..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page     The Desert Island     Copyright Notice
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


Weather Report: Tale Spinnin'

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Columbia Records
Released: 1975
Time:
 43:01
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.binkie.net
Appears with: Joe Zawinul, Jaco Pastorius
Purchase date: 2002.11.14
Price in €: 9,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Man in the Green Shirt (J.Zawinul) - 6:28
[2] Lusitanos (W.Shorter) - 7:24
[3] Between the Thighs (J.Zawinul) - 9:33
[4] Badia (J.Zawinul) - 5:20
[5] Freezing Fire (W.Shorter) - 7:29
[6] Five Short Stories (J.Zawinul) - 6:56

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


JOE ZAWINUL - Piano, Keyboards, Mellophonium
WAYNE SHORTER - Soprano & Tenor Saxophone, Mixing
LEON "Ndugu" CHANCLER - Cymbals, Drums, Tympani
HERSCHELL DWELLINGHAM - Drums
ALBERT JOHNSON - Bass Guitar
ALYRIO LIMA - Percussion
ALPHONSO JOHNSON - Bass, Electric Bass
TONTO - Synthesizer, Keyboards

BOB BELDEN - Reissue Producer
BRUCE BOTNICK - Engineer, Mixing
KERRY MCNABB - Engineer
MARK WILDER - Mastering
SETH FOSTER - Mastering
SETH ROTHSTEIN - Project Director
HOWARD FRITZSON - Art Direction
TERESA ALFIERI - Cover Design
RANDALL MARTIN - Design
JOHN BERG - Photography, Cover Design
FONG Y. LEE - Packaging Manager
PATTI MATHENY - A&R
STEVEN BERKOWITZ - A&R
DARREN SALMIERI - A&R
ROBERT HURWITZ - Liner Notes
HAL MILLER - Liner Notes

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1994 CD Columbia 57905
1975 LP Columbia 33417
1995 CD Columbia 476907
1995 CS Columbia PCT-33417
2002 CD Sony 65110



Weather Report's ever-changing lineup shifts again, with the somewhat heavier funk-oriented Leon "Ndugu" Chancler dropping into the drummer's chair and Alyrio Lima taking over the percussion table. As a result, Tale Spinnin' has a weightier feel than Mysterious Traveller, while continuing the latter's explorations in Latin-spiced electric jazz/funk. Zawinul's pioneering interest in what we now call world music is more in evidence with the African percussion, wordless vocals, and sandy sound effects of "Badia," and his synthesizer sophistication is growing along with the available technology. Wayne Shorter's work on soprano sax is more animated than on the previous two albums and Alphonso Johnson puts his melodic bass more to the fore. While not quite as inventive as its two predecessors, this remains an absorbing extension of WR's mid-'70s direction.

Richard S. Ginell - All Music Guide
© 1992 - 2002 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



Released in 1975, and here offered in a straight reissue, with no added material, Tale Spinnin' was either a transitional midperiod album for Weather Report or a time out, depending on your perspective. It's a breezy and attractive album, but without the substance or staying power of their best efforts. The band's ever-changing lineup now included drummer Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, who deepened the funk lines provided by bassist Alphonso Johnson, while Joe Zawinul delved further into African rhythms and otherwise widened his global concerns, and coleader Wayne Shorter pared down his sound on soprano saxophone. There are melodic hints of the heavy weather to follow, but the Zawinul-Shorter duet on "Five Short Stories" (featuring the former on keyboards and the latter on tenor) falls short of their lyrical achievement on "Blackthorn Rose," one of the highlights of 1974's Mysterious Traveller.

Lloyd Sachs - Amazon.com



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 - Amazon.com



"...arguably Weather Report's finest hour, coming before the thunderous BLACK MARKET and the more poppy HEAVY WEATHER...It offers music of shimmering beauty, full of light and color..."

Q Magazine (12/94, p.173) - 4 Stars - Excellent



Tale Spinnin' sets up a hypnotic groove, loose and funky with more than a touch of Afro-Latin in the rhythm section and engaging melodic detail on top. The compressed lyric intensity and experiments in acoustic/electric orchestration which lent Weather Report's recent Mysterious Traveller its intriguing surface and structural intricacy are largely missing, and only Josef Zawinul's "Man in the Green Shirt" and "Five Short Stories" have themes which leave lasting impressions. Neither tune is as singularly beautiful as Traveller's "Jungle Book" or "Blackthorn Rose," but Traveller was one of the most stunning instrumental LPs of the year. Despite its relative lightness, Spinnin' convinces once again that Weather Report is the most adventurous, meticulous and consistently stimulating band working in the electric-jazz idiom.

Shorter's Native Dancer features four Brazilian musicians under the direction of singer/songwriter Milton Nascimento and five Americans, among them a restrained Herbie Hancock. Most of the material is by Nascimento and the other pieces (by Shorter and Hancock) have a definite Brazilian flavor. Modern Brazilian pop is incredibly kinetic, achingly lyrical and extremely passionate, as opposed to the cooler Bossa Nova of the early Sixties, and it is easy to understand why expressionist Shorter would be intrigued by it. Those who follow Brazilian sounds closely may be somewhat disappointed by Dancer's concept, since it lacks the glossy production veneer of Nascimento's own recordings and basically grafts Shorter's soprano and tenor onto a preexisting structure which seems complete in itself. Others will conclude that Shorter is copying Gato Barbieri, who was playing Brazilian pop material with Stanley Clarke and Airto several years ago and sounding very much like some of this. But Shorter can say more by varying the timbre of one note than most saxophonists can in an entire phrase and his sincerity and the ravishing lyricism of Nascimento's "Ponta de Areia" and "Lilia" should overcome any skepticism. Dancer isn't everything a contemporary Brazilian/American fusion could be, but on its own terms it's a delight.

BOB PALMER - RS 190
© Copyright 2002 RollingStone.com
  

 L y r i c s


Instrumental!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!