Weather Report Live In Offenbach, Germany (1978)

On 28 September 1978, the legendary American jazz rock/jazz fusion band Weather Report performed a great live concert in Offenbach (Offenbach am Main) in Hesse, Germany. The then line-up of the band also included tremendously talented, technical, and amazing bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius who also played more than his regular musical duties for the band, excelling at a Jimi Hendrix live cover and a fantastic electric bass solo.

The line-up of Weather Report for this concert was as follows:

• Josef ‘Joe’ Erich Zawinul – keyboards;
• Wayne Shorter – saxophones;
• Jaco Pastorius – electric bass;
• Peter Erskine – drums.

The band performed a series of songs ranging from ‘Mysterious Traveller‘ (1974), ‘Tale Spinnin’‘ (1975) as well as the relatively recent, for the concert date that is, ‘Black Market‘ (1976), ‘Heavy Weather‘ (1977), and experimental ‘Mr. Gone‘ (1978), which was, as you can clearly notice, released during the same year. Jaco also played a song which is recorded on his debut self-titled solo studio album released in 1976, more specifically the bass standard (and also instrumental jazz standard) ‘Portrait of Tracy‘, a very fine, delicate, and gentle tribute to his first wife, Tracy Sexton. As part of his extended solo, Jaco performed a fine personal rendition of ‘Third Stone from the Sun’, a very beautiful Jimi Hendrix song for the connoisseurs.

The setlist of the concert included the following songs:

1. Black Market;
2. Joe’s keyboard intro into Scarlet Woman/Liftoff;
3. Scarlet Woman;
4. Young and Fine;
5. The Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat;
6. A Remark You Made;
7. River People;
8. Thanks for the Memories (Wayne Shorter solo on tenor saxophone);
9. Dolores/Portrait of Tracy/Third Stone from the Sun (Jaco Pastorius bass solo);
10. Mr. Gone;
11. In A Silent Way;
12. Waterfall;
13. Teen Town;
14. I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good (Joe Zawinul keyboard solo);
15. The Midnight Sun Will Never Set On You (Joe Zawinul & Wayne Shorter);
16. Birdland;
17. Introductions;
18. Fred & Jeck (Peter Erskine drum solo);
19. Elegant People;
20. Badia.

Therefore, that being said and without any further needless ado or any unwanted spoilers on my behalf, I wholeheartedly recommend integrally watching and listening to the following legendary concert by Weather Report (with its golden line-up) in Offenbach am Main in Germany on 28 September 1978. All the best and keep on listening to jazz rock/jazz fusion!

Documentation source:

• The Youtube video description of the embedded video above