Weather Report – Live In 1975 In Berlin

The legendary American jazz rock/jazz fusion band Weather Report performed a great concert in 1975 in Berlin. The respective concert was immortalized on both live album format (vinyl/CD) as well as on DVD in February 2011. As this concert unfolded during the pre-Jaco period of the band (when the group was still in a transition period from an experimental sound to a more full-fledged, well structured, and compositional one), so to put it, Alphonso Johnson still fulfilled duties in the rhythm section on electric bass.

Weather Report only performed 5 songs at this concert, but each had a commending length. Moreover, all the songs performed were featured on the three most recent studio albums released by the group at the time of the concert, more specifically ‘Sweetnighter‘ (1973), ‘Mysterious Traveller‘ (1974), and ‘Tale Spinnin’‘ (1975). Consequently, the setlist of the concert was as follows:

1. Freezing Fire (from ‘Tale Spinnin”);
2. Scarlet Woman (from ‘Mysterious Traveller’);
3. Mysterious Traveller (from the namesake studio album);
4. Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz (from ‘Tale Spinnin” and ‘Sweetnighter’ respectively).

The band’s line-up for this concert was the following one:

• Josef ‘Joe’ Erich Zawinul (keyboards);
• Wayne Shorter (saxophone);
• Alphonso Johnson (electric bass);
• Chester Thompson (drums);
• Alejandro Acuña (percussion).

The concert has a total length of 41 minutes and 40 seconds and was performed at the Berliner Philarmonie. For those interested, the concert can be bought in live album format (on either CD or vinyl) on Amazon here.

Therefore, that being said and without any further needless ado or unwanted spoilers on my behalf, I wholeheartedly recommend integrally watching and listening to the fantastic and legendary concert by Weather Report in Berlin in 1975 below, embedded in a video format via Youtube.

Documentation sources and external links:

• Live in Berlin 1975 by Weather Report on www.rateyourmusic.com