Weather Report
The Legendary Live Tapes: 1978-1981

THE REVIEW

Revolutionizing one's favorite album rankings is something you do in your twenties, when changes don't lead to significant psychological consequences; in fact, that's exactly what you need at that age. At my age, however, there's a need for certainties. Personally, I've never been that into rankings, but I do have one, and I've had it for a long time, unchanging, three sacred guiding stars in the vast sea of live albums, always the same. I've lived with this certainty every day for many years. Even when I chose the cheese to buy at the supermarket, some wrinkle in my brain was unconsciously occupied with continuing to assume that my three favorite live albums were that one, the other one, and 8:30. Overturning this today would mean seeing a good chunk of my life from a different perspective. Like, if back then at the supermarket in that wrinkle of my brain I had had doubts about 8:30, even unconsciously, would I have made the same choice I actually made regarding the cheese? Who knows the neural interconnections so well as to assert it? Maybe if I had preferred, say, a live album by Baglioni, perhaps I would have been more the kind of guy who chooses certosa instead of robiola di Roccaverano.

Once I had this generous box of live material from my favorite Weather Report lineup (Zawinul/Shorter/Pastorius/Erskine) in my hands, I spent some time turning it over in my hands, grappling with fears due to the reasons I've just tried to explain. I thought, after all, there was a chance this record could upstage 8:30 from my sacred podium. The lineup is the same, the era is the same, it contains much more material… I told myself that if it really happened, I would need time to memorize such a name. And if someone asked me my favorite live albums in the meantime? What kind of figure would I make at my age if I couldn't recall the title of one of the albums I prefer? Couldn't they have called it, I don't know, 9 minus a quarter this box? No, "the legendary live tapes… sticazzi mecojioni"… oh well.

The recordings capture the band at two different moments during the period when drummer Peter Erskine was a regular part of it: the '78 tour series that started after the recording of Mr. Gone, and the live activity carried out by the band between the release of the albums "Night Passage" and "Weather Report."

One could therefore consider them as a preamble (the '78 recordings) and a continuation of the discussion (those from the '80-81 period) of the 8:30 tour of '79 from which the namesake live so dear to me was drawn. Viewing it this way wouldn't be wrong according to what is read in Erskine's notes. With him in the lineup, some pieces from the period immediately preceding his entry underwent an evolution in live performances that can be appreciated by comparing these recordings with those of 8:30.

To give some examples, Birdland and Black Market in this case are performed very faithfully to the studio version. In 8:30, however, you can hear the swinging rhythm developed for Birdland by the lineup as the confidence between the members increased, noticeable already from the initial harmonics played by Pastorius. In the Black Market of 8:30, there are rhythm adjustments and a key change for Zawinul's solo that do not yet appear in this version.

In general, the box does not include the reproduction of entire concerts in their entirety; it has been assembled by combining recordings from multiple shows. Most of the material from '78 comes from the Japanese tour, particularly the Osaka and Tokyo shows. The lineup in this case is that of the mentioned quartet without the addition of other elements.

The material from the '80-81 period comes from various shows including the Festival Hall in Osaka and the performances at the Hammersmith Odeon in London during the 1980 European tour. In this case, the lineup is that of the quintet with the addition of percussionist Bobby Thomas, Jr.

The sound is what you would expect from musicians blessed by God like the ones in question.

The choice of pieces included was curated by Peter Erskine himself. Personally, I found pleasant surprises. There's Elegant People, one of my favorite Weather Report pieces, with the magical interplay between Pastorius's bass line and Shorter's sax standing out. There's a Teen Town performed at a show in Reading in '78 that lasts almost 9 minutes, where the part faithful to the "studio" version and the furious coda already present in 8:30 are interspersed with a segment featuring a stopped bass line, peculiar. There's a piece from Pastorius's first solo album "Continuum," paired with River People. There are some pieces from Night Passage and the live version of the pieces recorded in the studio to complete the fourth side of 8:30.

I would have liked to find pieces like "Punk Jazz" or "Barbary Coast," but you can't have everything in life. Very fair price, product traceable (I believe) only by order.

The Box does not overshadow 8:30, but it certainly stands beside it.

Alright, until next time. Cerea fanciot.