Editing Weather Report (section)

===1971–1972: Avant-garde collective===
Weather Report's debut album ''[[Weather Report (1971 album)|Weather Report]]'' featured a softer sound than would be the case in later years, predominantly using acoustic bass, with Shorter exclusively playing soprano saxophone. It built on the avant-garde experiments which Zawinul and Shorter had pioneered with Miles Davis on ''Bitches Brew'', including an avoidance of head-and-chorus composition in favor of continuous rhythm and movement. ''[[DownBeat]]'' magazine described the album as "music beyond category".<ref>(Dan Morgenstern, ''[[DownBeat]]'', May 13, 1971).
</ref>

In 1972, Weather Report released its second album, ''[[I Sing the Body Electric (album)|I Sing the Body Electric]]''.<ref name="Larkin"/> The first side featured new studio recordings, while the second side was taken from live recordings of a concert in [[Tokyo]], featuring the full-band lineup of Zawinul, Shorter, Vitouš, [[Eric Gravatt]], and [[Dom Um Romão]] (and later available in full as the 1972 Japan-only double album ''[[Live in Tokyo (Weather Report album)|Live in Tokyo]]'').<ref name=ALLMUSIC>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/weather-report-mn0000243527/biography|title=Weather Report &#124; Biography & History|website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref> The studio side used extended versions of the band including various guest performers, suggesting that Weather Report was not necessarily an integral jazz band, but might possibly work as an expandable project set up to realise the music of its three composers.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} The album also featured Zawinul's first use of a [[synthesizer]] (an instrument with which he would become synonymous within jazz) and of sound effects.

''I Sing the Body Electric'' also showed the first signs of a shift in the balance of control within the band, away from the more collective approach of the debut album. During the following year, this tendency would develop further.