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Joe
Zawinul
A
brief introduction (by Marco
Piretti) Dear
readers and friends,
Joe
came to the stage one hour before we got to know
him. He
had carefully directed the sound check of the Syndacate and
while you could feel the grove going higher you could watch
the sun discending gifting all of us with one of those
famous Rome sunsets that you would hardly forget.
All
the people around the scene were smoothly setting up the
event moving chairs and tables and preparing drinks and food
but, you couldn't distinguish their 'sound' from the music
and I suddenly realized how much Joe's music was able to fit
into the third millenium. Then
they stopped playing and before I could think that our turn
was coming Gea's voice popped out from the stage:"It's your
time!". We
followed her behind the stage and there was Joe with his
funny -one hundred percent american- hat, waiting for us.
After
a short introuduction, Joe looked around the place, as he
was missing a thing, and said: "Shall we go inside
?". His
noble ears had caught the very same unbearable background
noise I was perceiving. In a shortwhile we were inside the
back stage caravan. I will always think that he had
something to tell us, regardless of what we would have
asked, and that he was in a kind of rush to do so. Indeed,
at the very first question he actually drift out of the
track and started talking about Mathausen. He
had composed and recorded an album for the 60th aniversary
of the camp and he wanted to call our attention on that and
on the fact that he, as a an austrian, had to say to the
world how much he hated that past, up to the point that he
said to considered that compositions heavy and hard to
follow but, still worth to be listened. Then he prayed us to
do so. What follows doesn't really matter. The interview in
my and his opinion, I guess, was over. At
the second question he was much more relaxed. He opened up a
bottle of grappa and sniffed it out, while answering. Then
opened a new one and decided that this was better. Picked up
a few glasses and invited us for a drink. While the chat
went on, between the lines, I kept on thinking of the very
first words he said. I kept on thinking that, apart from
those who were there, in the camps, and besides their
families and friends, people like Joe, who have this
unsustainable inheritance, are the unspoken victims of the
wars and of the nazism, in this case. The nazism indeed is
too far from their thought and too close to their
blood. Thanks
Joe, thanks for that drink.
Marco:
In the last years you mostly carried on your activity in
live concerts, even with the cutting of a live double album;
do you think to follow that path, or do you intend to go
back to most frequent studio recordings? Joe:
I don't know; you see, i mean i've been very busy, i also
made a studio recording which is a very important record,
it's called Mauthausen. Mauthausen is... have you heard it?
It's very important to hear and to understand because it is
about a time before you were born, but it hasn't changed...
that time was the most horrendous time in the world history
and people were persecuted and persecuted only for reasons
totally inhumane, you know, because they were men of
different religion of different type... there are no
different people that was what it was made out to be and
they were murdered and murdered in hundred thousands and
Mauthausen was a camp... that camp in Austria... i was
commissioned to write [a song for] the sixties
memorial day of the opening of the camp which was in 1938,
August 8th, and... i played live in the camp, in Mauthausen,
ten thousand people, incredible, it was at night... (.....)
And prisoners had to chop down the granite and carry it up a
steps they called the death steps... This record was very
hard, with my son Ivan, he mixed together for me all the
sound effects, hundreds of sound effects, it's a very great
record, a very unpleasant record but people should really
listen to it. It's very important for young people who say
it was happened in the past don't want to hear don't want to
talk about it... you MUST talk about it, but everybody is
false... you know... And that was up to Germany and it was
also Austria... I love Austria, i'm austrian, i love my
country, i would call a war for Austria, but that part of
Austria i don't like. And we've got to admit, we have to
understand, we have to admit that also many austrians were
nazis, as many italians were nazis, and many atrocities were
made in Italy too (....) We cannot change history, we cannot
do that. But we can talk about it, and make people aware
about what has happened it that war of sixty years
ago... So
that's the work i did last year. (....) Now it's a great
"momento" with the band, we went to many places, we went to
North America this year, we went to China, we did a South
America tour, a second european tour... and we'll go to New
Caledonia, in Australia and then to China and then we'll go
back to America. It's been very tough... But i'm already
preparing an album which comes out next year, with the band.
Next winter... Marco:
Have you got new compositions for this album? Joe:
I have made seven hundred compositions in the last two
years, so we have many very good things, we are examining
forty songs for the next CD. So, it's very nice stuff.
Marco:
Well, a question on the new band. How is going on with Amit
Chatterjee and the new drummer? Joe:
Chatterjee is not so new; he played with me two times
before, the first time six years ago, and... (Chatterjee
enters in the caravan and Zawinul asks him: "When were you
in the band for the first time? Chatterjee answers:
"In 1993, and then in 1995 and then again in 1996, and again
now..." Zawinul says: "In 1996 you stayed for what? Thirty
days?" (Laughters...). And
the new drummer is Nathaniel Townsley III, his grandfather
(Luigi made a photo while Zawinul was speaking, so he was
scolded by Joe). His grandfather founded a church in
Brooklyn, and his father, with the same name, is now the
pastor of this church. What
is church in italian? (We answer: "Chiesa"..., then Joe asks
Luigi to open for him a bottle of Grappa). And
now Nathaniel III... is grow up in the church... (Gea
Marotta enters the caravan and says: "Only to know if you
have something to drink, but you have...". Then Joe says to
Luigi: "You need another cup for him?". Luigi answers: "No,
no problem, we share the drink". So Roberto and Luigi drink
together from the same cup… Marco has is own
cup). Marco:
Some questions about Weather Report. What are the main
differences between your nowadays music and the music you
did with Weather Report? Are there similarities? Joe:
I'm wiser, i'm a much better musician now than i was... much
better. Much more observer, more knowledge of life, and
that's what music is, it has nothing to do with notes... it
is something else, there is no comparison. Marco:
Have you listened to the music of musicians like Michiel
Borstlap... Joe:
Michiel Borstlap, i like what he's doing, i like. Michiel
Borstlap had the good idea, to do something different with
that material. You know... usually, when people try to play
that music we did, the music i wrote and Wayne wrote -
because it's a different writing of one thing of me and
Wayne by the way, people don't know how to play it;
there is a recording of that guy, Jason Miles, you know...
it's horrendous, it's terrible... i never heard a worst
record than this. We could have very easily say if he were
ask, if he comes out... it's a shame. The
band, when we talk about it, and we did know who was on the
record... but then you have all this big musicians that are
on the record, you know who is on this record, everybody...
let's see how people react to that, because people are
pretty gullible, very easy to be influenced, you know...
What do you think people think when they hear this? You
know, is the record nice or is it really bad or are they
just impressed because there is David Samborn, Michael
Brecker... the worst thing is that nobody can play what
Weather Report played, nobody. It's a different thought, a
different personality of music, of life. There is no
comparison. And if that would be: "go ahead, do it !",
because people can make in years the difference, and then
they say: "Hey! What we did is now, what we did is thirty
years ago". And it's not even on the same planet, on the
same galaxy. Marco:
Something more about Weather Report… Joe:
Weather Report was for me the best band of its kind. For me,
Duke Ellington was the greatest orchestral composer for big
orchestras, like Sixty pieces band or eighty pieces band,
and for me Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker were the best
for small group playing, and Weather Report were absolutely
the best in.... absolutely. Marco:
Most of people thinks that the best period of Weather Report
was the Jaco period… Joe:
It was ! It was a personality band, we had great charisma,
great personality, but the next band, the one with Omar
Hakim and Victor Bailey, was just as a good band, just as
good, and sometimes this band is just as good, sometimes,
not consistently, not yet. They are trying to figure out
things to do differently, you know we're trying to play new
music and it's not easy when you have a band where one lives
in Los Angeles, one lives in New York, until now, we had a
drummer who lives in Paris... it's really difficult to
have... it has all to do with time. Everybody... Victor has
his own band... Victor couldn't even do the first part of
the american tour, Richard Bona did that with us; you
watched Richard Bona? Marco:
You will be with Richard Bona in this new band, the "Zawinul
Special Project". Can you tell us something about this
? Joe:
Yes, i don't know what to say, i cannot tell you what this
group is because we never played together a note. But this
guy, Lelo Nika, is the greatest accordion player who has
ever lived. This guy, we will see how this music will
interprets, because he's the greatest virtuoso who has ever
lived. He is a gipsy, he's from Belgrad, who grew up in
Copenhagen... one day, i was playing in Copenhagen and he
came in and wanted to play something for me. And we sat in a
dressing room, a small dressing room, and he started a sad
play, and i never in my life heard anybody playing like
this. So we said "OK, we make a little project", with Maria
Joao, she just played with us in Paris, it was incredible,
with the band as special guest, incredible, this is going to
be very interesting, we will play some gipsy songs, this guy
plays Paganini, you know... i never heard something similar
in my life, it is going to be very interesting with Bona,
Manolo, and myself, and we'll see... Marco:
We know that the value of family is very important for you.
Do you think that it influenced your music ? Joe:
Yes, because... i have a wife, who is a very wonderful
person but she's also very gifted, she's not one who does a
lot of talk... sometimes she gives me some hints when i do
things... anyway, you know my wife designed the cover of
Black Market, and she is into this, she has very quite
beautiful ideas about a groove, and i remember she was with
Ivan, my son, and when i started to play this song the first
time, the way she could drew, it was Black Market. And then
she liked this song so much, she cut out a newspaper and put
together the cover, then we had it painted on the LP. We are
moving again, we are going back to New York, we are moving
in August back to Malibu, and it's gonna be nice for my
grandchildren... you know what i mean.... Thank
you. RealAudio
samples of the interview 1.
Mauthausen
and the upcoming new album
(05.32) The
photo album 1.
The
stage at Villa Celimontana More
photos (by La
Cicalona) Photos
of the concert:
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
-
6
-
7
-
8
-
9
-
10
-
11 Autograph: Many
thanks to: Gea
Marotta of Emmeci
Srl
Clicca qui per la
versione italiana di questa pagina
Interviewed
by Marco Piretti
Rome,
July 18, 2000
The
Zawinul Syndicate Live in Rome, July 18,
2000
Photo
by: Fabio Di Biagio
as already annonunced on our mailing list, we had the
opportunity to interview Joe Zawinul before his concert in
Rome, the last July 18.
You can understand that it was an unforgettable experience
for all of us.
In this page, you have a nice article written by my friend
Luigi Pagliarini, who was with me during the interview, a
report of the interview (we hope that our interpretation of
the Zawinul words is completely correct), some realaudio
clips and some photos.
You can also read another article, written by me, in the
italian version of this page.
We hope that this work is enjoyable for you.
I want to thank especially my friend Roberto
Battestini,
who helped me in the English/Italian translation of the
interview.
All the best !
Marco Piretti.
That
drink with Joe (by Luigi
Pagliarini)
Tuesday, 18th of July 2000, Rome.
Joe
Zawinul interview
(You
need RealPlayer
G2 or successive version)
2.
Michiel
Borstlap and Jason Miles
(02.11)
3. The
Weather Report
(01.27)
4.
Amit
Chatterjee
(00.26)
5.
The
Zawinul Special Project
(01.53)
6.
The
Family
(01.10)
2.
Roberto
and Luigi, my friends
3.
The
soundcheck (1)
4.
Joe
wanted to test the sound by the point of view of the
audience
5.
The
soundcheck (3)
6.
The
soundcheck (4)
7.
The
soundcheck (5)
8.
The
band during the concert
9.
Joe
Zawinul presents the
musicians
10.
Joe
! (Photo
by: Fabio Di Biagio)
11.
Joe
Zawinul with Marco Piretti during the
interview
12.
Joe
with Marco after the
interview
13.
Gea
Marotta and Marco
Roberto
Battestini
Luigi
Pagliarini
La
Cicalona
