weather report tale spinnin
5
By avantgroidd
The review above is clearly intended for Weather Report's debut featuring drummer Alphonse Mouzon and the late Zawinul's sickly sweet 'Orange Lady'. WR's first was a fine album in its own right no doubt. it's just not the same thing as 'Tale Spinnin'-- a bona fide undersung classic. Mainly methinks because it came between the stellar 'Mysterious Traveler' which preceded, and Jaco's bigtime debut on 'Black Market', which followed. Be all that as it may, TS is as meaty bouncy and maaaaaad phonky as any album WR ever made.Not least thanx to the deep diving whirlygig pocket of bassist Alphonso Johnson, (Weather Report's second 'Alpho-'male), power n' finesse drummer Ndugu Leon Chancler and percussion wizard number 3(after Airto and Dom), Alyrio Lima. TS is also as relentlessly lyrical as any WR too thanks to Zawinul and Shorter's superlative, cliche-allergic compositional chops. Why Zawinul's 'Badia' and 'Five Short Stories' haven't become modern jazz standards is damn near attributable to xenophobia (though you can hear those tracks influence in every movie soundtrack composed since that attempts to conjure a now-generic hybrid Asian North African Middle Eastern atmosphere). Shorter's bullseye tenor, as paradoxically buoyant and melancholic as ever, especially slays on 'Five'. Overall there's a bubbly, organic effervescence and transparency going on here that was, I think, lost on subsequent albums--as superb, ( and even more rockin',in spots)as some of those were, Heavy Weather notwithstanding. But this version of WR sounds especially 'in tune' with itself, more relaxed and comfortable in its skin than others, and therefore more prone to self-editing and insuring grandstanding got kept to a minimum. In hiphop terms TS just has mad-flow, not to mention a surfeit of rich,succulent melody,wicked 'groove-ocity' and seductive sonic ear candy to keep you constantly tickled, animated and intrigued. If this is fusion, nobody ever did it more elegantly,musically or flavorfully.
