Weather Report

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Weather Report was an American jazz rock band, founded in 1970 by the Austrian keyboard player Joe Zawinul, the American saxophonist Wayne Shorter and the Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš. Zawinul and Shorter had known each other since 1959 from Maynard Ferguson's big band. Both played on the groundbreaking Miles Davis albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. With their own band they wanted to get away from the fixed forms of jazz, in which a theme is followed by solos in turn.

Music and breakthrough

The first records, such as Weather Report (1971) and I Sing the Body Electric (1972), were free and experimental, with a lot of group improvisation. From Sweetnighter (1973) Zawinul steered the band towards funk and groove, with influences from rhythm and blues and from music from other parts of the world. Vitouš left, and after Alphonso Johnson the bassist Jaco Pastorius joined in 1976. With him the music became more melodic and the band reached a large audience. Heavy Weather (1977), with Zawinul's song Birdland, became their best-known record. In 1986 Weather Report came to an end.

Influence

Alongside Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, Weather Report was regarded as one of the defining bands of jazz rock. Zawinul always used the latest synthesizers and searched for new timbres. Shorter played with restraint and attentive listening, and Pastorius made the fretless bass guitar popular as a melodic instrument. In this way the band built on what Miles Davis had begun with Bitches Brew.

Listening

• 
  Milky Way · Weather Report, 1971
• 
  Boogie Woogie Waltz · Weather Report, 1973
• 
  A Remark You Made · Weather Report, 1977
• 
  Birdland · Weather Report, 1977
  Apple Music ↗
• 
  Black Market · Weather Report, 1976
• 
  Teen Town · Weather Report, 1977

Discography

Studio albums

• 1971Weather Report
• 1972I Sing the Body Electric
• 1973Sweetnighter
• 1974Mysterious Traveller
• 1975Tale Spinnin’
• 1976Black Market
• 1977Heavy Weather
• 1978Mr. Gone
• 1980Night Passage
• 1982Weather Report
• 1983Procession
• 1984Domino Theory
• 1985Sportin’ Life
• 1986This Is This
• ?1983

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Jazz Map^NL Map
• Mixtape 5: Jazz Festival^NL Reader
• After Hours: Session 3^NL Reader
• After Hours: Session 4^NL Reader

See also

• Mysterious Traveller
• Black Market
• Mr. Gone
• Night Passage
• Fusion and jazz rock
• Jazz-funk