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For many fans this Weather Report set is sure be a great delight. To someone with little or no prior familiarity with the band, the three CD's found in FORECAST: TOMORROW offer a nice sampling of tracks taken from the various 1970's and 1980's albums featuring keyboardist Josef Zawinul, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and various other band members. However, if you prefer the approach that Columbia/Sony have taken with, for example, the reissuing of their Miles Davis recordings, you'll be a little less satisfied. With the Miles Davis material, Columbia/Sony have chosen to issue a number of boxed sets, each focusing upon a specific period, band, or recording project. The thoroughness of such an approach [with, as in Miles' case, many unreleased items included] means that even long-time devoted fans who may own all of the original LP's will still find amply compelling reasons to purchase the reissue boxed sets. When, in the mid 1970's, I first discovered Weather Report, I made it a point to buy each LP as soon as it was issued. The appearance of each new record was a big event, as advertised and publicized by the jazz media. I'm not the kind of buyer to which FORECAST: TOMORROW is mainly intended to appeal. Yet, I bought this set because it does contain a few previously unreleased tracks and a fourth disc--a DVD--that presents a complete concert by the 1978 version of the band. [Such is the mentality of a completist.] However, here are a couple of kinds of Weather Report boxes that I'd eagerly grab up were they ever to be made available: [1] a box of unreleased live stuff from virtually any incarnation of the band; or [2] an extensive look at the production of one particular album--provided that sufficient unissued material exists. 1974's MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER album is one of my suggestions as a good candidate for this kind of approach. Admittedly, this latter idea is feasible only if, say, two or three discs can be filled with relevant unissued tracks or fragments: most of us aren't in a position to know about the availability of such things. In 2002 a two-disc set was issued with the title WEATHER REPORT: LIVE AND UNRELEASED. For me that was a much more satisfying set: it was all new stuff to my ears. If you've not discovered that set, pick up a copy. If that set is more to your liking, you'll also want to check out the WOLFGANG'S VAULT web site for a September 1973 live performance of the band. Similarly, YouTube has some interesting live glimpses of Weather Report performances from time to time--some of them going back to the earliest years. I add a word or two about the DVD concert recording. Jaco Pastorius' great skill and flamboyant style had gained him a following by the time of this performance. Quite simply, if you're a big Jaco fan, you need to have this. However, I'm one of those persons who found the band to be more intriguing when it was a quintet, not a quartet. When the fifth member was a percussionist like Dom Um Romao or Manolo Badrena, the band had a rhythmic, ethnic flavor that was otherwise missing. The best way to describe this set is simply to say that if you need something along the lines of what it is intended to be, you'll like it. At the same time, for many of us the ultimate five-star Weather Report box has not yet been issued. Perhaps one of these days . . . . By the way, the enclosed picture-packed book is a great plus.Read full review
I'm a Weather Report fan, saw them in the 70s on Jaco's last tour with them in NYC and that show forever changed my approach to bass playing and music arrangements. Those who wish to understand the connection between the music experiemnts of Miles Davis and the evolution of Weather Report during the late 60s and early 70s will find a wealth of material on these CDs. The DVD is another story: a bit grainy, the camera isn't really following the action well and the performance shows the 4 members vying for attention with a little excessive soloing instead of supporting such great musical themes as Wayne's "A Remark You Made". But given the lack of good video performances, including this DVD in the set was in retrospect a good idea as it helps complete the picture of the rise and demise of a truly stellar 70s fusion band. The set is worthy of your attention just for the CDs alone, but the DVD is a nice bonus if you never got the opportunity to see them in action as I did.Read full review
If you are really interesting in the way (jazz) music is evolving to the music we now hear: hip-hop; rap; world music, you can't leave Weather Report laying on the shelf. Weather Report's Zawinul/Shorter/Pastorius and Erskine is a trait d'union between Miles Davis and the younger generation of Jazz musicians like Jason Moran, US3. Sampling, use of keyboards and we speak of 1978! Weather Report was a step ahead in there time. Now we see also in the Jazz computer sampling etc. Very useful in this box set is the DVD of a concert footage in Germany in 1978: 2 hours of music making on the edge of a time. Pure jazz in the past. Funk, Jazz rock and "oriental influences" round the corner. This box set is a really forecast of tomorrow.