XXHighEnd

The other night I played "I Sing The Body Electric" Weather Report which I have not played for a couple of years. This is an old favourite of many years ago. But WOW I had not realised the sound quality is as good as I am now hearing. I had to leave it and play it again tonight just to be sure that that my imagination was not hearing things or maybe suffering from some kind of hallucination (I did have mushrooms for lunch). The sound quality is unbelievable fantastic - there are sounds coming from all over the place - deep deep base that sounds like thumping on the house foundations in places. This has to be the closest to live music in the home I have ever heard.

I would be interested to hear from anyone else who has this album and listening with XX 202 W10 because I cannot remember it sounding quite like this.

Paul

Hi Paul,

yes, great pieces of music. We have a "wooden" house, so no "ultra" deep bass here.
Another great LP from Weather Report is "Mysterious Traveller".

Joachim

Hi Joachim, Yes indeed and as it happens I put Mysterious Traveller on after and was surprised that the SQ is right up there as well. A great evenings listening haven't listened to them for some time.

Paul

Yesterday I put it ready in the Playlist for playing, but it got out of it because of "development" and then of course I forgot. I just put it in there again, but ...

Thanks,
Peter

Hi Paul,

It again disappeared from the Playlist, but I thought of it again ...

Well, to me, especially the beginning of the first track sounds just live. Unless all those smaller "cymbals" are not that at all of course.

But what you can nicely see from this album is how "massive" Weather Report actually is, although I don't know with whom and how many the band was at that time (but I recall TV recordings with easily 10 people and it will never disappear from my brain because of how good those performances were).

What I always have problems with is the just a tad of too modern Jazz, while I'm sure that in the "old days" they played more normal stuff as well. It is only that I never really had it. Say that today I do, but that I don't know what it is (and I try it often and am always a bit disappointed). What I mean of what I do NOT like is the often "dissonant" playing like also on this album. Understand what I mean ? Put an off key (played) clarinet against a well tuned piano. Now you have modern Jazz (as how it was named 40 years ago) and I don't like that for music as such.

Thus, any "normal" albums around from Weather Report, that you know of ?

Thanks ...
Peter

I know what you mean but I suppose I am partial to some dissonance. Mysterious Traveller is certainly less dissonant and more mainstream - at least to these ears.

I won't introduce you to the second Viennese School just yet then  ;) (Schoenberg, Berg, Varese and Webern et al) and definitely not Ornette Coleman (who sadly died last week) as that is main stream dissonance. But at least it does not have the sound of 80's "modern" jazz.

Cheers

Paul

Thank you Paul. Going to try it soon ...

Regards,
Peter

"Sweetnighter" is a another great album from Weather Report, which I listen quite often - amazing SQ.
BTW, in the track "125th Street Congress" of this album the  HipHop rythm was created by Joe Zawinul for the first time ever.

Kind regards
Richard