The legendary American jazz rock/jazz fusion band Weather Report performed at the distinguished Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland at Casino de Montreux in 1976, more specifically on 8 July 1976. At that time, the line-up of the band included revolutionary and innovative bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius. The full line-up of the band which performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976 was as follows:
- Josef ‘Joe’ Erich Zawinul – keyboards;
- Wayne Shorter – saxophone;
- Jaco Pastorius – electric bass;
- Alejandro ‘Alex’ Acuña – drums;
- Manolo Badrena – percussion and vocals.
For this brilliant performance, the band played a series of songs from several previously released studio albums but also from the latest studio album released by them up until that point, namely ‘Black Market‘ (issued earlier in March 1976). In point of fact, most of the songs performed at that edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival most of the songs were played from ‘Black Market’.
Jaco Pastorius, legendary, innovative, and revolutionary bass virtuoso live with Weather Report at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1976. Image source: www.youtube.com
Aside from the freshly-released ‘Black Market’, Weather Report also performed the already classic jazz bass standard ‘Portrait of Tracy‘ (included on Jaco Pastorius’ eponymous official debut solo studio album also released in 1976) as well as a solo Joe Zawinul song (i.e. ‘Dr. Honorius Causa’, coupled, that is, with a Miles Davis song entitled ‘Directions’) and one from the critically-acclaimed ‘Mysterious Traveller‘ (1974) as well as one from ‘Tale Spinnin’‘ (1975). Last but not least, there had also been two improvisations performed, one being represented by a drum and percussion duet whereas the other by a piano and saxophone duet.
The setlist of the concert was as follows:
- Elegant People;
- Scarlet Woman;
- Barbary Coast;
- Portrait Of Tracy;
- Cannon Ball;
- Black Market;
- Drum And Percussion Duet;
- Piano And Saxophone Duet;
- Dr. Honoris Causa And Directions;
- Badia;
- Gibraltar.
Therefore, that being said and without any further needless ado on my behalf, I wholeheartedly recommend integrally watching and listening to the following remastered version of the legendary 1976 concert of Weather Report at that year’s edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival. Enjoy and all the best!