I Sing the Body Electric is the second album released by Weather Report

Weather Report

Weather Report was an American jazz-rock band of the 1970s and early 1980s. The band was co-led by the Austrian-born keyboard player Joe Zawinul and the American saxophonist Wayne Shorter...

 from 1972

1972 in music

-Events:*January 17 – Highway 51 South in Memphis, Tennessee is renamed "Elvis Presley Boulevard"*January 20 – The début of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon at The Dome, Brighton, is halted by technical difficulties,...

. The album includes two new members of the band: percussionist Dom Um Romão

Dom Um Romão

Dom Um Romão was a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Noted for his expressive stylings with the fusion band Weather Report, Romão recorded with varied artists such as Cannonball Adderley, Paul Simon, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 and Tony Bennett...

 and drummer Eric Gravatt

Eric Gravatt

Eric Kamau Grávátt is a jazz drummer who has played with McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Weather Report, and others.-Discography:With Julian Priester*Love, Love...

. The last three tracks were recorded live in concert in Tokyo, Japan on January 13, 1972. These tracks have been edited for this album and can be heard in their entirety on Weather Report's 1972 import album Live in Tokyo

Live in Tokyo (Weather Report album)

Live in Tokyo is Weather Report's first live album released. It was recorded on January 13, 1972. It was one of five sold out concerts played in Japan during January 1972...

.

The album takes its title from an 1855 poem by

I Sing the Body Electric (Whitman)

"I Sing the Body Electric" is a poem by Walt Whitman from his 1855 collection Leaves of Grass.Its original publication, like the other poems in Leaves of Grass, did not have a title. In fact, the line "I sing the body electric" was not added until the 1867 edition. At the time, "electric" was not...

 Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...

, also a 1969 short story

I Sing the Body Electric (Bradbury)

I Sing the Body Electric! is a 1969 collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury. The book takes its name from a line in Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.-Contents:The collection includes these stories:* "The Kilimanjaro Device"...

 by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...

.

Track listing

1. "Unknown Soldier" (Zawinul) – 8:00
2. "The Moors" (Shorter) – 4:45
3. "Crystal" (Vitous) – 7:25
4. "Second Sunday In August" (Zawinul)– 4:13
5. "Medley: Vertical Invader" (Zawinul) /"T.H." (Vitous) /"Dr. Honoris Causa" (Zawinul)– 10:40
6. "Surucucú" (Shorter) – 7:42
7. "Directions" (Zawinul) – 4:36

Weather Report

• Josef Zawinul - Electric and acoustic piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  , ARP 2600
  ARP 2600
  The ARP 2600 is a semi-modular analog subtractive audio synthesizer, designed by Alan R. Pearlman , and manufactured by his company, ARP Instruments, Inc...
  
   synthesizer
• Wayne Shorter
  Wayne Shorter
  Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
  
   - Saxophone
  Saxophone
  The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
  
  s
• Miroslav Vitous
  Miroslav Vitouš
  Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...
  
   - Bass
  Bass (instrument)
  Bass describes musical instruments that produce tones in the low-pitched range. They belong to different families of instruments and can cover a wide range of musical roles...
  
  
• Eric Gravatt
  Eric Gravatt
  Eric Kamau Grávátt is a jazz drummer who has played with McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Weather Report, and others.-Discography:With Julian Priester*Love, Love...
  
   - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  
• Dom Um Romão
  Dom Um Romão
  Dom Um Romão was a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Noted for his expressive stylings with the fusion band Weather Report, Romão recorded with varied artists such as Cannonball Adderley, Paul Simon, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 and Tony Bennett...
  
   - Percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  

Special Guests

• Andrew White
  Andrew White (saxophonist)
  Andrew White is an American jazz/R'n'B multi-instrumentalist , musicologist and publisher.-Biography:...
  
   - English horn ("Unknown Soldier" only)
• Wilmer Wise - D and piccolo trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  
• Ralph Towner
  Ralph Towner
  Ralph Towner is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion and trumpet.-Biography:...
  
   - 12-string guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
   ("The Moors" only)
• Yolande Bavan
  Yolande Bavan
  Yolande Bavan is a singer and actress. Born in Ceylon , she toured Australia and Asia as a performer with Graeme Bell's band early in her career. She is best known for replacing Annie Ross in the legendary vocal group Lambert, Hendricks & Ross after Ross was forced to leave the group due to poor...
  
  - Voice
• Joshie Armstrong - Voice
• Chapman Roberts - Voice