m. lapierre raisins gaulois IX

originally posted by Michael Powers:
X is quite nice btw

I'm finding this to be just about the most purely enjoyable, almost addictive, wine I've had in ages. I'm going through it like I go through Mirror Pond. If this is a harbinger of what 2010 will offer in terms of Beaujolais I think I'm going to like it more than 2009.
 
the 2010 morgon that mathieu poured the other night was just simply beautiful. A great follow up vintage to 09, which got a lot of people that never really went for beaujolais before into it. 2010 will be generous but more classic and balanced in my opinion. The morgon was a sample from the 1st bottling (the one now being poured in Paris), Kermit usually buys the third bottling, says Mathieu.
 
IX is still happy...still gulpable....but Oswaldo will be bummed, it's reached a certain pinosity, I'm afraid.

PS - I don't hate when that happens...to gamay and pinot, at least...heck they seem a bit like twisted cousins ala Deliverance dontcha thank?

Ah, whatever...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8VAb-UwCBQ&feature=related
 
Great video, especially when WS bursts into his solo; you can call that Wayne's World.

PS: then I'm glad to be done with IX; has X reached your shores? It's delighful, and pure Gamay.

BTW: we are such a schizo bored, singing manichean paeans to the easiest grape of all and to the hardest (oxidative savagnin); the middle be damned, especially clarets.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Great video, especially when WS bursts into his solo; you can call that Wayne's World.

PS: then I'm glad to be done with IX; has X reached your shores? It's delighful, and pure Gamay.

BTW: we are such a schizo bored, singing manichean paeans to the easiest grape of all and to the hardest (oxidative savagnin); the middle be damned, especially clarets.

Must be inbreeding, no? Now if we can just get the guys from Deliverance to call their band the "Manichean Paeans"...(repeat that 5 times with a southern accent and you got yourself a hoedown offline!)

The 10's are on their way I was told...probably only 2 btls of the 09 left in the whole town here. I was happy to say goodbye to one of them last night. Will let someone else take that last one. I did see a new stash of 09 Morgon ss's though, and I had to do a double take....came home and checked notes. Yes, I did not try it.....did not like the '07 ss and loved the '07 +s (to my neophyte taste buds, the "purity of fruit" the ss was aiming for I found in the +s version.) Ironic, but what do I know, right? Am going to have to give the '09 ss a try tho.....only Y2500....maybe the ripeness of the vintage will balance the sourpuss-ness I found in the '07 ss....

PS - And yes, Wayne cranks it up on that song so well. Totally agree. I saw that tour (the LA shows) and you can tell from the vid that the man love between Joe and Jaco is almost too much. Wayne held his own on this tour but that great partnership with Joe pretty much died that year. Still, as a quartet, with Erskine, man, they really, really rocked (and swung too). Glad to have witnessed that little great blip in fusion history.
 
Erskine, good as he was, seemed to me the weak link in such august company. Imagine what they wudda been with the Dennis Chambers steamroller behind them.

PS: saw the movie version of The Road the other day; has some qualities, but is, of course, but a shadow.
PPS: in July, I intend to drink X en Provence.
 
Chambers might have been a contender, I agree,...just a 1/2 generation late I suspect. He has the chops of tightness, but also the looseness of say Dejohnette. Thing about WR is, is that the trend was for ever tighter rhythms...which I suspect was really Joe's influence....which (to me) came to override his partnership with Wayne (and whose compositions, angular and unique) I preferred (Nefertiti anyone?).

You may have read the Downbeat mag's drubbing of the Mr. Gone album and tour? That was this one (in above vid). I think Joe just got a spark from Jaco's rock star stage thing and they went for tight, clean and loud. I'm not really one for that sound so much these days, but sitting in 2nd or 3rd row, watching these guys command the music like they did, was really impressive. As a lot of the youtube songs from that Germany gig show, they set things up to hit a groove and then just wailed on top of it. Was the beginning of then end, but that tour was the apex of what they were aiming at. Both Joe and Wayne were real visionaries in their own way, tempering each other. Jaco came in and really tipped the balance towards Joe's sound. Compare and contrast to the Alphonso days ala Mysterious Traveler esp. Much less rhythmic dependent, more fluid. This all, being a long winded way of saying yes, Erskine is a pretty straight solid drummer, lacking in the level of artistic senses of that august company indeed....but he fit well enough, limitations notwithstanding...

PS - I've eyed that dvd of the Road in the store a lot lately...still haven't pulled the trigger. I'm waiting for "Cowboys and Aliens"...
 
originally posted by Joel Stewart:


You may have read the Downbeat mag's drubbing of the Mr. Gone album and tour? That was this one (in above vid). I think Joe just got a spark from Jaco's rock star stage thing and they went for tight, clean and loud. I'm not really one for that sound so much these days, but sitting in 2nd or 3rd row, watching these guys command the music like they did, was really impressive. As a lot of the youtube songs from that Germany gig show, they set things up to hit a groove and then just wailed on top of it. Was the beginning of then end, but that tour was the apex of what they were aiming at. Both Joe and Wayne were real visionaries in their own way, tempering each other. Jaco came in and really tipped the balance towards Joe's sound. Compare and contrast to the Alphonso days ala Mysterious Traveler esp. Much less rhythmic dependent, more fluid. This all, being a long winded way of saying yes, Erskine is a pretty straight solid drummer, lacking in the level of artistic senses of that august company indeed....but he fit well enough, limitations notwithstanding...

PS - I've eyed that dvd of the Road in the store a lot lately...still haven't pulled the trigger. I'm waiting for "Cowboys and Aliens"...

I agree on Mr. Gone. However, the band (still with Erskine) regained its footing in a big way with Night Passage. It's my favorite WR disc. Great compositions with that very cool cover of "Rockin' in Rhythm". "Madagascar" is a terrific live track. There are times when the band really swings and Erskine is up to the task. Shorter is completely stunning on "Fast City". They were back to being a quintet on that tour. I have a lot of live WR shows, but somehow, I've never seen or found a soundboard from that tour.

When I was at Arlequin last week, I meant to pick up a bottle of X, but spaced out.
 
Madagascar is a great tune indeed....and that album/tour was great too. Maybe the new percussionist helped them open up their sound (or the DB drubbing?)....or Wayne? Yeah, the definitive last album probably. Once Jaco was gone, the band's sound seemed to go full on into rhythm machine mode. Too mechanical for me. Too much Joe and not enough Wayne.
 
Domino Theory is an excellent disc. They still played well live in 1982-3. Victor Bailey was a fine bass player. Omar Hakim was an improvement over Erskine. All IMO.

The oddest WR show I saw was at The Saddlerack Club in Santa Clara in '83. A full-on "cowboy" bar, mechanical bull and everything. Yee-haw!
 
Yeah that D flat waltz...and Omar might be the answer that Oswaldo's looking for. To be honest though nothing tingles my spine like "Unknown Soldier" and those early days, like the Japan gigs and I Sing the Body Electric.
 
I don't even try to compare the early incarnation(thru Sweetnighter) of WR with any after that. Completely different musical genres.
 
On the surface it would seem so...tho structurally I find a lot of similarities. The intense rhythmic drive seems to always have been there. But you're right in a sense....it's basically the diff between the Miroslav years and post-Miroslav years, and also the diff between the fender rhodes and synth for Joe. (Fwiw, Joe apparently hated MV's "lack" of intonation...)

PS - Nothing on archive.org of the Night Passage tour?
 
i wouldn't ignore Procession. "plaza real" is a Wayne masterpiece, but it's arguably the band's last hurrah. He played it live throughout the early 80's with his own band and those versions are all worth seeking out.
 
Forgot about Procession. There is some nice material on that. While this thread was going on, I looked through my WR library and noticed that Mysterious Traveller was missing. Checked my CD shelves high and low. I'm real anal about keeping my CDs in group/chronological order. Fortunately, I found a sealed copy online for $10 because it's out of print.

Wayne's current group is one of the very few that I make a point to see. When they played a 5 night run at Yoshi's in Oakland a few years ago, it was like a slice of Heaven.
 
For my own tastes, Mysterious Traveler might just be my fave post Miroslav WR. I never saw the band without Jaco, but it's hard to find fault with the creative ideas behind American Tango etc.
 
I never saw them with Alphonso. I did see their first Bay Area appearance in 1972 when they were the opening act for Zappa's Grand Wazoo band at Winterland. Had no idea who they were.
 
I actually love me some Weather Report, but I LOVE that damn wine-- version X, IX, whatever! It makes me laugh and smile and face the wrong way like love staring you in the face. Or the stars twinkling in time to music on a spring night. That is all.
My missive from the Bubble.
Best, John
 
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