WEATHER REPORT "OSSIACH, 1971"

 

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.
 

 

Trio Music - Live in Genoa '83

This is the whole concert from which it was taken the song of the
blindfold test.

Rec. live at "Villa Imperiale", Genoa, Italy, on July 25, 1983
(mix recording)

Armando "Chick" Corea,piano
Miroslav Vitous,bass
Roy Haynes,drums

01. Eiderdown (12:40)
02. Someday My Prince Will Come (07:58)
03. Chick talks #1 (0:47)
04. Mirovisions (16:36)
05. Autumn Leaves (09:05)
06. Chick talks #2/'Round Midnight (10:38)
07. Hackensack (05:50)
08. Prelude No.2 [A.Skrjabin] (06:15)
09. Duet Improvisation [C.Corea/M.Vitous] (03:40)
10. Solo [M.Vitous] (04:48)
11. Solo [R.Haynes] (07:28)
12. Slippery When Wet/Matrix (08:33)

Total Time 1:34:25

MIROSLAV VITOUS "GREEN LINE" (STORYVILLE, 1970)

Also in 2012 Nick is providing us with his fine rips - the first is: MIROSLAV VITOUS "GREEN LINE" Steve Marcus, tenor & soprano saxophone Sonny Sharrock, electric guitar Miroslav Vitous, bass Daniel Humair, drums A1. Melvin 08:52 A2. Mr. Sheets At Night 07:11 B1. Green Line 06:15 B2. The Echos 10:57 Recorded at Victor Studio, Aoyama, Tokyo on 11th September 1970. STORYVILLE SLP 1011 (this version Victor SMJX 10109 [Gatefold] - Japan). (lp rip) Nick has provided a new rip - you'll find the new link in comment 18 - I've removed the first one. .

Weather Report and "friends" - Berlin 1971

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.

Miroslav Vitous Quartet - Live Hamburg 1980

Details:

MIROSLAV VITOUS QUARTET
Live at 'Onkel Pö' in Hamburg, Germany, 1980-01-31

LINEUP

Miroslav Vitous -b

John Surman -sax,bcl

Kenny Kirkland -p

Jon Christensen -d

TRACKS

01. SILVER LAKE 12.24

02. WHEN FACE GETS PALE 9.34

03. REVISED EDITION 15.48

04. MOUNTAIN IN THE CLOUDS 14.10
Total Time: 51.57 min

Vitous of course is perhaps most noted as being a founder member of Weather Report, so was in the vanguard of early fusion. He also played in the excellent trio with Chick Corea and Roy Haynes, and more lately with Jan Garbarek.

I don't know whether this quartet played together often, but on this recording they really get it together. The first track is reminiscent of WR, Surman even sounding remarkably like Wayne Shorter. The third track starts off with a ferocious soprano solo from Surman, and turns into one of the numbers from an early album of his, I don't recall which one.

I'd never heard of Kenny Kirkland, but apparently he played with Wynton and Branford Marsalis among others and featured on Vitous's ECM recordings. He had a drugs problem and died at an early age in 1998.

This is a very good quality FM broadcast. Thanks to ricola for seeding. Links in comments.