Weather - "Birdland"

[stevie nice]

Alright, I know this is very far leftfield, and it's going to have a very limited response. However...

This, and also the Crusaders "Street Life" is about as commercial as you're gonna get from "ZZZ-Jazz" or whatever they call it now (Smooth Jazz, right?)

But, if you are unfamiliar with it and appreciate the whole late 70s-mid 80s r&b scene, this is definitely a logical step into a slight excursion out of that realm.

This is as commercial pop as Jazz gets, and it's a shame this was not a major (or at least a top40) pop smash. The musicians on this particular cut are like a who's who of Jazz in the 60s-70s. Wayne Shorter does the sax work on this track, and god this guy is well respected in music circles. But you also got Joe Zawinul on all keyboards and synths!! This guy must be in like 10 of the first 20 issues of Keyboard magazine I ever read!! And then Jaco Pastorius??? This is like one of the pre-eminent fusion jazz bassists ever!! Seriously, I would not be surprised if many older alternative bassists, Flea for instance, were at least semi-influenced by him. He also did a show one night at my friend Rory's stepfather Bernie's place he was managing, "Birdland East."

So if you're curious to check out or give a listen to, ask me, I just DLed most of the album its from "Heavy Weather" which is why I brought it up. I kinda had a little bit of a heart for some of this stuff, Chick Corea, George Benson, Crusaders, Joe Sample, The Weather Report stuff that included this album, Mr Gone (which I think was really abused by critics but I thought was awesome) and Black Market, and Chuck Mangione and some Stan Getz stuff (very expressive saxist.) My daddy was into a lot of this, as well as s**t from scott joplin thru beatles and zappa, sinatra was prolly his fave, i have at least 100 of my dads sinatra albums at my moms house now, but he got me into a lot of this stuff, and when he moved to Beirut in 1981 or so, used to listen to the BBC there and give me tips on all these bands that made it big here, from Eurythmics, (he thought they were called euromystics, in a letter he sent me) Duran Duran, Culture Club, "Being Boiled" by Heaven 17, omg, that was even before they made it in the US, but I gotta give my daddy props, he had an ear for s**t.

Sorry to ramble, anyone else familiar with Birdland?

[irock]

yes, i'm familiar with it. in fact, i have the album on vinyl. i remember triple-z jazz (i think it's generally called 'fusion' nowadays), birdland is an excellent example of that genre. one artist you didn't mention was another favorite of mine: spyro gyra. i still have several of their records from the late 70s and 80s. favorite track was the title from 'catching the sun'.

[mst3k]

I'm familiar with the song... the version that pops into my head is by the Manhattan Transfer. I'm sure that I've heard the Weather Report's, though... my dad always listened to that type of music while I was growing up.

[stevie nice]

irock said:

yes, i'm familiar with it. in fact, i have the album on vinyl. i remember triple-z jazz (i think it's generally called 'fusion' nowadays), birdland is an excellent example of that genre. one artist you didn't mention was another favorite of mine: spyro gyra. i still have several of their records from the late 70s and 80s. favorite track was the title from 'catching the sun'.

Spyro Gyra was another yeah, I only at first remembered "Morning Dance" because of it's pop success, but I've heard several later things from them that weren't bad. I don't believe my dad had any of their stuff. Now Chuck Mangione I was pretty much worn out on prior to his pop breakthrough "Feels So Good" because of my dad.

Just to add this late, I have "Morning Dance" on a 45!! the original release on Infinity Records, I think is the label, it's the same label that Hot Chocolate's "Every 1s a Winner" is on.

[stevie nice]

mst3k1 said:

I'm familiar with the song... the version that pops into my head is by the Manhattan Transfer. I'm sure that I've heard the Weather Report's, though... my dad always listened to that type of music while I was growing up.

You know something Aaron, now that you mentioned it, their version I do remember, it was a vocal version and I didn't like it I guess because I was more familiar with Weather Report's, which I think is the original. But I do have one Manhattan Transfer album, it was originally my dads, and it's the only one I'm familiar with, called "Extensions," it had their big hit "Twilight Zone" (they did 'boy from nyc' or something like that which I didnt like, but I liked "Twilight..." a lot, which now that I think about it isn't necessarily a good thing. But their version of "Birdland" is on it, and so is their version of "Shaker Song" which I think is a Spyro Gyra song for some reason. Things really do always seem to meld together, to me at least, when it comes to music.

[reception]

It's an okay song.

[Deleted]

Probably one of the best known jazz fusion or smooth jazz tracks of all time. I like it.

[Saul H.]

What terrific pioneers! Fantastic tune with the tremendous Jaco Pastorius!