Weather Report
Tale Spinnin'

Set List

1. MAN IN THE GREEN SHIRT (ZAWINUL)

Josef Zawinul: Melodica, Rhodes piano, TONTO synthesizer, ARP 2600 synthesizer
Wayne Shorter: Soprano Saxophone
Alphonso Johnson: Electric Bass
Alyrio Lima: Percussion
Ndugu: Drums

On the original LP inner sleeve, Zawinul explained the background behind this composition:

I was in St. John in the Virgin Islands on the Fourth of July and there was this incredible old man, black and old, the blackest eyes you ever saw. Now everybody was dancing and nobody paid any attention to him; he was wearing a long green shirt. The music was unbelievable--they had the St. Thomas Steel Band, the original one, the best in the world. The man in the green shirt was there, out there dancing by himself, and I've never seen anyone dance like this incredible old black man in my life. It was his age, his maturity, his wisdom.

2. LUSITANOS (SHORTER)

In 1976, Jurg Solothurnmann of Jazz Forum magazine asked Zawinul to describe his role as "orchestrator," as he was credited on Tale Spinnin'. "What's happening exactly when someone brings in a piece?" he asked Zawinul. "Let's take Wayne Shorter's 'Lusitanos.' How do you proceed?"

"We start playing the piece exactly the way it's written," replied Zawinul. "In 'Lusitanos,' all the chords and the melody are by Wayne. But I improvised the little melodies on top of it as you can find them also on 'Mysterious Traveller.' After all, I don't write anything down. Later, after the recording of the main tape, I go back to the studio--mostly without Wayne--let the tape run and orchestrate, improvise, on top of it. That's my way of 'orchestration.' You know, from all we record we get tape cassettes. I take them home, listen to them again and again, think about it and begin to hear many things that would go along with it, melodies and sound that would get different vibrations of it." [JF76]

Wayne Shorter: Soprano and tenor Saxophone
Josef Zawinul: Acoustic piano, TONTO synthesizer, ARP 2600 synthesizer, organ
Alphonso Johnson: Electric Bass
Alyrio Lima: Percussion
Ndugu: Drums, tympani, marching cymbals

3. BETWEEN THE THIGHS (ZAWINUL)

Josef Zawinul: Steel drums, ARP 2600 synthesizer, TONTO synthesizer, Rhodes electric piano
Wayne Shorter: Soprano Saxophone
Alphonso Johnson: Electric Bass
Alyrio Lima: Percussion
Ndugu: Drums, tympani

Conrad Silvert wrote, "Zawinul writes extremely complex charts, with melodies, variations, unexpected bridges--the element of surprise is paramount. And yet nearly every song has at least one or two amazingly catchy motifs, which seem to continually dive and resurface later on, in different clothes. Two examples are 'Between The Thighs' from Tale Spinnin' and the title track of Black Market." [DB78b] Ndugu told Glasser, "On 'Between The Thighs,' I'd say 90 per cent of it was done live, as opposed to layering. Joe didn't change anything that was already there; he just enhanced or embellished." [IASW, p. 171]

SIDE B

4. BADIA (ZAWINUL)

Josef Zawinul: Out, melodica, mzuthra, vocal, West Africk, xylophone, acoustic piano
Alphonso Johnson: Electric Bass
Alyrio Lima: Percussion
Ndugu: Drums

In a 1978 interview, Zawinul told Michael Zipkin, "I wrote this tune in 1956. You see, I had this girlfriend in Cairo, and her name was Badia. She was a night club dancer." [BAM78] Ndugu told Brian Glasser, "When we did that cut 'Badia,' he sang this one little thing to us, and that was the whole approach to the whole song. He played on the piano [the ascending two- and three-note motif], and then he started singing [the descending Japanese-sounding vocal figure], and that was it! From that little, haunting melody that song evolved." [IASW, p. 171]

"Badia" became a concert staple for Weather Report, and in later years it was paired with "Boogie Woogie Waltz" in a medley, as can be heard on the album 8:30.

5. FREEZING FIRE (SHORTER)

Wayne Shorter: Soprano Saxophone
Josef Zawinul: Rhodes piano, ARP 2600 synthesizer, cymbals
Alphonso Johnson: Electric Bass
Alyrio Lima: Percussion
Ndugu: Drums

6. FIVE SHORT STORIES (ZAWINUL)

Josef Zawinul: Acoustic piano, organ, ARP 2600 synthesizer
Wayne Shorter: Tenor Saxophone


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