Albert Mangelsdorff, trombone
Alphonse Mouzon, drums
Bob Malach, tenor saxophone
John Lee, electric bass
01 - Title (AM,dr-solo) 4:43
02 - Foreign Fun (AM,comp,AM-tb-AM,dr-duo) 8:41
03 - Title (AM-tb-AM,dr-duo) 5:33
04 - Virtue (AM,comp,AM,tb-BM,ts-AM,dr) 10:03
05 - Poobli (AM,comp) 12:38
06 - Title - Ann AM 13:06
Recorded on Juky 23, 1977 at Festival de Jazz d'Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, France.
FM
Here's another contribution by inamorata. The picture above is from the www and was shot during the concert in Oissach (no name given for the photographer).
Weather Report
3. Internationales Musikforum, Stiftshof
Ossiach
June 27, 1971
Source: FM or SBD
The earliest known live recording of WR
01 Firefish 13:57 >
02 Unidentified 2:01 >
03 Early Minor 8:15
04 Morning Lake 4:37 >
05 Waterfall 6:38
06 Umbrellas 7:22
07 Piano intro (Orange Lady theme) > Eurydice 14:36
08 Seventh Arrow 5:35 >
09 Unidentified 2:34
10 Orange Lady 11:03
Joe Zawinul, piano & keyboards
Wayne Shorter, tenor & soprano sax
Miroslav Vitous, bass
Alphonse Mouzon, drums
Dom Um Romao, percussion & flute
This show is relatively well circulated, but in variable sound quality, often with the sequence of compositions mixed up and/or one track missing (Eurydice was officially released) or otherwise incomplete. The date given for most versions, July 27, is also incorrect.
This new and uncirculated version is remastered from the best of several versions I picked up over the years, a trade CD I received from an Austrian collector. It appears to be fairly close to the original source but has the usual issues coming with several generations of cassette copies (pitch slightly sharp, azimuth errors, clicks and other artifacts). I have corrected all of these and remastered the sound, and I doubt you will find a better version of this historic show.
Considered to be the earliest known live recording of Weather Report, this represents what might be called the 'consolidated' first line-up with Dom um Romao having replaced Airto Moreira (and the other percussionists, Don Alias and Barbara Burton, who also contributed to the eponymous first album but remained uncredited). Alphonse Mouzon was still on board.
The venue was the 'Third International Music Forum Ossiach' in Carinthia, initiated by Friedrich Gulda, which brought together such diverse acts as, among others, Paul and Limpe Fuchs, Tangerine Dream, Arvind Parikh, Le groupe liturgique de Tunis, Pink Floyd, The Trio, and Gulda himself playing Mozart. While the audience sounds rather polite and restrained during the Weather Report show, Ossiach was flooded by enthusiastic hippies when Pink Floyd played on July 1st. The natives were shocked and as a consequence Gulda's festival had to move to Viktring, also in Carinthia, for the next editions. Selected recordings from the festival, made by the Austrian radio and TV network, ORF, were released on a three-LP sampler by BASF under the title Ossiach Live. This includes, as mentioned, Eurydice from the Weather Report set, in a very different mix from what we have here. The 2 CD edition from 2008 appears to be unofficial.
JThe appearance of a Weather Report recording here may raise some highbrows amongst the more serious-minded of you. I also think that the later WR stuff, after they became successful, left much to be desired, but this early recording, I think, is really special because of the artists guesting on it. If you've enjoyed the recent Surman postings, you'll like this. (and Skids is not bad either !) Details: Weather Report Funkausstellung, Berlin, 3 Sep 1971 Weather Report: Joe Zawinul, piano & electric piano Wayne Shorter, tenor & soprano sax Miroslav Vitous, bass Alphonse Mouzon, drums Dom Um Romao, percussion & flute with Eje Thelin, trombone Alan Skidmore, tenor sax & flute John Surman, bass clarinet, soprano & baritone sax CD1 (65:31): 01 - I Will Tell Him On You / Early Minor / Firefish / Early Minor 24:16 02 - Sunrise 15:29 03 - Moto Grosso Feio 13:45 04 - Directions 12:00 CD2 (47:11): 05 - Morning Lake / Waterfall 9:22 06 - Umbrellas 6:48 07 - Orange Lady 10:58 08 - Dr Honoris Causa 15:39 09 - Eurydice (incomplete) 4:22 NDR Radio Broadcast I think all the tunes are WR's, I'm not familiar with all their repertoire. The distinctive WR sound is still there, but much freer than their later recordings. I would be interested to now how Surman, Thelin and Skidmore came to play this gig, and whether it was a one-off or repeated. Surman went on to play in a quartet led by Vitous some years later. I found this some time ago on a torrent (not dime). It's only ripped at a fairly modest 192kbps. Perhaps, as it comes from a radio show, it was broadcast at 192 digital and this is as good as it gets. If anyone has a genuine higher bit rate copy, please feel free to post it, but to my ears this sounds pretty good.
For those of you looking for some funky, chunky, Jaco Pastorius jams, this isn't the place. For those looking for extremely free playing where Mangelsdorff's trombone runs wild and chaotic, this isn't it either. For the fusion freaks entranced by Alphonse Mouzon's skittering drum work that stops and starts on a sliver of light, best look elsewhere. For the rest, who are seeking great jazz in any configuration, this just might be your ticket. Recorded at the Berlin Jazz Days in 1976 and originally issued on LP while Pastorius was at the height of his tenure with Weather Report and playing an all-Mangelsdorff selection, this trio delivers an inspired performance that relies on timing, virtuosity, and a little humor for its bread and butter. The title track is the opener, and its slight abstraction is quickly replaced by Pastorius suggesting the frame of the melody to his counterparts, who pick it up and glide. On "Zores Mores," knotty little post-bop lines are woven into an easy framework of Mouzon's dancing hands and a solid yet very flexible interplay between the trombonist and Pastorius' ever-inquisitive basslines. The shimmering tension between the trio's members is all heat on "Accidental Meeting," the closest piece to pure abstraction here, but Mangelsdorff insists on, at the very least, the articulation of jazz formalism. "Foreign Fun" starts out like surreal circus music, but quickly walks the razor's edge between Weather Report's more adventurous material and noirish jazz. The set closes with the groaning humor of "Ant Steps on Elephant's Toe," a bumping, bubbling, dub-style cut that features Mangelsdorff blowing fully out of the blues and Pastorius playing the very best Aston Barrett he can. The dub effect gives way to funk about halfway through, and Mouzon becomes animated, doubling and tripling his cohorts in a joyful dance of curiosity and discovery. This cut is street-tough, plenty nasty, and leaves the audience -- and listeners too, no doubt -- begging for more.
Trilogue - Live : Live "Berlin Jazz Festival", Berlin, November 6, 1976
Albert Mangelsdorff, tb/Jaco Pastorius, eb/Alphonse Mouzon, perc.
01 Trilogue
02 Zores Mores
03Foreign fun
04 Accidental meeting
05 Ant steps on an elephant's toe
MP3s links in comments, if interested, ape or flacs would be offered.