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35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely Freezing Fire!!!, October 8, 2002
Weather Report was the Jazz Fusion group of the 70's & 80's. During the period inwhich Ken Burns declared "Jazz died", Joe Zawinul & Wayne Shorter created some of the most intelligent and creative music period. Blending worldly rhythms around well thought out compositions and throwing in some improvisational fire to boot, Weather Report grew to become one of the most recognized music groups in the Columbia stable. During their 15 year recording duration, Weather Report went through four very distinct periods, each of which evolved around the bass player and a revolving group of percussionist. These periods are defined by Miroslav Vitous (71-74), Alphonso Johnson(74-76), Jaco Pastorious (77-82)and finally, Victor Bailey (83-86). This CD captures pieces of six various concerts from three of those four periods. It would have been nice to throw in a live version of "Boogie Woogie Waltz" or "125th Street Congress" from the Miroslav Vitous period. It could have painted a very colorful picture of how the music evolved over the 15 year time-span that Weather Report recorded.The music is hot and furious in places and flat out cool and uneven in others. I wish the producers would have sequenced the songs in the order they were recorded instead of trying to make this sound like one long concert. The hottest tracks seem to come from the 1975 concert. "Freezing Fire", "Cucumber Slumber" and "Man In The Green Shirt" just flat out smoke. On these tracks the chemistry is magical - Zawinul and Shorter are locked in while the rhythm section cooks. Shorter blows his best when the bassist pushes him, and nobody did it quite like Alphonso Johnson. The Jaco Pastorious band excels on "Elegant People", "Black Market" and "Port of Entry". Here again, Shorter smokes while Jaco flirts and dances around him on bass. The rhythm sections always provided plenty of energy for the band to build an effective launching pad. This is great stuff. The tracks that don't work well include "Where The Moon Goes". It was easy to like the studio version of this song because Manhattan Transfer worked their magic on the vocals, but the vocorder synthesizer version here does not work at all. It sounds out of place - yet, points to where the group was headed at the time - downhill. If you can program your CD player to play the tracks in the order they were recorded, it becomes very obvious that the magic had left by the time the 1983 concert was recorded. Overall, this double-disc is a good representation of Weather Report in various live settings. I can only hope that somewhere in the Columbia vaults is the rest of that November 27, 1975 London Concert awaiting release, along with a couple of live tracks from the 71-74 Miroslav Vitous band. Until then, this will have to do.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lively Fusion!!, October 16, 2002
"Live and Unreleased" is a good summation recording of Weather Report captured live. This double disc was compiled from six different concerts from 1975 to 1983. The 18 tracks are performed by every variation of the Shorter/Zawinul band, with exception to the Miroslav Vitous/Dom Romao group from the early 70's. I wonder why that group was omitted.The music is presented in true Weather Report fashion - hot and furious. Present are the complex rhythms and superb solo's. Bass and percussion grooves run deeper than the Nile while Zawinul and Shorter build one impressive solo after another. Classics like "Birdland", "Black Market", and "Port of Entry" are well represented here, but the standout tracks include "Freezing Fire", "Cucumber Slumber", and "Man In The Green Shirt" from the 1975 concert. Here, you will find Shorter and Zawinul at their best with Alphonso Johnson laying down the grooves while Chester Thompson and Alex Acuna drive the rhythms. I wish I could hear that complete concert. For me, that band was the best combination that Zawinul & Shorter put together. The chemistry of the group with Jaco Pastorious on Bass also provides great musical moments, but sometimes his pyrotechnics got in the way of the music - like on "Portrait of Tracy", but he makes up for it on "Port of Entry" and "Night Passage". The last iteration (1983) of the group was the weakest and it shows on "Where The Moon Goes." This is the weakest track on the CD and seems out of place on this recording. The group was fading by the time this track was recorded. Today, Weather Report is still considered the best Jazz Fusion band period. "Live and Unreleased" validates that statement. Through all the various iterations of the group - Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul never forgot that their job was to create exceptional music. This CD captures the magical spirit of the fusion era, and is a welcomed addition to the Weather Report collection.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mind blowing for any Weather Report fan, August 3, 2003
This is superb - a must own for any W.R. fan.
For people not familiar with the music of Weather Report this is as good a place as any to start - perhaps even better than certain other places, as the recording dates and personnel vary throughout the two discs (which together make 130+ minutes of Weather Report's music - written at different time periods by different composers.)
What you'd expect from a CD released by a band that hasn't played together in almost 20 years is most likely nothing exceptional.
The majority of such attempts result in distorted productions which often disappoint fans...well, THIS is an exception!
I saw this product and thought "Oh, what the hell...I own all the others; why not give this one a chance," knowing that it would probably wind up on the shelf to collect dust after one or two listens...But I was wrong!
The sound quality is outstanding - you can hear every note...I don't understand why they waited this long to produce it, as there's musicianship is outstanding as well.
Some of the takes are performed here with better energy than on the original studio takes (or on earlier live albums.) For instance, the song "Black market" has a better vibe and clearer sound here than on the 8:30 album.
"In A Silent Way" is brief but very beautiful. Great work by one of our all time best and most personal soprano-sax players.
"Night Passage" is an outstanding performance. If you know the original, you'll get a kick from hearing a band play this well LIVE!
These are recordings from 5 different concerts from 1975-1983.
3 tracks feature Victor Bailey on bass; 5 tracks feature Alphonso Johnson; and 10 tracks feature Jaco Pastorius (this set will give as big a kick to Pastorius influenced bass-players as any other WR album.)
Drummers are Acuña (10 tracks), Erskine (5 tracks) and Hakim (3 tracks.)
ENJOY, which you are likely to.
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