Tail Spinnin
In the period between the departure of bassist/co-founder Miroslav Vitous and the arrival of his eventual successor, Jaco Pastorius,Tale Spinnin'represented the most fully realized vision of Weather Report's collective aesthetic. In bassist Alphonso Johnson, drummer N'Dugu and percussionist Alyrio Lima, Zawinul & Shorter finally found a rhythm section with the deep groove they required for funk, but with the flexibility and open conception to navigate the complicated extended forms the leaders were composing, while adding musical intangibles to the improvisational environment. From the surging changes of Zawinul's "The Man in the Green Shirt," to the dancing variations of Shorter's "Lusitanos," it's clear that the two composers are pursuing a decidedly Latin direction; Shorter displaying an expansive, exploratory verve on the former, and complementing Zawinul's orchestral colors with pithy, focused melodic accents on the latter. For that time (and many years to come) Zawinul set the pace in the use and integration of synthesizers into the traditional keyboard orbit, humanizing their sound, complementing the percussionist's colors on the funky "Between the Thighs" and soloing with horn-like abandon on "Freezing Fire," while employing a broad palette of timbres on the mysterious "Badia" and the moody "Five Short Stories."--Chip Stern