The Agora, Columbus, Ohio, October 17th 1972

A golden gift from the archives for early Weather Report fans; particularly those who rate 'Live in Tokyo' its deserved 5 (shooting) stars. This is the same line-up and much the same material from about a year later and boy does it show what a constantly evolving band should sound like. Endlessly improvising, these guys were simply unstoppable in their creative drive to reach new heights; and if a little of the rawness/tightness of 'Live in Tokyo' got sacrificed in the process then they more than made up for it in terms of cohesive euphoria and full on funk (Eric Gravatt always was the ultimate WR drummer). The audience is jubilant; the musicianship stellar; and the sound quality really quite reasonable overall. So high praise to HiHat for making it public...

Very welcome set from 1972 by a truly legendary lineup. Deducted one star for quality - there could be more top end - but you can hear everything well enough. Vitous is a very strong presence and at this point was still very much a co-leader - he is calling the shots for quite a lot of this recording and seems to be leading the group at times. Zawinul did not have the keyboard arsenal he later acquired, only the Rhodes with some distortion and an echo and (I believe) a ring modulator given to him by Santana, plus acoustic piano. However that was enough.The performance is not as focussed or well-recorded as the Live In Japan double but it is still absolutely gripping if you are a hardcore WR fan. The 1st CD opens with "Unknown Soldier" and most of the listed compositions are Zawinul ones, with the exception of Vitous' "Vertical Invader". However there is a LOT of improvisation - and I mean improvisation - here.You don't need to know anymore. If you know about this period of Weather Report you have probably bought it already. Well worth it.

They're at their peak here, as an exciting collective band, listening closely to each other, interacting, not afraid to take risks, producing music that is by turns searingly intense, or sensitive and evocative. There are really no ego-trips in evidence. Didn't Zawinul say near the beginning of their career that "everybody takes solos, and nobody takes solos"? Miroslav Vitous is at his best here, bowing the bass attached to wa-wa pedal and other devices, sounding almost like Miles Davis round this time. Joe Zawinul's playing doesn't suffer from the constraint of having only electric piano with devices; in fact it seems to stimulate his inventiveness. Later the synthesizer became too much of a good thing and fed into a kind of "designer funk" groove. Eric Gravatt and Dom Um Romao work brilliantly together as a percussion team and are given some solo time on the tracks called "Percussion." The tracks labelled "Improvisation" are just that, and seem to go down well with the audience. (King Crimson had a similar practice round this time.) As for Wayne Shorter he proves his status here as one of the most imaginative improvisers on the face of jazz. I've no complaints about the sound quality. As for comparisons to "Live in Tokyo" it's similar, but far from identical; even the few numbers that are on both albums sound significantly different, due to the band's resources of inventiveness, which is how it should be.

Excellent book