COMPOSERS: Weather Report
LABELS: Gonzo Media Group
PERFORMER: Joe Zawinul (keyboards), Wayne Shorter (sax), Miroslav Vitous (bass), Alphonze Mouzon (drums), Dom Um Romao (percussion)
CATALOGUE NO: HST001DVD
Offering an excellent and major find from the archives of the German TV show Beat Club dating from a year when the band was barely a year old and had only their first, eponymous album in the catalogue, this DVD offers a remarkable insight into the loose, intuitive sets that marked the pre-Jaco Pastorius unit’s style.
Owing as much (but not too much, for those who find the prospect alarming) to free jazz as to the lurking spectre of funked-up prog rock which was to define later pieces such as ‘Black Market’ and ‘Birdland’, this performance is a rare and delightful opportunity to enjoy the band’s early days.
Content-wise there are no extra features (no great loss) and while sound and vision quality inevitably loose a star purely because of the age of the recording, this is in no way a significant issue and certainly shouldn’t dissuade you from grabbing this release right now. Roger Thomas