Has died. Today, I think.
He always boggled me. Nobody else could craft melodies like that,
especially in the context of the rhythm beds he also helped create.
Other-worldly is the wrong word - they were very much of this world, but
--- older or something. Aboriginal. Like he heard them emanating from
the hulls of nurse trees, or floating in a cavern's dankness. He took
the beeps and blips of early portable synthesizers, like Arp 2600's and
Prohet-5's, and made them into organic extensions of himself. There
has never been a sonic feast quite like a Weather Report recording, and
none of them were ever quite the same either.
I was just thinking about him this morning - listening to movie scores
on XM, thinking JZ could do this, he'd be awesome - and there's still
time. And now, of course, I find there isn't.
Band practice tonight, maybe I can talk them into a quick run through
Mercy Mercy Mercy or Birdland before we get down to business.
I'm near tears. Damn.
