WEATHER REPORT

With the recent passing of Wayne Shorter (March 2^nd of this year) the iconic Jazz Fusion Band Weather Report has lost the third of it’s core and most influential members. First there was the untimely passing of Jaco Pastorious ( Sept. 1987) followed next within days of exactly  twenty  years later by his fellow Joe Zawinul (Sept. 2007.) These three seminal musicians, each were individually profound as well as collectively. Each musician a ground breaker for their chosen instrument and in their collaborative achievements when they came together as Weather Report. Mr. Shorter for saxophone, Mr. Pastorious, electric bass and thirdly Mr. Zawinul, key boardest. They mastered music and created sounds and thematic themes comparable to the world’s greatest music. They  crossed, mixed and created  forms, genres and styles within their efforts. And in the passage of time their legends have grown and continue to flourish.

The men of Weather Report were visionaries and artistic explorers in a very real sense. They inter-acted and played with the greats of their times; Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Pat Methany, Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana and Esperanza Spalding to name a few. They played with and composed hit music for other recording artist that would become modern standards; Mercy/Mercy/Mercy, Birdland and Steely Dan’s Aja’.  Earth, Wind & Fire, Patrice Rushen and The Manhattan Transfer are among luminaries featured on their albums. They loved and were dedicated to literature, philosophy, the arts and sciences. It is all reflected in their music and life pursuits. Their music resides among the most imaginative, innovative, challenging and beautiful the world yet knows.   

               Jaco Pastorious                          Joe Zawinul                         Wayne Shorter

This blog is a celebration of these artist’s lives and what they have given the world. For such accomplished artist of their sort nothing speaks more eloquently or profoundly for them than their recordings. I have included links to some of their most stunning music along with the gorgeous album covers that house it.  Here as tribute to their greatness I hope you will enjoy!

 Mr. Gone  “Young & Fine” 

8:30   "A Remark You Made"

Heavy Weather   "Palladium"

Procession   "Where the Moon Goes"

Night Passage   "Three Views of a Secret"

Weather Report   "When It Was Now"

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was the first photographer I fell in love with. It was and remains a total infatuation. Her Iconic and brilliantly honest work, her mastery of her chosen instrument and the decisions, journalistic and artistic are representative of the vision sublime.

Lange’s camera and eye were drawn to those on the fringes of society. The Invisible American’s; those numbering among the forgotten or ignored became her subjects of choice. The results are remarkable in their simplicity and directness. She was a serious photographer. Her works date her to a time when life was many times more brutal and devoid of the excess and glitz of our times.  Her prime years depicted many of America’s most trying: the Great Depression, The Dust Bowl Era, Japanese Internment Camps and the early Plight of the Migrant Worker. Her eye sought out the universal and commonality of all Americans like no other photographer. She is from a time before the “selfie.” Lange was looking out into the world as she discovered beauty and truth among the pains of human existence, suffering and trials. Lange was a beautiful woman of heart, mind and spirit. She has given the world much through her activism and journalistic works.

The photographic compositions of Dorothea Lange speak so eloquently for themselves they need little embellishment or definition. I have included a selected portfolio of some of her best and moving treasures. I have also included a link to the documentary; “Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning” from the PBS series “American Masters.”  It centers on Lange’s preparation for her MoMA retrospective and covers many aspects of the photographer’s life in intimate detail. The life was amazing, indeed. You be the judge.  

“The camera is a powerful instrument for saying to the world: this is the way it is…

Look at it!        Look at it!”

Dorothea Lange

“Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning”