Weather Report

Weather Report – Tale Spinnin’ (1975) [Reissue 2018]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 42:58 min | Front/Rear Cover | 1,94 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Front/Rear Cover | 957 MB
Features Stereo and Quadrophonic Surround Sound | Vocalion # CDSML 8550

Tale Spinnin’ is the fifth studio album by Weather Report, recorded and released in 1975, featuring the addition of Leon “Ndugu” Chancler on the drums. Ndugu was recruited after Josef Zawinul heard him play with Carlos Santana. Weather Report was recording next door to Ndugu in the studio, and Chancler was asked to join them for a recording session. That session ended up lasting a week and produced Tale Spinnin’. After the record, Ndugu was asked to join the band as a permanent member, but declined in favor of continuing to work with Carlos Santana.

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Weather Report – Night Passage (1980) [Reissue 2018]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 48:01 minutes | Scans included | 749 MB
or DSD64 2.0 (from SACD-ISO to Tracks.dsf) > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans included | 1,91 GB
or FLAC (carefully converted & encoded to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Full Scans included | 1,03 GB
Features Stereo Sound only | Vocalion # CDSML 8541

Night Passage is the eleventh album by Weather Report, released in 1980. The tracks were recorded in August 1980 at The Complex studios in Los Angeles (before a crowd of 250 people who can be heard on a couple of tracks), except for “Madagascar”, recorded live in Osaka, in June of the same year. The album introduces a new member to the band, percussionist Robert Thomas Jr. Night Passage loses the over-done production layers of some of Weather Report’s earlier releases (most notably 1978’s Mr. Gone). What is lost in layers of overdubs is made up in solo improvisation in the classic jazz tradition.

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Weather Report – Heavy Weather (1977) [Audio Fidelity 2017]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 37:52 minutes | Scans included | 1,52 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Full Scans included | 782 MB
Mastered by Kevin Gray | Audio Fidelity # AFZ-258 | Genre: Jazz

Weather Report were a jazz supergroup formed in 1970, best known outside the jazz world for their hit “Birdland”. Heavy Weather is Weather Report’s 7th album, released in 1977 through Columbia Records. It is the band’s 2nd album with bassist Jaco Pastorius. On Black Market, Pastorius played on 2 of the 7 tracks, but here he is a full member of the band. It is on the short list of LP’s considered to be the greatest of all Jazz-Fusion recordings. (more…)

Weather Report – Tale Spinnin’ (1975/2016)
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 >1-bit/2.8224 MHz | Full Scans 300dpi | 688 MB
FLAC 2.0 24bit/88.2 kHz | Full Scans 300dpi | 851 MB

Weather Report’s ever-changing lineup shifts again, with the somewhat heavier funk-oriented Leon “Ndugu” Chancler dropping into the drummer’s chair and Alyrio Lima taking over the percussion table. As a result, Tale Spinnin’ has a weightier feel than Mysterious Traveller, while continuing the latter’s explorations in Latin-spiced electric jazz/funk. Zawinul’s pioneering interest in what we now call world music is more in evidence with the African percussion, wordless vocals, and sandy sound effects of “Badia,” and his synthesizer sophistication is growing along with the available technology. Wayne Shorter’s work on soprano sax is more animated than on the previous two albums and Alphonso Johnson puts his melodic bass more to the fore. While not quite as inventive as its two predecessors, this remains an absorbing extension of WR’s mid-’70s direction. (more…)

Weather Report – Heavy Weather (1977) [Reissue 1999 (2002)]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 37:39 minutes | Scans included | 1,58 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 797 MB

Weather Report were a jazz supergroup formed in 1970, best known outside the jazz world for their hit “Birdland”. Heavy Weather is Weather Report’s 7th album, released in 1977 through Columbia Records. It is the band’s 2nd album with bassist Jaco Pastorius. On Black Market, Pastorius played on 2 of the 7 tracks, but here he is a full member of the band. It is on the short list of LP’s considered to be the greatest of all Jazz-Fusion recordings. (more…)

Weather Report – Black Market (1976) [Japanese SACD 2001 #SRGS 4576]
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 36:58 minutes | Scans included | 1,5 GB
or FLAC(converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Scans included | 716 MB

Weather Report were a jazz supergroup formed in 1970, best known outside the jazz world for their hit “Birdland”. This is Weather Report’s sixth album and the first with the bass player Jaco Pastorius who features on two tracks. Black Market is an instrumental jazz fusion album. The album draws heavily from African influences and its style could be described as “world fusion”. The second song, “Cannon Ball” is tribute to Zawinul’s then recently deceased former band leader, saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley.

The first two Weather Report albums to feature Jaco (and two of their very best) were combined on to a single cassette, containing the smash hit “Birdland”. If cassette was your format, this was a great way to pick up two great albums, but it is now out of print. (more…)

Weather Report – Mysterious Traveller (1974) [Reissue 2002] {2.0 & 5.1}
PS3 Rip | ISO | SACD DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 47:55 minutes | Scans included | 2,97 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | 48:05 mins | Scans included | 974 MB

Weather Report started out as a jazz equivalent of what the rock world in 1970 was calling a “supergroup.” But unlike most of the rock supergroups, this one not only kept going for a good 15 years, it more than lived up to its billing, practically defining the state of the jazz-rock art throughout almost all of its run.

Weather Report’s fourth recording finds Wayne Shorter (on soprano and tenor) taking a lesser role as Joe Zawinul begins to really dominate the group’s sound. Most selections also include bassist Alphonso Johnson and drummer Ishmael Wilburn although the personnel shifts from track to track. “Nubian Sundance” adds several vocalists while “Blackthorn Rose” is a Shorter-Zawinul duet. Overall the music is pretty stimulating and sometimes adventurous; high-quality fusion from 1974. (more…)