By September of 1978 Weather Report's headlining status afforded them the opportunity to play a very long set amounting to two hours in length. Given the previous year's success with the poll winning "Heavy Weather" album one might have expected them to concentrate on this more or less exclusively, but instead, fans were treated to material from right across the bands career and solo spots by everybody. "Black Market" opens this concert and straight away it's apparent that the energy level is high and the relaxed pace of the studio version has been superseded by a slightly faster tempo. An explosive tenor and drum duet by Shorter and Erskine also forms part of this and must have surely put an end to the feeling in some quarters at the time that the saxophonist was no longer at his best. Also on board were flamboyant electric bassist Jaco Pastorius, a genuine innovator, and newly arrived drummer Peter Erskine a master technician brought into the group to add more of a jazz feel. Joe Zawinul was keen to stress that Weather Report's music was their music, a product of the group's identity, and not simply jazz-rock akin to that of many bands of the time. Although he was known for his strong opinions it's clear that no other group mixed improvisation, formal structures and electronics quite like them. One night in Germany is clear proof of this
Weather Report was one of the super-bands in the 70s and beginning of the 80s. The 40th anniversary of the founding of the band, which was started by the legendary keyboarder Joe Zawinul and the saxophonist Wayne Shorter, occurs now in a fine remastered vinyl. The concert the band gave at the Berliner Jazztage in 1975 can be heard for the first time on: The band gave a fantastic performance including Mysterious Traveller, Scarlet Woman And Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz from among the earlier weather report hits.
To celebrate the 40th "birthday" of one of the world's best bands - Weather Report - the label Art of Groove is releasing the band's Rockpalast concert in Cologne 1983 - a premiere on CD and DVD. What a feast the concert was for the Colognials that night, and is now for us all these years later. As Omar Hakim has said: "Weather Report wasn't typical instrumental music: there was Europe, Africa, jazz, blues, Latin, all inside one thing. It was true world music...". Here's to that ! After Jaco Pastorius and Peter Erskine left the band, Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter decided to continue their successful project with a new rhythm set: drummer Omar Hakim, Victor Bailey on bass and percussionist Jose Rossy. For Bailey and Hakim it was the starting point of their international career. Weather Report's Cologne concert shows the band in musical top form. In a more than two-hour show, the band sparks a firework of rhythm and melodies. Next to classics like "Birdland," in this concert you will hear pieces from later phase of Weather Report: "D Flat Waltz," "Procession," "Fast City," "Where The Moon Goes" and "Two Lines". The material which was originally recorded by the WDR (West German Radio and Television Broadcasting)has been completely restored and re-mastered and is now appearing in a new version - something that's not just for long-time fans of Weather Report
Carla Bley - Joyful Noise (Live In Hamburg 1984) Carla Bley is considered the female, jazz-oriented counterpart to Frank Zappa. Great live recordings from the concert on 1984/03/14. On March 14, 1984, the Carla Bley Band was a guest at what was then Studio 10 of Norddeutscher Rundfunk. The ten-piece ensemble included Carla's husband Michael Mantler and bassist Steve Swallow, who still remembers that spring day in Hamburg well: "This is a great live recording. Michael Naura, who had been promoting jazz at NDR for many years, was a great host. He made us feel welcome and comfortable. The band was on fire, celebrating not after, but during the concert - but, as Gil Evans said, it was a party where we all had a goal in mind. It's a blessing that these recordings of a truly sensational and extraordinary performance have survived intact on a shelf deep in the basement of the NDR archives! And they are also irrefutable proof of the power and humanity in Carla Bley's music!"
