WEATHER REPORT

TITLE: "Never Had It So Good"* [henceforth referred to as "WRB81"]

DATE:  11 July 1981

LOCATION: Boston, Massachusetts, USA

VENUE: Boston Opera House

RECORDING TYPE: Audience ["AR"]

FROM AN OFFICIAL "BLIND" WRB81 PROJECT TEST GROUP LISTENER -

"I could barely keep my jaw off the floor.  I've simply never heard
such an amazing live recording.

The things I said in the previous email about a natural sense of reverb
and decay are even more in evidence in the second sample, and the sense
of dynamics is spectacular, as we neither lose detail in the quiet sections
or get the usual distortion in the louder ones.

Part of my response is also due to the performance--I only have 3 Weather
Report CDs, but none of them prepared me for this.  In some ways, it was
almost more akin to the best King Crimson improvs. Fantastic.

I know I'm gushing, but I've never thought of audience recordings as providing
audiophile experiences. This definitely fits that bill for me. Thanks so
much for all the work you've done on this, and for sharing it. I can't wait
for the release."

A FEW ADDITIONAL WORDS ON THE PERFORMANCE -

It's Weather Report, still with Jaco Pastorius. Even so, an especially
inspired delivery by one of the greatest of all 'progressive' jazz
acts. All the elements of WR's exciting early days are there,
augmented by new blood in the rhythm section.

The band is tight and virtuosic as ever, with all the creativity and
'tease' elements in place putting their approach in the same general
category as otherwise very different acts like Yes and Genesis. Before
I previewed this recording I'd feared WR might have lost their 1970s
'edge', but was ecstatic to find they hadn't. Hopefully you will be
too.

LINEUP:

Joe Zawinul - keyboards
Jaco Pastorius - bass
Wayne Shorter - sax
Peter Erskine - drums
Bobby Thomas Jr. - percussion

SETLIST [for standard 80-minute CDR]:

[Vol. 1]

01V1 - Fast City
02V1 - Madagascar
03V1 - Current Affairs
04V1 - Night Passage
05V1 - Pastorius Solo
06V1 - Erskine-Thomas Jr. Duet
07V1 - Volcano for Hire

[Vol. 2]

01V2 - Speechless
02V2 - NYC
03V2 - Zawinul-Shorter Duet
04V2 - A Remark You Made
05V2 - Rockin' in Rhythm
06V2 - Birdland
07V2 - Badia

TAPER: Barry Rogoff (Balrog)

SOURCE: Nakamichi 550/CM-100/CP-1 [Dolby B encoded] > Maxell UD XLII

LINEAGE: Nak BX 300 [Dolby B out] > Digigram VXPocket V2 > CD quality
wave [44.1, 16 bit] > CD-R > EAC > CEP 2.0/Izotope Ozone > FLAC > Dime

REMASTER SUMMARY: EQ work to reveal - not mix - extant AR detail, as
the audience heard and felt it. No attempts to alter band-crowd-venue
sound balance, except where applause volume near taper between
performance numbers had to be reduced slightly - not generally a
problem with higher decibel rock shows.

Absolutely no compression needed or attempted. Noise reduction was
unavoidable and used reluctantly due to the artist's frequent very
quiet moments being swamped by both broadband and tonal tape noise,
but thanks to an entirely new approach it was actually effective,
harmless to signal and artifact-free. Further detail on the process in
sections to follow.

INDEPENDENT SOUND ANALYSIS: Several trusted 'beta testers', including
Barry, Gromek and others

ORIGINAL ART: Gromek

SOURCE AND AUDIO WORK -

The source is a top shelf pre-1990s AR rivaling any other both for
unbelievable sound capture - and for its own unique remastering
challenges.

WRB81 offers AR detail across the spectrum comparable to many from the
post-1990 DAT era. Even in its case detail was largely hidden by many
layers of tape noise and related issues. Like others it required
months of experimental EQ work and testing of results by multiple
listeners in a wide variety of playback systems.

Every effort was made to reveal all possible detail in each tone of
each instrument as far as it occurred in the band's PA mix, and we're
pleased with the result overall [lower crash cymbal tones are one
important litmus, so too even audience clapping].

PA volume was relatively low and the venue's acoustics absorbed some things,
particularly in the midrange. Some of the resulting 'distant' property
can only be addressed with mixing - antithesis to the very nature of
AR's and what they offer, so not attempted here.

Audience sound, PA system output nuances and venue ambience among many
other things are paramount and should be conserved as carefully as
performance sound unless something enjoys artificially high volume in
the recording, as in an obnoxious, constant yeller right next to
mikes.

While audience volume in WRB81's source is accurate, proportionate and
audience courteous overall, enthusiasm near the deck is reflected at a
higher volume than PA output and gets overwhelming between numbers, so
had to be reduced manually in those sections. It was not touched during
band performance,where it wasn't sonically overwhelming in any case and
in an AR has to be considered part of the event.

For example: During Jaco Pastorius' solo we have some audience members
yelling, but they aren't too near the taper and they're yelling at
each other. It's actually hilariously funny, very real, and very much
part of the document. It's not a soundboard, nor should anyone try to
make it - or any AR - seem like one.

A lower concert volume than we'd have with a Yes or an ELP on the
other hand made some kind of tape noise reduction unavoidable. Despite
its almost miraculous nature the recording has high levels of two
noise types - broadband, or tape hiss; and tonal, in this case a hum
bordering on buzz [most likely ungrounded mikes]

Normally I avoid any kind of dedicated digital noise reduction because
the technology to do it effectively and still have a recording worth
listening to afterward simply doesn't exist yet.

Current [as of May 2008] NR technology uses algorithms that carve flagged
noise out from around signal - it cannot identify, separate and remove noise
from within it. Most applications end up carving into signal, taking
important musical detail out and leaving behind awful digital artifact
as added insult. To avoid signal damage and artifact, settings have to
be extremely gentle - in a range I like to call the 'safe zone' -
requiring numerous and tedious repeat passes to deliver very limited
results.

Some programs at least carve with better digital precision and can be
a bit more effective for it, but WRB81 needed more NR than safe zone
settings by themselves in any platform could possibly deliver. So
something new was needed, and it was decided to try a customized
FFT filter that identifies the exact boundary between musical information
and pure tape noise [in this case music tops out at 18.61 KHz]. A second
FFT filter then uses the info to 'chop off' everything beyond the musical
'event horizon', so there's simply a lot less noise around for EQ work to
inadvertently boost, while entire musical signal range left completely
intact.

Shelf filtering as we call it isn't a new concept - it's sometimes
called a 'haircut' by engineers - but the approach developed for this
recording is unique. Noise wasn't actually reduced, a large percentage
of it just wasn't there anymore to get a lot worse after EQ sessions.
Now enter 3 passes of an actual NR module safe zone setting in a
program with decent enough precision. 90% of what the shelf filter
left behind was gone, with no audible signal loss and no artifact.
What's more, the settings were at the very edge of safe and more than
one pass of them would have generated artifact had there been no shelf
filtering.

So in sum we now have 'quietness' surpassing that of many soundboard
recordings, in an analog AR, and one enjoying commercial grade signal
detail - still intact. As much of what the original audience really
heard as the recording can possibly deliver remains revealed. Though
some hiss and hum do remain they're almost inaudible except at very
high playback volume and they're now well below signal volume, where
even in the raw master they had been swamping quiet signal passages.

A few miscellaneous, untreatable annoyances include some tape stretch
at leaders audible as slight rolling dropout, though the tapes have
low mileage [very little playback since time of recording]. This
recedes very quickly as distance from leaders increases. Jaco
Pastorius is very high in the PA mix, and while not distorted the
lowest bass notes might peak in some playback systems. During a few of
WR's busier moments certain mids and ultrahighs come close to
distortion, but didn't generate any complaints from the test group and
softening them any would suppress important midrange/lower high frequency
detail already compromised by venue acoustics.

At least one for-profit factory bootlegger-issued recording of this
concert has been circulated, either a different taper altogether or
a generational copy of this recording provided by a dishonest trader.
WRB81 is a recent digital transfer of the original and exceptional
master tapes, remastered as an AR should be and with complete lineage
provided for a change.

Many thanks to Weather Report for so much incredible music over so
many years!

Special thanks to Gromek for artwork so perfectly evocative of the
show's energy and this effort.

Endless, endless thanks to Barry for another miraculous AR, the
expertise and bravery it required.

Please share freely but losslessly, and never, EVER even THINK of
selling for any sum anywhere. If you choose to remaster it in any way,
fine, but if it's then redistributed publically in any manner without
this original lineage, documentation and artwork rest assured we will
learn of it and be all over it publically.

Last but not least, this effort is dedicated to the memory of Joe
Zawinul and Jaco Pastorious, whose gifts to us all here and elsewhere
just keep on giving.

*Title inspiration -

"Weather Report have never had it so good. Night Passage brims, almost
bursts with a startling freshness and a tremulous air of expectancy
that the band hasn't captured on record with any regularity since
1974's Mysterious Traveller ... This band must be almost rubbing
shoulders with Zawinul's ideal, one in which solo and ensemble playing
become irrelevant distinctions in the awesome totality. Weather Report
have rarely been a more going or growing concern. Their complete
creative renaissance is unbelievably welcome.

--Angus MacKinnon, New Musical Express, November 22, 1980."

NOTES FROM BARRY:

I don't remember much about taping this show other than knowing that
the low noise level of the jazz audience would be a good test of the
signal to noise ratio of the Nak 550, which was never its strongest
spec. But you wouldn't know that from listening to this remaster.
Lestat has done amazing things with the digital NR technology
available today.

As always, our goal in recording and remastering these shows is to
recreate the experience of being at a concert without the constraints
placed on label-affiliated studio engineers. We're not trying to make
something that sounds good on a $200 home theatre system. Find some
real hifi equipment, crank it up to concert volume, and travel back in
time to the summer of 1981. Sit in my seat and hear what I heard.

Barry

NOTES FROM GROMEK:

Although I am not familiar at all with the music of WR, I do recognize
the musicianship involved, and the influences they had on other bands
and musicians (in some sections I can easily recognize bits that have
influenced Jon Anderson (of Yes) on his Animation album, but also bits
of Yes that in turn must have influenced Weather Report (Yes pieces
like those from the Relayer album, and maybe even bits from the Drama
album).

They are of course my personal listening experiences, but, as I was
told by Lestat (of Lestat Audio Projects), this has been mentioned in
the mainstream media too.

After listening to the samples sent to me by Lestat (as part of the
Beta team) I envisioned a cover for this recording.

At the same time designing the cover art (in which the Yes comparisons
made it easier for me to create something, but maybe not something as
wild as a Yes cover), I also tried to make it a fitting tribute to the
two WR members that are no longer among us, but are playing somewhere
in the higher venues for the pleasure of others, as well as the rest
of the band that gave an amazing performance.

The background image is by Ace Montana Designs, the further layout is
done by myself.

I found that the two white doves were the fitting tribute bit for Joe
Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius, and they are to be found on the back of
the booklet. I found it a gentle and not too present part of the
overall cover art.

That is all I can say, really, for my part in this project, except to
thank all those involved in it, and for their faith in me to
create the right cover art for this extraordinary recording (and
show).

Hope you enjoy the show as much as I did. And for the WR fans out
there: No doubt in my mind, you WILL enjoy the show!

Lestat, you did it again! Again, you have shown us the way it should
be done, and could be done.

All the best to all;
Gromek

NOTES FROM JOE THE DESTROYER - WRITER, MUSICIAN AND ANOTHER PROJECT TEST LISTENER:

Weather Report 1981 "Nephilim"

A famous passage in the original King James Version of the Bible reads "In those days, giants walked the earth." The Hebrew word translated as "giants" ["nephilim"] is actually of unknown meaning, but the phrase came to mind while listening to Jaco's bass solo in this 1981 concert; I think it's a fit phrase for the show as a whole. Where else can we hear such towering power, such effortless grace, over such vast musical terrains? "Giant steps" indeed!

Of course, the jazz proficiency implied by referencing John Coltrane is only the beginning, which is why I began with Jaco's bass solo. For jazz (thorny & challenging as it is) comes with heavy historical baggage that few can transcend -- a pool into which you either dip a toe or dive full in, no middle ground accepted.

Enter the giants: tall enough to wade right in but still stand in the open air, equally at home in the realm of fish and bird. Jazz? Oh yeah, they love it. Rock? Right on brother, let's jam! Barrelhouse boogie? Thought you'd never ask. New age space? Ah, that's my main groove, daddy-o.

But it's the air I really want to get back to -- in this case, the air circulating around the Boston Opera House one night in 1981. Oh, you might say, isn't it the same air every night? And you may be right -- except that, on this one particular night, there was an electrical device present in the room, possessed of a small diaphragm that fluttered ever so slightly in response to the smallest & largest movements the air would make. A small spool of magnetized plastic stood at attention nearby, just in case there was anything worth capturing, transforming into static electricity a record of those tiny movements.

For this we can be mighty grateful, as there were many reasons for it to move the way it did: the smack of wood or hand on tempered metal or stretched skin; the pluck of a finger on metal-wrapped-around-metal or the altered voltage of an oscillator, both boosted through paper cones; the ebb and blow of one man's lungs through a sliced reed set into a brass tube. Finally, and not unimportantly, there were the collected lungs & brains & ears of an Opera House full of appreciative listeners.

It has been said about modern physics: if we see further than those before us, it's only because we stand on the shoulders of giants. Let us likewise listen to this marvelous sound capture, and (at least in our minds) walk a little taller ourselves. If you want, you can even mumble the word "nephilim" to yourself after hearing this show; you just might need a new word to describe the experience.

Nephilim Joe

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