while.

An impeccable album, but not likely suited for everyone as it is much slower than you’d expect a WR album, especially for those more familiar with the Pastorius days. Personally, I always preferred the Vitous-era as they were truly groundbreaking and along with its successor, this album is clearly their most progressive.