In 1970 tenor and soprano saxophonist Wayne Shorter and Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul (both veterans of Miles Davis' groups) joined forces with Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous, Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira and drummer Alphonse Mouzon to form Weather Report. Weather Report (february 1971) introduced a sophisticated blend of jazz improvisation, rock and funk rhythms, folk melodies and ethnic accents. Every member contributed with its own style of improvisation to the ethereal and delicate textures, but Zawinul towered over the others, defining the thick and slick arrangements with his electric and electronic effects, and penning the most ambitious compositions (Waterfall and especially Orange Lady). The personality of I Sing the Body Electric (january 1972), featuring two new percussionists and partly recorded live, was better distributed, with Zawinul's Unknown Soldier (an ambitious excursus from haunting to elegiac), Vitous' Crystal and Shorter's Surucucu (Roger Powell played synthesizer, one of the first on a jazz album). Weather Report popularized a kind of ensemble playing that was not quite group improvisation but was born out of the same principle of equality. All instruments contributed to the overall economy of the sound, each bringing both melodic and rhythmic elements. Emotional peaks were achieved when there was no soloist. The emancipation of the rhythm section from timekeeping roles liberated bass and percussion. The general attention to textural playing (instead of the traditional roles) contrived a homogeneous distribution of sound. Zawinul cast a huge shadow again on Sweetnighter (february 1973), an album that veered towards funky and Latin rhythms, indulged in the sound of the synthesizer, and relied almost entirely on two lengthy Zawinul compositions, Boogie Woogie Waltz and 125th Street Congress, that relied less on improvisation than on structure.

Alphonso Johnson replaced Vitous for Mysterious Traveller (may 1974), that included Zawinul's Nubian Sundance (with vocals) and Shorter's Mysterious Traveller. Tale Spinnin' (february 1975) was less subtle than its predecessors, showing how limited the possibilities were. But Jaco Pastorius replaced Alphonso Johnson on Black Market (january 1976), and his flamboyant style (guitar-like solos and electronic enhancements of the instrument) became the band's new attraction on Heavy Weather (october 1976), an album propelled in the charts by Zawinul's Birdland. Mr Gone (may 1978) sealed the marriage of Zawinul's presentation and Pastorius' verve with overdoses of electronics, dance rhythms and ethnic arrangements.

The double-LP 8:30 (june 1979), played by the quartet of Zawinul, Shorter, Pastorius and new drummer Peter Erskine, was mostly live, except the second side of the second LP. The group's albums were now highly predictable, a careful balance of grooves and virtuosity, addressing a lucrative market with the surgical precision of a marketing analyst. After Night Passage (august 1980) and Weather Report (1982), Pastorius and Erskine left. Now unbridled, Zawinul's electronic world-music shaped Procession, off Procession (december 1983), and D-Flat Waltz, off Domino Theory (february 1984). Shorter and Zawinul parted ways after the mediocre Sportin' Life (november 1984) and This Is This (january 1986), and Weather Report ceased to be. These last albums were mainly notable for Zawinul's reinvention of the synthesizer as a swinging and melodic instrument.

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