Meteorology

Live And Unreleased, a double cd retrospective from Weather Report that is exactly what the title implies. Weather Report was to all extents and purposes always the band of Joe Zawinul, with Wayne Shorter being he other main protagonist. Others will site the importance of the various rhythm sections especially controversial bassist Jaco Pastorius ( controversial since he seems to have been considered either a genius or a sham, depending on viewpoints ) Listening to the album today I was struck by how dated a lot of it felt. Which got me thinking about why is it that such seventies / eighties funk fusion music is thought of as "dated", whereas swing, bebop, cool jazz etc would merely be thought of as "of their time" ? Possibly the culprit is the synth / electronica sound of Zawinul himself that veers dangerously close to sounding like a stylophone at times. I found the first of the two cd's on the set to be much more satisfying than the second. Weather Report specialised in arranged sounds with integrated soloing gradually emerging from the group sound rather than being signposted and taken in strict rotation. The irst cd illustrated this degree of sophistication perfectly whereas a lot of the numbers on disk two degenerated into some kind of clumpy rock thrash. All in all though, a good overview of the band.