Mysterious Voyages: A Tribute To Weather Report CD

Tributee: Weather Report.
Personnel: Karim Ziad, Cyril Atef (vocals, hand claps); Bart Fermie (vocals, percussion); Mamady Keita (vocals, sampler); Torsten de Winkel (guitar, electric sitar, programming); Rocco Zifarelli (guitar, guitar synthesizer); Chuck Underwood (guitar, loops); David Fiuczynski, Tony Carmona, Scott Henderson & Tribal Tech, Hiram Bullock, John McLean , Jon Herington, Alex Gunia, Michael Landau, Richard S. (guitar); Steve Tavaglione (electric guitar, alto flute, recorder, bass clarinet, EWI, sampler); Antonio Forcione (nylon-string guitar); Marcus Miller (bass clarinet, bass guitar); Holger Czukay (English horn); Clive Stevens (saxophone, keyboards); Yuri Honing (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Bill Evans (soprano saxophone); Andrej Olejniczak, Bob Malach (tenor saxophone); Audun Waage (trumpet); Christian Jacob, Michael Wolff, Rachel Z (piano); Michiel Borstlap (grand piano, Fender Rhodes piano); John Ozment (electric piano, organ, synthesizer); Scott Kinsey (organ, keyboards, vocoder, programming, sampler); Gary Willis (keyboards, fretless bass); David Garfield, Philippe Saisse, Aydin Esen (keyboards); Patrice Rushen (synthesizer); Neil Stacey (guitar synthesizer); Terje Gewelt, Larry Kohut (acoustic bass); Janek Gwizdala (electric bass, programming); Omar Hakim (drums, snare drum, cymbals); Mark Merella, Marco Minnemann (drums, percussion); Dennis Chambers, Tony Ruption Williams , Gene Lake, Michael Klaukien, Christoph Buhse, Angel Celada, Adam Nussbaum, Kenwood Dennard, Kirk Covington, Allison Miller, Paco Sery, Sean Rickman, Terri Lyne Carrington, Joost Lijbaart (drums); Steve Ferrone (bass drum); Brad Dutz (congas, percussion); Don Alias (congas); Andy Narell (steel drum); Heiko Himmighoffen, Frank Colon, Munyungo Jackson, Paulinho Da Costa, Arto Tuncboyaciyan (percussion); Zach Danziger (drum programming); Oren Waters, Roy Galloway (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Dan Gellert; Paul Pouwer; Scott Kinsey; Bill Schnee.
Liner Note Authors: Clive Stevens; Ulrich Vormehr.
Recording information: AtM Studio, Cologne, Germany; B&C Studios, New York, NY; Chicago Recording Company Studio 5, Chicago, IL; Copenhagen, Denmark; Digital Biko Studios, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA; Fey-Tontechnik, Frankfurt, Germany; Millesuoni Studio, Rome, Italy; Principal Studios, Otmarsbocholt; Red Door Studios, Kensington, MD; Startrack Studio, London, England; The Cookie Factory, Oslo, Norway; The Crib; The Live Wire Recording Studio, New York, NY; The Town House, London, England; The Track House, Los Angeles, CA; Timelock Studio, Cologne, Germany; Tommy Tadesco Studio, Hollywood, CA; Waltz Audio; Wilibrord Audio Productions, The Netherlands; Willibrord Audio Productions.
Photographer: Gerhardt Koch.
Arranger: Karizma.
This double-CD has 24 different groups of fusion musicians (including some from Europe) paying tribute to Weather Report. Despite the personnel and often the instrumentation changing from track to track, there is a unity to the project and many of the bands sound quite a bit like Weather Report, either purposely as part of the tribute or naturally. The programming is somewhat random and the bands bring back the sound, grooves, and spirits of Weather Report rather than necessarily always sticking to their compositions. All in all, this is a heartfelt and very well-played tribute that can also serve as an introduction to a cross-section of some of today's top fusion musicians, many of whom are not household names yet. ~ Scott Yanow