 Joe Zawinul, et al © Ines Kaiser
On Brown Street Zawinul is clearly in charge, but gives plenty of solo opportunities to WDR big band members, and they really come through with the goods. The first disc opens with the title track, which begins with an infectious world rhythms builds in intensity throughout adding layers of sound as it progresses. Hiener Wiberrny blows soprano beautifully over the increasingly dense orchestration. The mood slows on track two as the lush orchestration of "In a Silent Way" reveals the skill of Vince Mendoza's arrangement by laying down an dense and mellow sound scape that provides the perfect platform for trumpeter John Marshal's solo. Marshal is also the opening soloist on the next tract, "Fast City" which also features a blistering tenor solo by Paul Heller. "Badia" is an infectious groove with a lot of space for Oliver Peter to explore on soprano. The popular "Black Market' closes disc one showcases altoist Karolina Strassmayer as well as Zawinul.
 Brown Street
Disc two opens with "The March of the Children". The driving beat propels this forward and there is interesting interplay between Strassmayer and Zawinul as his comping answers her solo and leads not his own. Hiener Wiberrny returns to the forefront on alto this time, standing in for Wayne Shorter on the beautiful ballad "A Remark You Made", where Wiberny delivers a remarkably beautiful performance followed by Zawinul. The disc closes with "Carvavalito", a party of a song featuring drummer Nathaniel Townsley. The drums get the crowd very worked up, cheering and chanting this to a conclusion.
All in all this is a fine recording capturing the excitement of live performabce and providing the perfect blend of solid arrangements and improvisation. Without nostalgia, Zawinul and Mendoza has given us a gift that preserves while it extends the legacy of Weather Report.
Joe Zawinul and Weather Report
 Joe Zawinul © Holger Keifel
In 1970, Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter founded Weather Report, a pioneering ensemble an djazz super-group that would become the most influential jazz group of the 1970s. They helped define the “fusion” genre while proving an incubator for future leaders. Despite frequent personnel changes – including Miroslav Vitous, Alphonso Johnson, Jaco Pastorius, Victor Bailey, Eric Kamau Gravatt, Peter Erskine and Omar Hakim – the band stayed intact with founders Zawinul and Shorter over the course of fifteen years and seventeen albums, including Black Market (1976) and the popular Heavy Weather (1977), which featured Zawinul’s infectious “Birdland.” That song, in versions by Weather Report, Manhattan Transfer and Quincy Jones, won separate GRAMMY awards in three successive decades. Weather Report itself won a GRAMMY for their 1979 live album, 8:30.
In 1985, after he and Shorter parted company and Weather Report disbanded, Zawinul continued to pursue adventurous new grooves with the short-lived Weather Update, followed by the Zawinul Syndicate, whose albums have included the GRAMMY-nominated My People in 1996 and the GRAMMY-nominated World Tour two years later. GRAMMY-nominated Faces and Places followed in 2002, and Vienna Nights, the 2005 live Zawinul Syndicate CD which was also recorded at Birdland jazz club in Vienna. Other special projects have included an adventurous solo album, Dialects (1986), and work as producer and arranger on Salif Keita’s landmark album Amen (1991). |
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Wednesday, 03 December 2008
