Sosnowiec – Westwood
1 September 2023
for immediate publication

GAD Records and the Joe Zawinul Estate present “Live in Berlin 1971” – an unpublished concert by Weather Report. The album will be released on October 27, 2023.

The release, available in limited two-disc CD and LP editions, showcases Weather Report at the beginning of their rich and colorful career. Recorded in Berlin on September 3, 1971, the performance brings unbridled fusion born from the experiences of playing with Miles Davis and elevated to an entirely new level. A sensational must-have for every enthusiast of the genre.

Weather Report is a jazz-rock icon. Led by keyboardist Joe Zawinul, the group left a lasting mark on music history with their revolutionary sound and the creativity of the musicians who formed it. In their work, they combined jazz finesse, rock power, and Latin energy, etching their memory in the minds of listeners worldwide with the rhythmic “Birdland” from the album Heavy Weather (1977). However, before ascending the charts and appearing on “The Midnight Special,” they broke conventions and fusion boundaries at the outset of their careers.

Live in Berlin 1971 is a record of the band’s achievements shortly after releasing their eponymous debut album. Elaborate, free forms serve as the perfect vehicle for solo and collective improvisations, highlighting melodic, harmonic, and tonal inventiveness. The concert program includes compositions known from the group’s debut album, as well as “Directions,” performed by Zawinul alongside Miles Davis, and “Moto Grosso Feio” from Wayne Shorter’s solo album of the same name.

In Berlin, apart from the original Weather Report line-up (Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Miroslav Vitouš, Alphonse Mouzon, Dom Um Romão), three special guests appeared: saxophonist Alan Skidmore (John Mayall, Ronnie Scott, Soft Machine), trombonist Eje Thelin (Don Cherry, Krzysztof Komeda), and John Surman (John McLaughlin, Karin Krog, Jack DeJohnette). The trio were well-known figures on the global free jazz scene, and their energetic improvisations seamlessly align with the sound of Weather Report at the time, complementing the cascades of Zawinul’s Fender Rhodes and Shorter’s powerful saxophone cadences. The sound and energy of that evening are hard to find elsewhere.

The recording was produced as part of a series of jazz workshops organized by NDR radio in Hamburg. The workshops brought together the most prominent creators in the European jazz circle and beyond. Weather Report’s participation in this extraordinary endeavor, overseen by Michael Naura, was a major attraction of the “Berlin Radio Show.” The musicians not only prepared a short performance for television but also played a full-length concert at the Haus des Rundfunks in West Berlin, a monumental building designed by the world-renowned architect Hans Poelzig. And it is this recording that fills the two discs of Live in Berlin 1971.

“This concert is like a key to a locked room where we discover previously unknown secrets of my father’s and the band’s creative journey,” says Tony Zawinul, son of Joe Zawinul and executor of his estate. “It’s an incredible experience that transports us directly to those days. I’m incredibly proud of this album. I hope Weather Report fans will embrace it with open arms and an open heart.”

“We are extremely excited,” says Michał Wilczyński, head of GAD Records. “I didn’t expect that fifteen years of our record label would be celebrated in such a unique way. Live in Berlin 1971 is a sensational piece, documenting the earliest period of Weather Report’s activity, previously omitted in the group’s official releases. We are very happy to fill this gap with an electrifying album that allows a better understanding of the band’s history and phenomenon.”

Live in Berlin 1971 will be released on October 27, 2023, both as a 2CD album (with the full concert recording) and in a limited 2LP edition. The vinyl edition will be available in three variants: as a black LP and two colored versions – one available through GAD Records and the other in the official Weather Report store. The album is accompanied by a text written by acclaimed German journalist Wolf Kampmann, an author and expert in European jazz. Kampmann unveils the behind-the-scenes of the band’s formation and recounts the atmosphere of that evening. The album is released as part of a collaborative partnership between GAD Records and Weather Report.

Łukasz Hernik
dyrektor artystyczny
GAD Records
tel. +48.690.990.799
gadrecords.pl
kultowenagrania.pl

Studio guest in this edition of “Music Across” is filmmaker and composer Anthony “Tony” Zawinul, son of world-famous legendary Jazz musician Joe Zawinul. The first passion in his youth was sports, being Californian champion in long jump, who could not participate in the Olympic games in 1980 in Moscow, because they were boycotted. His father was also a big sports fan, and the world of arts was primarily opened up for him by his mother, Maxine Zawinul. He made his first film in New York when he was still a kid. Tony talks about how he came to the film business, how the corona pandemics affected his life and his work in the last two years, about his brother Erich who died in February 2021 following COVID-19 disease, and about upcoming events and releases celebrating the 90th birthday of his father, Joe Zawinul, in July 2022. The music in this show will be presented by Tony as well. Music that he liked when he was a kid, music that he liked to share with his brother Erich, music the whole family listened to when they were on vacation, and music his father liked to listen to, when he was not working on his own music. Did his parents sing a lullaby for him when he was a kid ? What was the last song he listened together with his brother at his flat in Vienna during the first corona lockdown in March 2020 ? – Tune in, and get to know. Tony also let’s us know that his father had a good sense of humor, and he even tells a joke, his father would tell. Lean back, listen, learn, be surprised, and have fun !

Listen to the Show