The twist is this isn’t just re-telling it’s finding a context that’s true but not replication and one that finds proper space for vocals that does justice to the instrumentalism.
A slice of live Slovak action that’s twice as nice as it sees a coming together of one of the most credible jazz rock fusion bands since Weather Report in tandem with one of the most applauded male jazz singers since Mark Murphy in Kurt Elling – to reiterate a claim often made in these pages: he is up there with Gregory Porter and Ian Shaw all masters at work and a triumvirate who have fully flowered since the Velvet Fog departed this vale of tears as if he passed on the baton to them.
Kurt Elling and the Yellowjackets have joined forces for a bold, live reimagining of some of Weather Report’s most enduring compositions, captured on Play Weather Report Alive in Europe + Bonus Studio Recordings, out today via Elling and Bryan Farina’s label Big Shoulders Records, his home after a lengthy stint at English indie Edition illuminated most of all by his superb collaboration with Panamanian master Danilo Pérez – Secrets Are the Best Stories and there is a link to that in the glassy stillness and shared communion found on ‘The Fanfold Hawk’ and ‘A Certain Continuum’ lashed together to become a tapestry of dream weaving.
This latest album, recorded during the 50th anniversary of the Bratislava Jazz Days, finds Elling bringing his distinctive vocal approach and original lyrics to a repertoire defined by Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius, while the Yellowjackets supply their signature blend of acoustic fluency and electric groove.
Shorter’s compositional voice is represented most tellingly within ‘Pallas’ Palace (Palladium)’, which is just brilliant the soaring, harmonically rich piece from Heavy Weather (1977) providing scaffolding. That was Weather Report’s best‑selling album and a landmark of jazz‑fusion that also featured ‘Birdland’ and ‘Teen Town’. ‘Palladium’ has an admirably raucous opening in this arrangement. I prefer the live version to the studio one – Elling’s vocalese here is breath taking and deserves a hatful of awards for just that portion of the number.
The audience start to go a bit potty for ‘Palladium’. After all – you want atmosphere on a live album and you get it here.
Shorter’s influence is further felt in the group’s interplay and improvisatory approach throughout the set. Joe Zawinul’s presence is marked by ‘Current Affairs’, taken from the final Weather Report studio album, Weather Report (1982), a track that blends Zawinul’s synth‑led textures with Shorter’s saxophone lyricism.
For years I thought the natural successors to Weather Report, however different their sound, were Snarky Puppy. But this live recording where Yellowjackets place their tanks on the lawn with hefty authority and conviction debunks such armchair general thinking.
Nestled among these Weather Report classics is ‘Intrigue’, a Bob Mintzer original that first appeared on the Yellowjackets’ 2022 album Parallel Motion – a sleek, jazz‑funk number that sits comfortably alongside the fusion heritage of the main repertoire.
Elling is Zelig like in being in all the right places at all the right times whether it’s in a crowd of rhythm or rattling around in a lonelier avenue of gaping space that only he knows how to fill
The collection is completed by three bonus studio recordings that offer a more intimate, refined counterpoint to the live energy. They are certainly cleaner and less febrile, the yin to the yang of the equally terrific Slovak ones. Featuring Elling with pianist Joey Calderazzo, guitarist Mike Moreno, bassist Dane Alderson and drummer Marcus Finnie, these tracks are ‘The Elegant Ride’, ‘Pallas’ Palace’ and in-one’s-cups ditty ‘The Face in the Barroom Mirror’. The studio ‘Elegant Ride’ is better than the live one, mainly because of the use of sticks on glistening cymbals at the outset rather than the thump of toms on the live opening and the slightly more exacting feel.
‘The Face in the Barroom Mirror’ is another Shorter composition supplemented by Elling’s Waitsian lyrics and isn’t on the live tracks, its moody harmonic landscape providing a fitting close to the album’s dual live and studio narratives. Rating: ****
“Elegant People” is a Wayne Shorter composition and appears on their album BLACK MARKET.