Weather Report

Weather Report started out as a jazz equivalent of what the rock world in 1970 was calling a "supergroup." But unlike most of the rock supergroups, this one not only kept going for a good 15 years, it more than lived up to its billing, practically defining the state of the jazz-rock art throughout almost all of its run. Weather Report also anticipated and contributed to the North American interest in world music rhythms and structures, prodded by keyboardist/co-founder <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Joe Zawinul</a>. And WR, like many of jazz's great long-lived groups, proved to be an incubator for several future leaders who passed in and out of the band in a never-ending series of revolving-door personnel changes. The original members of the band were <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0ZqhrTXYPA9DZR527ZnFdO">Wayne Shorter</a> (saxophones), <a href="spotify:artist:0ztzt6g8n0NBcnwMGwMlxD">Miroslav Vitous</a> (electric bass), <a href="spotify:artist:3poGT6mQeOlXOdJwvXz5T1">Airto Moreira</a> (percussion) and <a href="spotify:artist:0UXy6wqMmVQ7PIWFNSXqdk">Alphonse Mouzon</a> (drums), with only <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a> and (until 1985) <a href="spotify:artist:0ZqhrTXYPA9DZR527ZnFdO">Shorter</a> remaining in place throughout the band's lifespan. <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0ZqhrTXYPA9DZR527ZnFdO">Shorter</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3poGT6mQeOlXOdJwvXz5T1">Moreira</a> all had experience playing in and influencing the studio and live electric bands of <a href="spotify:artist:0kbYTNQb4Pb1rPbbaF0pT4">Miles Davis</a> -- and at first, WR was a direct extension of <a href="spotify:artist:0kbYTNQb4Pb1rPbbaF0pT4">Miles</a>' In a Silent Way/Bitches Brew period, with free-floating collective improvisation and interplay, combining elements of jazz, rock, funk, Latin and other ethnic musics.

With the release of Sweetnighter in 1972, <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a>'s influence upon the band's direction began to deepen; the groove became more important, structures were imposed upon the material (though the group continued its freewheeling interplay in live gigs). When the innovative bassist <a href="spotify:artist:3U3C9o6UTYNdEsDckpRyvX">Jaco Pastorius</a> replaced <a href="spotify:artist:2rNtnZArzMAimcRCnFrwUU">Alphonso Johnson</a> in 1976, WR entered its most popular phase, with <a href="spotify:artist:3U3C9o6UTYNdEsDckpRyvX">Pastorius</a> becoming a flamboyant third lead voice, <a href="spotify:artist:0ZqhrTXYPA9DZR527ZnFdO">Shorter</a>'s sax receding into more epigrammatic form, and <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a> rediscovering his commercial touch and sharpening his electronic sophistication. The best-selling Heavy Weather album (1977) actually served up a hit song that became a jazz standard ("Birdland"), and with the entry of <a href="spotify:artist:3Bm6MhzPUczH3Pej2FNqGi">Peter Erskine</a> on drums (1978), the group finally had a stable lineup for awhile.

Contrary to accepted wisdom, the departures of <a href="spotify:artist:3U3C9o6UTYNdEsDckpRyvX">Pastorius</a> (who died tragically from injuries sustained in a beating in 1987) and <a href="spotify:artist:3Bm6MhzPUczH3Pej2FNqGi">Erskine</a> in 1982 led to a recharging of WR's batteries; their replacements <a href="spotify:artist:1aTPRuTpqvuPpAps3FhBhe">Victor Bailey</a> (bass), <a href="spotify:artist:6jJcdCcI6czvcCnM1D1lWg">Omar Hakim</a> (drums), Jose Rossy and later, <a href="spotify:artist:3u5p7C1CVuJEjLJ1LGlHzj">Mino Cinelu</a> (percussion) were more amenable to <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a>'s deepening inclinations for Third World rhythms, sounds and textures. This edition of WR rattled off three more albums, including the outstanding Procession. But <a href="spotify:artist:0ZqhrTXYPA9DZR527ZnFdO">Shorter</a>, who had gradually ceded nearly total artistic control to <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a>, was getting restless; he took a leave of absence in 1985 and later that year, left WR for good. This Is This (1985), in which <a href="spotify:artist:3Bm6MhzPUczH3Pej2FNqGi">Erskine</a> returns and <a href="spotify:artist:0ZqhrTXYPA9DZR527ZnFdO">Shorter</a> plays only a limited role, was WR's swan song. <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a> would tour in 1986 with a revamped version called <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Weather Update</a> (a prelude to the keyboardist's own <a href="spotify:artist:3uyrv9nQfrgPEmArBeTye2">Zawinul Syndicate</a>), and there was talk in 1996 about <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:0ZqhrTXYPA9DZR527ZnFdO">Shorter</a> reuniting in the studio for a new edition of WR, but <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a> later deflated the speculation.

Although a Weather Report reunion failed to materialize, many of the group's core members stayed busy. <a href="spotify:artist:3DkK9XA1CI1i7U7ovpAo1G">Zawinul</a> continued to perform and record up until his death from a rare form of skin cancer in 2011 at age 75. <a href="spotify:artist:0ZqhrTXYPA9DZR527ZnFdO">Shorter</a> also remained active, forming a highly lauded acoustic outfit with pianist <a href="spotify:artist:6nPiCm3jwXHrOsMbTDoc4E">Danilo Perez</a> in the 2000s and receiving a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In 2015, drummer <a href="spotify:artist:3Bm6MhzPUczH3Pej2FNqGi">Erskine</a> was integral in producing the four-disc Weather Report box set The Legendary Live Tapes, 1978-81, which featured previously unreleased concert recordings. ~ Richard S. Ginell, Rovi