Joe Zawinul

Featuring: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Miroslav Vitous

It would not be incorrect to claim that Zawinul was the first Weather Report album with regard to both its concept and sound since all protagonists are already present: Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter and Miroslav Vitouš. This album confirms that Zawinul was the primary creative generator of Weather Report, the connecting link between the band and Miles Davis’s keyboard-laden experiments on "In A Silent Way"; indeed, the composition in its complex orchestral form as composed by Zawinul is newly arranged on this LP and creates its very own vision of this brilliant work. The two keyboarders, with the formidable Herbie Hancock alongside Zawinul, constitute the fundament for this poised and exploratory album and embellish their work with the galactic sound effects created by Echoplex and ring modulator.

The third founder of Weather Report, Miroslav Vitouš, is to be heard on the bass, and the hard bop of the trumpeter Woods Shaw proves that he is an absolute maestro when it comes to jazz rock. Earl Turbinton provides for the Wayne Shorter-like rays of light on the soprano saxophone, which Shorter himself then expresses on "Double Image". This work is the direct connection between Davis’s earlier electric recordings and Weather Report and constitutes the basis for almost all subsequent eclectic contemporary jazz projects: Miles Davis’s "In A Silent Way",the Weather Report album of the same name and this LP are an inseparable series of recordings, which document the origin of one of the most important and influential music trends of the 20th century.