Hi Pierre,
Thanks for bringing up my book. With respect to the Black Market chapter, the reason I cover five of the tracks on Black Market before bringing Jaco into the story is because those tracks were recorded before Jaco arrived on the scene. The only tracks on Black Market that include Jaco are "Cannon Ball" and "Barbary Coast." Alphonso Johnson plays on the other five tracks. He was also in the studio when the band first tried to record "Cannon Ball." Midway through the recording process, Joe and Wayne started auditioning bass players and wound up bringing Jaco from Florida to try him out. So that's when he enters the picture. With Jaco and drummer Narada Michael Walden, the band successfully recorded "Cannon Ball." Jaco also made it a condition that one of his tunes be included on Black Market in order for him to join the band. Hence, "Barbary Coast."
Regarding "Birdland," you are correct that there are certain riffs on that tune that Joe was playing live beforehand on "Dr. Honoris Causa."
All the best,
Curt Bianchi
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On Jan 22, 2022, at 4:56 AM, Music by Mail <
pierre@...> wrote:
Hi guys,
Hope ya'all goin'
fine and healthy! Wintertime and cold temperatures, slower
business activity, finally gave me plenty of time to read
Curt's book, an excellent reading filled with a lot of
pleasure and - faithful to WR's tradition - experimentation. I
got in mind to read the book while playing at the same time
the records associated to the chapters I was reading; if it
went too fast, I would either supplement with live stuff from
that same period and ... this was a lot of fun, having me to
in fact listen back to all the band's official output!
And while I was doing
this, I crossed something I wanted to share with you. I hadn't
been aware of it before or even thinking of it but I found out
that
premises of Weather's hit Birdland already can be heard back
to 1975! It happened while I was listening to the Live and
Unreleased double CD. Listen to CD2's last track and at around
6:15, you clearly hear Joe playing what would become the
tune's intro riff, later characterized by Jaco's harmonic's
trade mark. Joe repeats it a few times before the tune moves
on back to the Dr. Honoris Causa / Directions motive.
Maybe it's already
known since long but I had never conscienceously thought of it
before. I had also stumbled upon another live ocurrence of it
(can't remember which) and finally today fell upon by pure
chance on this video:
(already at 0:30)
so it has certainly been in the can many times, as a
programmed part in the playing, not just a one-off
improvisation.
Closing with a little
comment on Curt's book. After having been accustomed to the
track by track analysis and listing of players following, I
was somehow wondering why - on the Black Market chapter -
exception was made and tracks were dissecated as usual but
without no mention of Jaco's name until quite late on the
chapter (this for non afficionados). Curt, was there a
specific reason behind? In any case many many thanks for the
great passionate job and helping me to go through winter :-)
Cheers everyone,
Pierre
