Editing Jazz (section)

=====Weather Report=====
[[File:Meklit_Hadero_and_Susie_Ibarra_(15276289548)_(cropped)_1.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Susie Ibarra]] percussionist whose innovative work often blends jazz, electronic, and experimental elements.]]

[[Weather Report]]'s self-titled electronic and psychedelic ''[[Weather Report (1971 album)|Weather Report]]'' debut album caused a sensation in the jazz world on its arrival in 1971, thanks to the pedigree of the group's members (including percussionist [[Airto Moreira]]), and their unorthodox approach to music. The album featured a softer sound than would be the case in later years (predominantly using acoustic bass with Shorter exclusively playing [[soprano saxophone]], and with no [[synthesizer]]s involved), but is still considered a classic of early fusion. It built on the avant-garde experiments which [[Joe 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 – but took the music further. To emphasize the group's rejection of standard methodology, the album opened with the inscrutable avant-garde atmospheric piece "Milky Way", which featured by Shorter's extremely muted saxophone inducing vibrations in Zawinul's piano strings while the latter pedaled the instrument. ''[[DownBeat]]'' described the album as "music beyond category", and awarded it Album of the Year in the magazine's polls that year.

Weather Report's subsequent releases were creative funk-jazz works.<ref>Dan, Morgenstern (1971). ''DownBeat'' May 13.</ref>