Weather Report was an American jazz fusion band of the 1970s and early 1980s. The band was initially co-led by the Austrian-born keyboard player Joe Zawinul, the American saxophonist Wayne Shorter and Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous. Due to creative and financial disagreements, Vitous left the band after a few years. Zawinul took increasing control and steered the band towards a more funk, R&B oriented sound.

On the recommendation of Michal Urbaniak, Zawinul and Shorter recruited the 23-year-old drummer Omar Hakim, a talented session player and multi-instrumentalist, who had played with a variety of musicians (including Mike Mainieri, David Bowie, and Carly Simon). Hakim was immediately entrusted with recruiting the rest of the new rhythm section. Having failed to secure Marcus Miller as bass guitarist, he selected Victor Bailey (a recent graduate from the Berklee College of Music, with whom Hakim had played while backing Miriam Makeba). Hakim also recruited percussion/concertina player Jose Rossy, with whom he had worked in Labelle.  The new Weather Report went straight onto tour. The music developed on tour was later recorded for the 1983 album Procession, which showed the band beginning to make something of a return to the "world music", which it had pioneered in the mid-1970s, and featured a cameo appearance from The Manhattan Transfer.  Continuing with the same lineup, Weather Report recorded the Domino Theory album in 1984, with Hakim stepping into Jaco Pastorius' old role as Zawinul's co-producer. The album was Weather Report's first album to employ drum machines and samplers (the Emulator), furthering developing the band's involvement with technology, and also featured a guest vocal from Carl Anderson. The band was beginning to suffer from the revival of more traditionally styled jazz at the time, which made it harder to market jazz fusion.  Percussionist and singer Mino Cinelu replaced Rossy in the spring of 1984 and appeared on the band's video release Live in Japan (reissued on DVD in 2007). The same lineup played on 1985's Sportin' Life album, which included a cover of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" and appearances by Bobby McFerrin and Carl Anderson. In keeping with Zawinul's technological curiosity, the album heralded the arrival of MIDI, which allowed him to rapidly and inexpensively write, demonstrate, and record music via a set of synthesizers.  By the time of the release of Sportin' Life Shorter and Zawinul had opted not to tour the material. Instead, they took a break for long-delayed solo projects.

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