My friends don't understand what I get out of this style of music, they don't even understand what I see in the individual talents. Hell, I have been a "convert" since the 70's ! 🎵 Awesome Musos
Convet from the 70's here.. so much I got and still play conga/bongo etc.. this is a groove, you either get it or not.. shouldn't define friendship though.. 🤣
It seems to me that, while Alphonso Johnson covered Miroslav's sound, and style somwhat for compositional reasons, he also presaged what Jaco was gonna bring to the Band. Being a young Musician, yet wise enough to integrate his own thing with what had gone before. So right for the changes Joe and Wayne wanted. I love early WR tho it's often overlooked by those who can't see past Jaco. I like the more European Avant Garde thing on the first two Albums very much, and the overlap initiated by the "Sweetnighter" L.P and the live Shows from 1973 (The "Chateuvillon" Bootleg on YT for example).Thanks for the post.
I know, I know, I mean I love Mysterious Traveler and Tales Spinnin as well. Also note not on this performance but Alphonso was also playing fretless in 1975. Now he didn't have Jaco's sound but Alphonso was touring the world setting the stage with some sort of fretless before Jaco to take it over. I also know that Jaco took his frets out in the early 70's as well.
It’s almost heresy to like the early WR line ups but much as I love the Montreux 76 stuff, I like my WR a bit more mental and ragged. Dom Um Ramao is a legend. He seems quite restrained here.
@@LetterToVoltaire great to hear others are really into the early stuff too. I’m still exploring the Sweetnighter/Tale Spinnin era. I could never get into it before but I know I’ll be more comfortable now. I love the sound of the first two albums. The Jaco era almost seems commercial by comparison.
My piano teacher asked me who my favorite pianist was. I told him Joe Zawinul. He looked at me and said in all seriousness, "you know the man is insane right? I smiled and just told him, "call me crazy!" He is the most imaginative player, yet so incredibly disciplined. Actually they all are.
FOR FUCKin SURE, Joe was a Modern day Mozart, they were both from the same area, Only 150 yrs apart. IF?? Mozart would have been around in Joe Z's day, this is what he would have played with Joe
I've never seen Darryl Brown play drums for the band, and I thought I saw every line up WB ever had. As a young teen I saw Chester Thompson, then Aleandro Acuna, Peter Erskine, and finally Omar Hakim all play live. I'd have to say that because of the slow painful demise of fusion music Weather Report's sound got more and more watered down. When Jaco came on the scene their best days were long past them. After reading some of the comments here I agree that Sweetnighter was the band's best effort. A unique and magical mix of ambient celestial sounds, over a mountain of groves punctuated with jazz / blues vamps. It also had a live sound to it, great music for any age.
"When Jaco came on the scene their best days were long past them"? I know we try to be nice here, but that is such utter nonsense. Let's start here. What about the Birdland album do you find inferior? Please be specific.
@@bluesandmore786 If you can't recognize the innovative musicality of their earlier albums, ( Sweetnighter, Mysterious Traveler, and the earlier more Avantgarde offerings), compared to heavily commercial sounding pieces like Birdland what would you like me to say!? If you can't hear it, you can't hear it! The band received just one star for the Mr. Gone album from Downbeat magazine. An album that Jaco played, composed, and co-produced. Weather Report went the way of the whole fusion music era, they had a few truly great years of brilliant innovative music, ...all before Jaco, yup.
This is outerworldly. Dum Um Raoma was excellent and original, Alphonso Johnson is brilliant and I like tha fact, that he just digs into the groove, and is not as dominant as Pastorious was later. He is still a bass player - and very funky. Daryl Brown is funky as hell, and Zawinul and Shorter are burning - especially Zawinul. He's my all-time favourite on all kinds electric piano. The best ever. And imagine; Weather Report - and a few other fusionbands - emerged out of the Miles Davis bands of 1969-70. But Weather Report was the best by far.
Sweetnightner did it for me..... 1973, I was 12 years old. I remember joining the COLUMBIA HOUSE record club. I built up my Weather Report collection with my "selection of the month'. Can't remember how I paid for those overpriced records,but somehow I managed it. It sounds even better today....probably because I understand and appreciate even more as an adult.
For me, this kind of music really becomes alive when you actually SEE these guys performing - it's priceless ... listening to the same performance on an audio recording just would not be the same. Great, great vid indeed. Thanks a lot, Karel!
for me Weather Report with this album "Sweetnighter" have invented something like dreamlike funky jazz, with their unique colors thank you very much for this very rare and precious footage
Where was this? I saw them in Minneapolis in October 1974, at a time when I thought REO Speedwagon was highly advanced...I had to rethink my place in the universe after seeing Weather Report.
I remember when this album came out I didn't know about fusion and was hoping to get into jazz. I pretended to know more than I did. Some friends played Cucumber Slumber and I loved the groove. This track always was a favorite they way it develops. I bevame a huge fan After Tale Spinning but love these earlier tunes. Live they are amazing more than the recordings. Alphonso is my favorite so is Wayne. Zawinul a ll time favorite. Favorite band the greatest#
Yes sir. My favorite lineup during their best period. Loved Alphosno. Wayne and Josef at the height of their super powers too. RIP Josef and Dom um romeo
A must read for any following Weather Report is Weather Report the history of the band " ELEGANT PEOPLE " By Curt Bianchi..Back Beat books.A most engaging book.!!!!
I love the comments of praise from younger people who were probably just born about this time or some times after the great 'Fusion' era. Not knowing anything about the history of how 'it' all started. But if some of the new fans are reading this, and knowing my album collection would be far too lengthy to mention, here are a mere couple you may want to explore. Quincey Jones/ Body Heat. Ramsey Lewis/ Tequila Mockingbird. Herbie Hancock/ Secrets. Les McCann/ layers. If you just play these, you'll find others similar mentioned. There are quite a few out there, be patient and give them a listen, even if you have to bounce around to skip some songs either too 'slow' or 'radical'. But all these and more have a great contribution to great music. You know the oddest thing of it all, I would have to give Frank Zappa most the credit for the great 'Fusion Era'.
As most critics agree, Miles Davis ignited the spark with his 1967 album Filles de Kilimanjaro and its sequels In A Silent Way and most notably Bitches Brew. This is where it all started. (I was born in 1974, by the way!)
The Alphonso Johnson era still included some Sweetnighter tunes, but oddly the Jaco era never included even tunes like Cucumber Slumber which would have easily been a vehicle for him. It is like the entire previous history of the band was deleted.
Make it 3. My uncle gave me his copy saying it was “too far in left field for me”. I was hypnotized by this album and couldn’t stop playing it. 15yrs old getting those synaptic pathways formed by the likes of this album. Thank you Groove Merchant and your little brother, too.
I've always been a big fan of Weather Report right from their first album but I'm always drawn back to the their earlier recordings my favourites being Sweetnighter and Mysterious Traveler. I think particularly on Sweetnighter there is much more room for interaction with the improvisations and more spontaneous creativity. The later albums although all brilliant started to become more formulaic.
Saw them do this one with Miroslav and Eric Gravatt and it was other worldly. I felt myself literally lifting off the floor. Alphonso is a great player, but he plays this one right in time. I challenge someone to Listen to Miroslav on the Sweetnighter record and tell me wtf he is doing. I can’t count it, nor can I predict what he’ll do next, but it’s perfect.
Crazy drumming by Daryl Brown and Dom Um....cool footage...but I gotta say...some of the live versions of this tune (incl. this one) are just way too up-tempo...and the song loses something when played so fast, honestly....
Not the best recording quality, but great tune. Loved the Ayers Rock and Nels Cline versions. Getting to hear more Don Um Ramao and Alphonso Johnson here is cool. Johnson auditioned for King Crimson. Suspect he would have been great in that band.
Really nice version, my only gripe is maybe the drummer could've stayed out of the way a bit more at times. I dunno, maybe it's because the drums are up in the mix.
Remember, Z’s getting that sound without a synth; he’s getting that sound by feeding Rhodes through a bunch of stomp boxes (fuzz, wah, ring modulator, and echoplex, if my memory from seeing the Columbus Ohio gig with Miroslav a year earlier is correct).
Yes it was a great creative time for electric keyboards, the Rhodes and effects, Clavinet, mellotron and the Hammond. Then digital keyboards came along and they lack character.
Where is the last half of the song? The signature movement away from this riff? This video phases out before the song hits the groove it ends on… weird. 🤷♂️
I have nothing but love for the pre-Jaco WR in all its different incarnations. The music remains close to the spirit of Miles ‘69. With Jaco, it turns into something essentially different (it simply HAS to with the advent of a giant like him), brilliant in its own way, and long way from “Bitches Brew”. Jaco joining WR is like Hendrix or Coltrane teaming up with Booker T and the MGs.
Look, Weather Report are just a damn good jamming band until Jaco Pastorius joins. Then they start jamming Bach...Alfonso Johnson, I could play him off the park,!
Many props to Jaco, but Alphonso Johnson was probably a better fit for Weather Report. Saw this lineup at Saratoga Performing Arts Center and it was magic.
I saw them at Kolf Sports Center in Oshkosh Wi 1973 or 1974. I bought the Sweetnighter album shortly after. I have been enjoying their music ever since.
Would someone tell me what kind of bass guitar is Alfonso Johnson playing here? I have never seen before p bass with one more pick up close to the neck.
@@ThePhR75 Thank you for your reply! I rememmber some Kramer basses which were similar to this one,but they are not the same.Maybe it's custom made for Alfonso Johnson only. You know such a great players can afford to pay for it.
He was elbowed out because Zawinul wanted someone with more funk. They got that with Alphonso (for a short period). He left to become one of the pre eminent session bassists of all time! And no doubt made a lot more money than WR were offering.
