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VIENNA
NIGHTS
LIVE AT JOE ZAWINUL’S BIRDLAND
BirdJAM | BHM 4001-2 (2 CD Set)
Recorded
at his own club (Birdland) in his home town (Vienna, Austria) on
his own label (BIRDJAM / BHM Productions), Vienna Nights is
a musical celebration of one of the living legends of jazz who, at
age 72, is still very much on top of his game. Indeed, Joe Zawinul
hasn’t lost a step, as evidenced by his typically torrid solos,
razor-sharp attack and grand orchestral keyboard arrangements
throughout this exhilarating live two-cd set, which documents the
current edition of his Zawinul Syndicate in full stride and
showcases the master at the helm of his most powerful band since
Jaco-era Weather Report. “It’s the best band I’ve ever had,” says
the proud patriarch of his multi-national juggernaut.“From a
groove standpoint, it’s just unreal, man. And when we get out and
tour, we’re gonna shock people because the record is very, very
good but we’ve even taken it up a notch or two since then. ”
The
energy level is bristling and visceral throughout Vienna Nights,
which was recorded in two separate week-long engagements at
Zawinul’s Birdland club in May and September of 2004. “It was fun
to play with these guys,” says Joe. “They are talented young
musicians and we have much fun doing what we are doing on this
record.”
On
CD1, Zawinul’s Syndicate comes out of the gate charging hard on
the energized opener, a buoyantly surging rendition of Salif
Keita’s “Y’elena” (from the African pop star’s 1991
recording Amen, which Zawinul produced). Belgian-African
vocalist Sabine Kabongo (formerly of Zap Mama) contributes the
stirring vocals on top of a slamming groove laid down by drummer
Nathaniel Townsley and electric bass virtuoso Linley Marthe, a
remarkable new Zawinul discovery who hails from Mauritius, a small
island in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa
nearMadagascar. “Sabine is a unique vocalist,” says maestro
Zawinul. “Nobody can do what she’s doing the way that she’s doing
it. And Linley, I think, is going to be the top bass player. I
think he already is but people don’t know it yet. He’s amazing.
He’s really got it, man.”
Guitar great Scott Henderson, a former Zawinul Syndicate member
from the late ‘80s, appears as special guest on the kinetic “Two
Lines” (from Weather Report’s 1983 album Procession),
which is fueled by Algerian drummer Karim Ziad. Zawinul, who leads
the pack with vocoder-inflected vocals over this throbbing swing
groove, says of Henderson’s fiery solo here: “Scott is one of my
favorite solo guitar players, and he plays one of the world class
jazz solos on this tune. The combination of what we do between my
comping and his soloing is fantastic. It’s a very unique
call-and-response kind of thing.” Zawinul follows Henderson’s
pyrotechnic solo with an outstanding solo of his own. Says
Henderson of the hookup with his former employer: “Joe's regular
guitar player (Amit Chatterjee) couldn't make the gig at Hollywood
Bowl last summer so Joe called me kinda last minute and I did the
show. Then he asked me to do a week at Birdland in Vienna and a
week at the Blue Note in Milan. It was a lot of fun listening to
Joe play his ass off every night and I think he sounds better than
ever.”
“Louange”
is Ziad’s Gnawan flavored jam, complete with gimbre (an Algerian
stringed instrument) upfront and vocals by Sahmaoui, while the
explosive closer “East 12th Street Band” (from
Faces & Places) flows with a swing groove that never lets up
from start to finish. Syndicate guitarist Amit Chatterjee takes a
ripping solo here.
On CD 2, Zawinul’s
expansive pan-global vision is realized by tunes from 2002’s
Faces & Places like “Cafe Andulusia,”named for a
favorite Tunisian emporium of water pipes and mint tea, the
Argentine-flavored “Borges Buenos Aires” and the
powerfully percussive “Tower of Silence,” about an
awesome structure in Bombay, India. Zawinul’s churchy organ tones
on “Intro To A Mighty Theme” (from 1996’s My
People) segues into a hauntingly beautiful duet between Joe
and Sabine on Ellington’s profoundly spiritual ballad “Come
Sunday.” Then on the relaxed swinger “Three
Postcards” (from 1998’s World Tour), Zawinul dials
up an accordian mode on his synth and wails with the virtuosic
dexterity of a Richard Galliano. CD2 closes with a medley of two
classic Weather Report tunes from 30 years ago or more -- “Badia”
(from 1975’s Tale Spinnin’) and the anthemic “Boogie
Woogie Waltz” (from 1973’s Sweetnighter), both
featuring screaming wang bar inflected solos from guitarist
Henderson and grounded by the intensely grooving rhythm tandem of
Townsley and Marthe. On these and other tunes throughout this
sizzling two-cd set, Zawinul rises to the occasion with some of
his most dynamic playing in recent times. “I am really in great
shape,” says the 72-year-old maestro. “I’ve always felt good but I
feel even better now. I do situps every day and I’ve been boxing
quite a lot, training on the speed bag, shadow boxing and
sparring. I’m also out there splitting wood with an axe. What can
I say? I’m old school, man.”
He adds that
boxing, his other life-long love besides jazz, has a lot in common
with playing music. “In boxing you gotta build everything off the
jab and every punch is accompanied by a footstep. The palms always
remain behind the toes. You don’t move forward on the jab, you
find your distance, get in position, sit back on the knees and
deliver your jab right behind your toes. And that’s what gives you
the power. So you don’t step into everything. The feet have to be
set to deliver the punch. And it’s the same way with soloing. It’s
all one thing -- boxing and music. It’s all rhythm, man. I mean,
when I’m training and I’m hitting my speed bag, I’m jamming,
man.”
From his earliest
days in America with Maynard Ferguson’s big band (1959) and Dinah
Washington (1959-1961) to his tenure in Cannonball Adderley’s
quintet (1961-1970) to his long run with the Grammy Award-winning
Weather Report (1971-1986) and now the Zawinul Syndicate
(1988-present), Joe Zawinul has imbued his playing with a
remarkable depth of heart and soul. He is the composer of such
timeless pieces as the popular anthem “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” (a Top
40 hit for Cannonball Adderley in 1966), the evocative “In A
Silent Way”(which he recorded with Miles Davis as the title track
of a landmark 1969 recording) and the joyfully buoyant “Birdland”
(from Weather Report’s gold-selling album from 1977, Heavy
Weather). From his Weather Report days, and particularly since
the formation of the Zawinul Syndicate, his writing has taken a
decidedly more pronounced shift toward incorporating world music
elements into his own harmonically sophisticated and rhythmically
pulsating language. The result is a dynamic hybrid that speaks to
a multitude of cultures with joy, honesty and intensity.
Given an accordian
at the age of six, Zawinul began studying classical music at the
Vienna Conservatory from the age of seven. After World War II, he
became interested in jazz after seeing the film Stormy Weather,
starring Lena Horne and featuring Louis Armstrong. In 1952, he
began working with the austrian saxophonist Hans Killer, and from
1953 to 1958 he worked with various leading Austrian musicians, as
well as playing at clubs in Germany and France with his own trio.
In 1959, he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in
Boston, and emigrated to America. Shortly after arriving, he
joined Maynard Ferguson’s big band and toured with that
aggregation for eight months. After working briefly with Slide
Hampton, Zawinul became the accompanist to singer Dinah Washington
from October 1959 to March 1961. There followed brief stints with
Harry “Sweets” Edison and singer Joe Williams before he joined the
Cnnonball Adderley quintet, becoming a key member of the group and
remaining until the autumn of 1970. Toward the end of his tenure
with Adderley, Joe also participated in four important Miles Davis
albums -- In A Silent Way, Bitches Brew,
Live-Evil and Big Fun.
In 1971, Zawinul
formed Weather Report with Davis’ former tenor saxophonist, Wayne
Shorter. Over the course of the band’s 15-year existence, there
were several personnel changes while the direction of the group
gradually shifted from provocative free improvisations to more
strictly composed pieces in its middle and later periods. In it’s
heyday, Weather Report was regarded as the premier fusion band
with a huge international following. A host of great musicians
passed through its ranks, including bassists Miroslav Vitous,
Alphonso Johnson, Jaco Pastorius and Victor Bailey, drummers Eric
Gravatt, Ndugu Chanceler, Chester Thompson, Alex Acuna, Peter
Erskine and Omar Hakim, percussionists Don Alias, Dom Um Romao,
Manolo Badrena, Robert Thomas Jr., Jose Rossy and Mino Cinelu.
Likewise, the Zawinul Syndicate has seen its share of great
musicians passing through, including drummers Cornell Rochester,
Rodney Holmes, Paco Sery and Mike Baker; bassists Gerald Veasley,
Matthew Garrison, Richard Bona, Victor Bailey and Etienne Mbappe;
guitarists Scott Henderson, Randy Bernsen, Gary Poulson and Amit
Chatterjee; percussionists Manolo Badrena and Arto Tuncboyaciyan.
“This record is
very nice,” Zawinul says of the live Vienna Nights,
“because the groove, the rotation among the players is so
enormous. It moves more than ever before and I can really get into
this. In the past I’ve often had to be a part of making the rhythm
happen. There were times in the past if I stopped for four bars
you could really feel a drop in the energy. And that cannot be.
But these guys, man...they’re rotating and marching and are slick
with it. And because the groove is so solid I can be much more
spacious in my way of expressing myself.”
Understandly proud
of his current edition o the Zawinul Syndicate, he notes, “We’re
setting some high standards because we sing, we entertain and we
bring a high grade music. That was always the thing I wanted to do
in my life and I learned this not from Duke Ellington, I learned
this when I was in Vienna. That was the old musician standard. You
had to go out there and play faultless, first grade music and
entertain people. I really believe in that, and the great masters
of the jazz music like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and
Cannonball Adderley were into the same thing. I am totally into
this, man, and it’s been wonderful. I’ve been playing better than
ever and we just continue growing. We have something now to reckon
with on a serious level.”
Stay tuned for
upcoming Zawinul Syndicate tours this summer in Europe and autumn
in the States. Until then, feel the heat of Joe’s most
scintillating outfit to date on the live Vienna Nights.
Author: Bill
Milkowski Many
thanks to:
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(in fase di traduzione)
Release Date: May 23rd 2005
Gea Marotta (Emmeci Srl)