Mysterious Travelers 

Leaving nothing untouched in their wake, the cultural revolutionaries of the sixties spawned many movements in art and music.  Shortly after the marriage of Pop and Blues gave birth to Rock, Miles Davis, the high priest of post-bop Jazz, took the key elements of the infant music form and created what was respectfully referred to as Fusion or sometimes more pithily as Jazz-Rock. 

Other traditional music forms, too, switched on the electricity and began to rock out – Folk and Blues being obvious examples.  However, Miles and his followers did more than just plug in a bass, mike up the drum-kit and hire a pianist for whom the Fender Rhodes meant a road-friendly portable instrument.  They created a new form of music that was born in 1969 with the release of the seminal In a Silent Way (1969) and attained its early majority with the release the following year of Bitches Brew (1970).    

The hallmarks of the new music’s fast developing vocabulary stemmed from the harmonically complex pieces that Miles had developed on albums such as Filles de Kilimanjaro.  In addition to Joe Zawinul’s compositional genius - he wrote the title track - In a Silent Way added amplification, layers of keyboards and, most significantly, a departure from the theme-improvisation-theme format that had dominated jazz for the previous forty years.   

Just as their biblical predecessors scattered to spread the message to all those who would listen, it was not long before Miles’ original electronic disciples rapidly created their own diaspora.  Alongside John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chick Corea’s Return to Forever and the Mwandishi and Crossings line-ups of Herbie Hancock, Weather Report was one of the first of those who did not just take the new language literally but who developed its own dialect and subsequently begat its own musical progeny. 

Weather Report was established in the latter half of 1970 by Austrian-born keyboardist, Zawinul, and tenor and soprano sax player, Wayne Shorter, a long-time Miles collaborator.  In the band’s first incarnation they were joined by Miroslav Vitous (basses), Alphonse Mouzon (drums) and Airto Moreira (percussion).  Together they recorded the band’s eponymous first album in March 1971.  Eschewing the populist, indeed almost obligatory, contemporary requirement for an electric guitar – irrespective of the musical genre, Weather Report’s continually evolving personnel nevertheless remained rooted in the same instrumental line-up though, in later years, often reduced by the absence of a percussionist to a quartet. 

The direction that Weather Report’s musical journey would take had been clearly signposted during Zawinul and Shorter’s orientation with Miles.  Nevertheless, the new course charted by their debut Weather Report album featured acoustic bass and no synthesizers.  Not long after the release of the album, Mouzon and Moreira departed and were replaced by Eric Gravatt on drums and Dom Um Romao on percussion.  It is this line up, responsible for an altogether earthier sounding offering, that went on to record the band’s sophomore release, I Sing the Body Electric.  Before Mouzon’s departure the band performed a set for groundbreaking German TV show Beat Club that was made commercially available on DVD about two years ago.  A client of mine had discovered the buried treasure in the vaults of ARD in Bremen, a German television station.  Knowing of my admiration for Weather Report, he asked if I would like to write the sleeve notes.  When I readily accepted, I didn’t realise quite how complex a task he had set me.  This Blog is based around those sleeve notes so, apologies to those who already have the DVD and find most of this familiar.

Picking up any one of the sixteen front-line albums released by Weather Report is like getting together with an old friend who hasn’t been around for a while.  There is much that is familiar but always something new to discover.  As exciting and as different to each other as those albums remain, none compare to the experience of seeing the band live and the memories of those gigs.  I was fortunate enough to have caught the band in concert on two occasions – once in the 70s and once in the early 80s.

In a 1972 article, Zawinul talked about the band's live performances: "Right from the start, [playing together] was just a very natural thing. But I can't really talk about the music.  None of us can.  We don't know what's happening.  We have our tunes and lines, which we always play differently. What's happening up there is just composing, and when it's right, it's magic. There's a certain chemistry in the band which amazes me-and which makes it very consistent, also."   

What was consistent about Weather Report’s live performance was the sound dynamic, the virtuosity and the symbiotic interplay between the musicians.  This was always true notwithstanding the constantly evolving constitution of the rhythm section.  Additionally, whenever the band played live, it always looked at each of its compositions through different angles of its musical prism.  The Beat Club set was performed only a few months before the band’s landmark concert at the Shibuya Philharmonic Hall in Tokyo.  In terms of Weather Report’s evolutionary time-scale, a few months was a long time as listening to the two sets back to back will demonstrate. 

Extracts from each of three concert-length pieces played on the Tokyo set were originally released as side 2 of the vinyl release of I Sing the Body Electric.  Although the entire concert was released as a double album in Japan, by the time it was made available globally in 1977 as Live in Tokyo the band’s rhythm section had regenerated several more times, iconic bassist Jaco Pastorius had been recruited and Weather Report’s biggest selling album, Heavy Weather, had provided their first hit on the singles chart with the enduringly popular and oft-covered Birdland.

The Beat Club DVD arrived at my office on white label.  As I played it I rapidly realised that my first task was to identify each of the pieces that the band had played.  There was no label copy, no track-listing.  An uncharacteristic lack of German efficiency had even omitted on-screen text naming each piece performed.  Even with my knowledge of the band’s early repertoire and given that Weather Report had been released but a short time prior to the Beat Club gig, the music had already begun to be repurposed, recast and interpreted.  The fluidity of the band and their easy familiarity meant that they were not so much improvising or even interpreting as they were composing or, perhaps, re-composing as each piece unfolded.  After many hours of listening and cross-referring to the original studio versions I was satisfied that I had done the band justice, unpicked the threads of each piece and identified it accurately.

On the DVD, the sparsely lit, propless studio with plain, black backdrop focuses the attention on the musicians and what they play.  Unsurprisingly much of the repertoire that is recognisable is culled from, or at least based around, pieces from Weather Report.   Launching into an extended reading of ‘Umbrellas’, the band’s playing explains Zawinul’s elliptical comment that ‘everyone soloed and no-one soloed’.  The energetic climax takes the music by degrees into a segue with Orange Lady.  This is the first recorded example of the technique of blending one piece into another that became a Weather Report trade mark.  How many of their segues were rehearsed and how many were spontaneous responses by the musicians to the impulses of their collective performance is never easy to determine.

Zawinul’s haunting theme, Waterfall, defined on the Fender Rhodes and underpinned by Vitous’ hypnotic bass playing, shows the strength of the band’s melodic and harmonic capacity; it also provides a contrast to the almost modal improvisation of the opening cuts as Shorter’s soprano leads the band around the melody.   By the time the set reaches the disjunctive opening of Seventh Arrow, the feel with which the band is exploring the music has loosened to the point that, although what each of the musicians plays may be easily identified, it is the homogeneity of the musicians’ vision and their respective ability to express it that seduces and excites.  A percussion feature acts as a bridge into a truncated rendering of TH.  Morning Lake provides an impressionistic reading of the original studio recording that demonstrates how the skeleton of a composition may be fleshed out to create something altogether different from its original iteration.

A funked-up medley draws the set towards its finale.  It features an unlikely soul-strained vocal from Mouzon.  The anonymous piece betrays those elements of Weather Report’s sound that would become more prevalent in the overall mix of styles as the band evolved.  Seemingly largely improvised, elements of what would become Dr Honoris Causa conclude the proceedings.

Looking back on it from a distance of nearly 40 years, experiencing a Weather Report live set in the early seventies was like standing at the summit of a mountain.  In the far distance one could only imagine what the eye couldn’t see; looking back there was a steep path and a climb that had been both challenging and rewarding.  With Zawinul’s classical European roots and the dues he had paid playing with the likes of Maynard Ferguson and Cannonball Adderley and Shorter’s more conventional East Coast jazz upbringing, Weather Report’s musical expedition had been well prepared.  The vista of its future investigation of the contemporary musical landscape that ended in 1986 opened up a vast panorama of innovation and excellence.  Fortunately, there is much that survives on record and will ever remain worth the effort of exploration.

Miles Davis: ‘In a Silent Way’ is a vinyl album released in 1969 by CBS; I also have the CD releases in 2002; Miles’ ‘Bitches Brew’ is the double CD reissue of the album that was originally released by CBS in 1970.  ‘Filles de Kilimanjaro’ is a Contemporary Jazz Masters digitally remixed CD reissue of Miles’ 1968 album. ‘Weather Report’ the band’s first album was released on vinyl in 1971 followed by ‘I Sing the Body Electric’ in 1972; I have CD reissues of both.  ‘Heavy Weather’ is also a vinyl release from 1977; all are on the CBS label as are the other Weather Report albums in my collection being ‘Sweetnighter’ (1973: CD reissue) ‘Volcano For Hire’ (vinyl 1982), ‘Black Market’ (1976: CD reissue), ‘Live and Unreleased’ is a collection of various live recordings made between 1975 and 1983 and was first released as a double CD in 2002 by Sony.  ‘The Collection’ is a CD compilation released by Castle Communications in 1990.  Weather Report ‘Live in Germany 1971’ is a DVD released by Gonzo Media Group in 2010.  The performance was first aired on 9^th August 1971 from Bremen on Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen, the national public TV channel of the ARD.  This Blog substantially reproduces my sleeve notes for the DVD.

Sounds of the Sahara 

Three, maybe four, years ago, my son gave me a couple of CDs of music that he had heard while travelling in North Africa.  One of them was by a long time favourite, Baaba Maal.  ‘Djam Leeli’ contains recordings that were made around 1984 and feature Maal with long time collaborator, Mansour Seck, another Senegalese.  The blind Mansour’s first known sound recordings were believed lost for a number of years before their first release in 1988.  The simple sound is instantly engaging, the acoustic guitars of the two principals augmented by an electric guitar, percussion and a balafon – a species of African xylophone. 

The other album was by a band of which I had not then previously heard.  Tinawiren is a group of Tuareg-Berber musicians from the Sahara Desert region of northern Mali.  Legend has it that the band was formed while its members were refugees in Libya, escaping from a civil war in their home country.  The cover of their 2007 album ‘Aman Iman’ was enough to intrigue me.  In the foreground of a lustreless black and white photo of an overcast desert landscape, seven musicians stare defensively at the camera.  Clad in ankle length robes and head dress, three carrying guitars, the group of unlikely stars wear expressions suggesting that a private colloquy had been interrupted.  There is no indication of the source of power for their instruments, yet Tinawiren’s music is propelled by a battery of electric guitars.  The instrumentation is completed by simple percussion, hand claps and a good old bass guitar. 

The band’s sound is quite different from that of other guitar led Malian combos known to European audiences for a longer period.  It’s altogether earthier than the sound produced by the ubiquitous Ali Farka Toure who, as long ago as 1994, was accorded the accolade of making Talking Timbuktu, an easy-on-the-ear blues influenced album, with world music polyglot, Ry Cooder.  Tinariwen also eschews the poppier feel and western tinged rhythms embraced by the likes of Amadou and Maryam.   The uniqueness of Tinariwen is hallmarked by the unison vocals that sweep over the backing instruments like a sonic Sirocco. 

Last Thursday at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, Tinariwen played a wonderfully well paced set that enabled each of the individual talents time and space to shine.  As leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabib let each of the other guitarists take turns at lead, rhythm, bass and lead vocals, a red fender Strat was passed from hand-to-hand – or more accurately hands-to-hands.  Held by each as if it were a sacred artefact possessed of magical qualities, the Strat was reserved for those numbers that included ever more exquisitely played solos.  The vocal section also features back-ups from Alhassane Ag Touhami, the sole female in the group, who also contributes atmospheric ululation.  Touhami dances, but it’s percussionist/vocalist Said Ag Ayad who steals the limelight with his exotic hand movements and joyous jiggling, sometimes reminiscent of Eric Idle’s haggling market trader in ’Life of Brian’. 

Playing older pieces from their repertoire as well as others from their most recent album, ‘Tassili’, Tinariwen mixed up their self-defining Saharan electric sound with some mellower acoustic music.  The set built up subtly, almost imperceptibly, as the audience was continually invited to augment the relentless handclaps.  The rhythms became increasingly complex and eventually too much for all but the most able of the Empire crowd to follow.   

Tinawiren’s albums are worth listening to but they don’t quite capture the uplifting magic of the band’s live performance.  The night was made even more memorable following the inevitable encore as the band received its Songlines World Music award for best group.   

Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck’s ‘Djam Leeli’ is a CD released in 1989 by Rogue Records.  ‘Aman Iman’ by Tinawiren is a CD released by World Village in 2007.  ‘Tassili’ by Tinawiren is a CD released by V2 in 2011.  Talking Timbuktu Ali Farka Toure and Ry Cooder is a CD released by World Circuit in 1994. ‘Wati’ by Amadou and Maryam is a CD released by Sunnyside Communications in 2002, their ‘Greatest Hits’ CD was released in 2005 by Universal Music.

Blog Rules – OK? 

Have You Heard? has been running for 11 weeks.  A few days ago it passed 2000 page views.  Although more than half of those have been from readers in the UK, its audience extends to Qatar and Ethiopia, Colombia, France, Germany, Israel, China and a healthy contingent in the USA.  Thanks to all of you who continue to log-in; it suggests that I’m not writing in a vacuum.  Even if you don’t want to join the ranks of registered followers, feedback is always welcome.  You can send email to haveyouheard2013@gmail.com  If you don’t want your comments quoted, then just say so.  Confidentiality will be respected.

The Blog was initiated to address a task that was set by a friend.  Over the last dozen years the relationship between music lovers and their collections has begun to change, in some ways quite radically.   I was asked to consider what I thought may have been lost in the present era by those who download MP3s and don’t line shelves with a collection of physical records and CDs.  I was challenged to listen to my entire record collection over a year, engage in a dialogue with the music and write about it.  I was charged with teasing out the memories, the significance of different records and relationships between different pieces.  In doing this I decided to try and put them into their respective social and cultural context and talk about them from my own personal point of view.

Whether or not the Blog has succeeded in meeting the challenge is a matter of opinion.  Not every entry meets the criteria set out above – either wholly or in part.  Some entries have been concerned with the early years of my interest in music during my school days in Portsmouth.  My son tells me that he has enjoyed these particular Blogs the most.  The stories tell of events that are associated with particular records and artists, those artists and their records engender memories of particular events and periods of time.  While writing I have played the records quoted and used them as prompts.  As one sentence setting out a thought leads onto the next, I have been able to extract more and more details from the back of my mind.  Other Blogs have been inspired by recent gigs that I have attended.  Attending live performances continues to add musical memories and provides an ongoing source for new material. 

There is seemingly far too much to write about in Blogs that were originally planned to run to no more than 1000 words per entry.  Fortunately, no-one has yet complained about that.  Cue: an inbox full of email making such complaints. 

In order to meet the challenge – or at least as much of it as might be possible in a year - I originally intended that no record would be mentioned in more than one Blog and that, perhaps, when reaching a particular artist I would cover all of his/her/their records that I have in the collection in one go.  Amongst the 130 albums and 30 singles mentioned to date, there is already more than one that has had a couple of mentions.  While all of the records by Family were referred to in a reminiscence of an early gig (Savoy Browns and South Parade Blues: Part 1; published 22^nd April 2012), to date there has only been one record mentioned that features Pat Metheny (THE Duet live at the Barbican: published 15^th April 2012; check the discography if you don’t believe me!)  The collection includes 43 albums that feature Pat as leader or co-leader and another 20 on which he appears as a guest artist.  There are also about 15 DVDs including 10 of various performances from the Montreal Jazz Festival that have never been commercially released that were given to me by someone in the industry who knows of my passion for Pat’s music.  In all honesty, it’s difficult to know where to start with Pat; not only are there more of his records than any other artist to address, I have also seen him play live on more occasions than anyone else.  

‘Have You Heard?’ with its obvious connotation, was named for one of Pat’s pieces, first recorded and released as the opening track on the album ‘Letter from Home’.  Playing any track from that album ignites an instant Pavolvian response, and particularly the sweeping majesty of the piece entitled ‘5-5-7’.  In 1989 while on a riding holiday in Utah en famille, we were caught in flash flooding on rugged terrain outside of Moab.  Our horses were spooked by lightning that hit the ground not more than 30 yards from where we were trying to shelter from the storm.  My then seven year old daughter was also spooked and dismounted.  The rest of us followed suit much to the chagrin of the hapless wrangler who had led us out on an evening when the gathering clouds were an indication that he should have known better.  After leading the horses back to the ranch through the most intense storm I have ever experienced, there were four very muddy pairs of cowboy boots that needed two longish afternoon sessions to clean and polish.  While I sat on the porch of our wooden cabin in the shadows of a large mesa with a beer or two I listened repetitively to ‘Letter From Home’ on my Walkman.  Along with the other albums recorded between 1978 and 2005 under the name of Pat Metheny Group ‘Letter From Home’ contains an intoxicating expression of Jazz based on powerful melodies the sounds of which are imbued with influences from many other genres, Latin, Oriental, Electronica, Fusion, Rock Choral and Classical.  ‘Letter From Home’ is one of the albums I recommend as a starter pack to those not yet familiar with Pat’s music.

The starting point for this Blog has not yet been considered in anything more than a cursory reference.  Simply stated, will the 16 year old music fan of today who downloads an Adele recording – legally or illegally – and who never buys a CD, still feel the same way about that track in 25 years time?  Let’s take a simple example.  There must be a million stories of particular pieces of music being indelibly associated with the rawness of feelings of first romance.  Imagine a sixteen year old experiencing first love today to the sound of ‘Set Fire To The Rain’.  Let’s also suppose that like many teenage romances it eventually runs its course and ends with much emotion but no long term negative feelings.  Will our 2012 teenager-in-love have the same feeling of attachment to a digital file as her mother may have to a 45 vinyl single of Whitney Houston’s ‘Saving All My Love For You’ that she received as a Valentine’s gift from the boy she met at the school gates?  Perhaps personally inscribed with handwritten references to the lyrics, the gift from across the years will be as much a part of the memory of a seminal life experience as the music it contains.  Flipping through records on a shelf – or in a box of bric à brac when it emerges from the back of a cupboard – arguably adds a physical dimension to the experience of recorded music that is totally absent when calling up a file on a computer or shuffling tunes on an iPhone. 

In terms of the shift in the nature of the relationship between music lovers and their music, the rise of the MP3 is having a potentially even more far reaching effect – but that’s for another time.  After all, there are no rules to this Blog and even if there were I’ll make them up myself and they will evolve as the Blog develops. 

‘Letter From Home’ by Pat Metheny Group is a CD released by Geffen in 1989.  Whitney Houston’s ‘Saving All My Love For You’ is a vinyl single released by Arista in 1985.  I don’t own Adele’s records but I like what I have heard and imagine that many of her songs will become enduring to the generation that is now falling in love to and with them. 

Next Posts 

The next three posts coming soon: (1) Blog Rules - OK? (2) Sounds of the Sahara: Tinawiren’s Thursday night gig at Shepherd’s Bush Empire reviewed (3) Mysterious Travelers - a lost 1971 Weather Report performance rediscovered