Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra were the two giants of the first and greatest wave of jazz rock / fusion in the early 70’s. It is interesting to note the involvement of the British and Europeans in this movement. John McLaughlin was an Englishman and Weather Report founders included Austrian Joe Zawinul and afro American Wayne Shorter. Keyboard/synthesizer virtuoso Joe Zawinul and woodwind magician Wayne Shorter formed Weather Report in 1970 after working together on Miles Davis’ trailblazing album projects “In a Silent Way” and “Bitches Brew” in 1969 and 1970 respectively. Weather Report recorded 15 albums for Columbia Records over a 16 year period including the first album “Weather Report” with Alphonse Mouzon (drums), Miroslav Vitous (bass), Airto Moreira (percussion), Joe Zawinul (keyboards) and Wayne Shorter (sax).

Their most prominent period took place during the mid seventies when Jaco Pastorius on bass, Alex Acuna on drums and Manolo Badrena on percussion joined the group. This edition recorded their greatest album “Heavy Weather”, which included the hit “Birdland”, sold the most units and attained gold status. Weather Report was like a revolving door workshop for some of the contemporary talent of the time employing star clusters of gifted musicians like bassists Alphonso Johnson, Jaco Pastorius, Andrew White and Victor Bailey, percussionists Airto Moreira (Brazil), Dom Um Romao (Brazil), Alyrio Lima (Brazil), Alejandro Acuna (Peru), Manolo Badrena (Puerto Rico), Bobby Thomas jr., José Rossy and Mino Cinelu (Martinique/ France); Drummers Alphonse Mouzon, Herschel Dwellingham, Eric Gravatt, Leon ‘Ndugu’ Chancler, Narada Michael Walden, Chester Thompson, Peter Erskine and Omar Hakim. The band utilized complex arrangements along with virtuoso solos and pioneered usage of world music rhythms and electronic synthesizers. Their music defied categorization and description and was a harbinger of the coming global music revolution. This double CD compilation features tracks by various modern artists either creating their own dynamic arrangements of Weather Report compositions or producing original sonic paintings based on weather report consciousness.

Weather Report was one of the most spectacular modern music groups in any genre of the late 20th century.

Please check out this CD, you won’t be dissapointed ...