From the perspective of five decades, Tale Spinnin’ would appear to represent the pinnacle of Weather Report’s discography. Its uniformity, which distinguishes it as such, also marks a marked contrast to the albums that surround it in the mythic group’s timeline.
The following album, Black Market, documents the entry of bassist/composer Jaco Pastorius into the group. The late musician, who tragically died in 1987 at the age of thirty-five, took the place of Alphonso Johnson, who had been integral to the more pronounced emphasis on rhythm on the prior album, 1974’s Mysterious Traveller.
Two years later, Weather Report released Heavy Weather, the most literal-minded recorded work of this inner-motivated, self-directed band. Not surprisingly, it confounded the jazz community even as it reached well into the mainstream with the enormously popular “Birdland.”
With the hindsight of a half-century, then, it’s clear the Weather Report long-player of 1975 consolidated an artistic evolution that would continue relatively unabated for the remainder of the group’s sixteen-year existence. Not coincidentally, the warmth and color of the music make it the most infectious of the group’s fourteen studio releases, the kinetic energy mirrored in the graphic cover design, inside and out.
Accordingly, on the longest (7:14) cut of the half-dozen, “Between The Thighs,” it’s telling that the rich percussion of Alyrio Lima and Ndugu–anchored by Johnson’s limber bass–are of almost equal prominence in the mix with Wayne Shorter’s saxes and Joe Zawinul’s battery of keyboards.
But the material itself is intrinsically unpredictable, too. The arrangements are logically tailored to illuminate the decidedly non-blues-derived elements, and as a result, there is something new to hear at virtually every turn on “Freezing Fire.”
Such distinctions are also evident in the track sequencing overseen by co-producers Zawinul and Shorter. The latter’s composition “Lusitanos” unfolds in arcing melody lines decorated most noticeably by the former’s acoustic piano. And “Five Short Stories” is a duet by the now iconic two musicians, a relatively quiet moment that nevertheless still exudes the rhapsodic energy pervading these forty-three-plus minutes.
The conclusion’s comparatively sparse nature—even with Zawinul playing the organ and the ARP 2600 synthesizer—further illuminates the exotic nature of the preceding selections. Besides defying the nebulous term ‘jazz-rock fusion,’ Badia predates the equally glib label ‘world music.’
The recording and mixing by engineer extraordinaire Bruce Botnick (who worked with the Doors throughout that band’s career) maximizes the alternately effervescent and haunting atmosphere of Tales of sound amplified in its remastered 2002 form, overseen by Mark Wilder and Seth Opium.
As noted via the reproduction of Robert Hurwitz’ original liner notes in that reissue, the various participants in the ever-changing lineups of Weather Report gleefully refused to be bound by creative boundaries. On the contrary, the multiple complements of musicians, shepherded along by Zawinul and Shorter, used that freewheeling attitude as a gateway to creativity in the studio comparable to that of their ostensible mentor, Miles Davis, on records of his like Bitches Brew.
Eventually, the titular leaders and their sympathetic collaborators transferred that approach to the stage, proffering audiences high-tech production values comparable to rock and pop concerts. In retrospect, such sophistication is a natural outgrowth of the music the band made through its career, not just at the artistic apex that is Tale Spinnin’.
