I Sing The Body Electric
	Produced by Shoviza Productions, Inc.
	Released on 1972
	US CHART POSITION #147
	Find it at GEMM
PC 31352 cover [high resolution scan]

K ronomyth 2.0: WHITMAN’S SAMPLER. The experimental second record from Weather Report may be the strangest they’ve ever made. It’s divided into two distinct halves; the first side is avant-garde jazz featuring an expanded horn section and chorus, the second side is fractious fusion excerpted from a live performance in Japan as a quintet. The opening “Unknown Soldier” is Zawinul’s symphony against war, featuring a host of effects on the synthesizer that emulate air sirens, explosions, gunfire and marching boots. Played out like some Greek tragedy for the twentieth century, the song layers horns and vocals atop the unruffled rhythm section of Eric Gravatt and Miroslav Vitous, bringing to mind some of Frank Zappa’s recent classical jazz experiments but presented in a more jazz-wise mode. The next track, “The Moors,” begins with a detuned 12-string acoustic guitar intro that is quickly if improbably swallowed by some spaced-out fusion from Wayne Shorter. Vitous’ fuzz bass, Shorter’s otherworldly horns and Zawinul’s crystal tones dominate the third track, while “Second Sunday In August” arrives like a dream, foreshadowing the music of Harold Budd and Brian Eno. Judged by these four songs alone, I Sing The Body Electric is an important work in the development of not only modern jazz, but modern music. The remaining trio of tracks, recorded live in Japan, is less interesting to my ears. The opening medley is noisy, pitting Zawinul’s confrontational keyboard sounds against Shorter’s sax; the silly “Surucucú” is interesting as an experiment in sounds but doesn’t break any vital, new ground. This second side of music simply reinforces what most listeners already knew: Weather Report was an electric fusion band with few peers. But on that first side of Body Electric, listeners were introduced to worlds they didn’t know existed. In the ever-shifting world of Weather Report, these landscapes would be abandoned in the pursuit of greener (financially) fields, but the core trio of Shorter, Vitous and Zawinul would never reach a higher creative summit together.

PC 31352 back cover

TRACK LISTING

1. UNKNOWN SOLDIER    (Josef Zawinul)    7:57
2. THE MOORS    (Wayne Shorter)    4:49
3. CRYSTAL    (Miroslav Vitous)    7:23
4. SECOND SUNDAY IN AUGUST    (Josef Zawinul)    4:04
5. MEDLEY:    10:45
     VERTICAL INVADER    (Josef Zawinul)
     T.H.    (Miroslav Vitous)
     DR. HONORIS CAUSA    (Josef Zawinul)
6. SURUCUCU    (Wayne Shorter)    7:46
7. DIRECTIONS    (Josef Zawinul)    4:37

CREDITS

JOSEF ZAWINUL -- electric & acoustic keyboards
WAYNE SHORTER -- reeds
MIROSLAV VITOUS -- bass
ERIC GRAVATT -- drums
DOM UM RAMAO -- percussion (2)
Andrew White -- English horn (1)
Hubert Laws, Jr. -- flute
Wilmer Wise -- D and piccolo trumpet
Yolande Bavan -- singer
Joshie Armstrong -- singer
Chapman Roberts -- singer
Roger Powell -- consultant
Ralph Towner -- 12-string guitar (2)
Robert Devere -- executive producer
Wayne Tarnowski -- recording engineer, mixing engineer
Don Meehan -- mixing engineer
Susumu Satoh -- engineer
Ray Colcord, Jim Tyrrell -- many thanks
Ed Lee -- cover design
Jack Trompetter, Fred Swanson -- cover art

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