Zawinul Online

It’s been a year since I woke up to the news that Joe Zawinul passed away. I want to thank everyone who contributed to the Memorial page. A while back I received an email from Sabine Kabongo, who said, “Thank you for the tribute page you made. It was a helping process to read all those messages of cares and shares.” You all made a difference.

I recently wrote a story about my face-to-face visits with Joe. I wanted to put it into words before the memories faded too much. You can read it here.

Boy, do I miss those concerts!

75, a double CD of the Zawinul Syndicate’s July 7, 2007 performance at the Lugano Jazz Festival, will be released on October 17. This was the Syndicate’s last multitrack recording. An added bonus is the inclusion of Joe and Wayne Shorter’s duet performed on August 2, 2007 at Veszprem, Hungary, which was the next to last performance of Joe’s life.

Another release, Absolute Z with the Absolute Ensemble, is in the works, but has been postponed to 2009.

And finally, look for a relaunch of the official Joe Zawinul web site later this year.

Zawinul lives.

It was a little late in coming, but the Down Beat Critics Poll elected Joe to the magazine’s hall of fame by a nearly two-to-one margin over runner-up Hank Jones. He joins Weather Report co-founder Wayne Shorter, as well as collaborators Miles Davis, Jaco Pastorius and Cannonball Adderley, all of whom have also been so honored.

The results of the poll were announced in the August issue of the magazine, which included a two-page article about Joe. The article indicated that keyboardist Scott Kinsey “inherited the task of archiving Zawinul’s sprawling collection of unreleased recordings.” That’s not exactly right. Joe’s estate, which is being administered by his eldest son, Anthony, is in the process of archiving the thousands of recordings that Joe created over the years, converting them to digital form. It’s certainly possible that we’ll hear some of these recordings at some point–and that Scott will be involved musically–but I suspect it will take quite a while just to get the material organized and properly archived.

Several Zawinul Syndicate band members are touring Europe this spring as the Z Syndicate, in tribute to Joe Zawinul. The line-up consists of former Syndicate members Paco Sery on drums, Aziz Sahmaoui on vocals and percussion, Jorge Bezerra Jr. on percussion, Alegre Corréa on guitar and vocals, and Sabine Kabongo on vocals, plus Thierry Eliez on keyboards, Alioune Wade on bass and Emile Parisien on sax.

The dates are on the Tour Dates page.

The May issue of Jazzwise magazine is advertising the Findamorale Festival 2008, billed as a tribute to Joe Zawinul’s mastery of musician selection plus premiere of new UK projects. On the schedule is the Victor Bailey Group on June 5, the Amit Chatterjee Alliance on June 6, the Matt Garrison Trio with Scott Kinsey on June 7, and the Paco Sery Group on June 8.

Bailey will be performing at London’s Baltic Restaurant with Casey Benjamin (sax and keyboards), Peter Horvath (keyboards) and Rocky Bryany (drums). The other concerts will be at Charlie Wright’s International. There does not appear to be a web site for the Findamorale Festival, but the musicians’ and venue web sites include the show times and details.

With Joe’s passing last September, there have been a number of one-off tribute concerts commemorating Joe’s contributions to the music world. In January, Vince Mendoza conducted the Metropole Orchestra in Amsterdam, featuring Peter Erskine, Alex Acuña, Victor Bailey, Amit Chatterjee and Jim Beard. Plans call for a repeat performance at this summer’s North Sea Jazz Festival. The Jazzinec International Jazz&Blues and Funky Festival, currently underway in Trutnov City, Czechoslovakia, is dedicated to Joe’s memory, and the festival finale will be a tribute to Joe performed by Victor Bailey and Amit Chatterjee.

One of the more interesting tributes is that being undertaken by the UK band Curfew, which plans to take its Zawinul Legacy project on the road this summer. You can get a sneak peek by viewing their YouTube video.

The band’s keyboardist, Martin Lawrie, told me, “I have been a lifelong fan of Joe’s here in the UK, and now that he is gone, we have to keep the music alive. Whilst I’ve always included some of Joe tunes in my fusion band’s set, I would like to do a more specific tribute. I particularly want to keep the music in the style of the Syndicate, as Joe always looked forward and the Syndicate was the current showcase for his genius and I think, the most exciting and enjoyable (and I include 7 Weather Report concerts that I went to when I say that!).”

The band is planning a set that includes the classics “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” and “Birdland,” as well as gems from the Weather Report and Zawinul Syndicate books. Zawinul fans in the UK and Europe should keep an eye out for the Zawinul Legacy this summer.

Vince Mendoza won a Grammy award tonight for his arrangement of “In A Silent Way,” which can be heard on Joe’s last album, Brown Street. Congratulations to Vince Mendoza, Joe, the WDR Big Band, Victor Bailey, Nathaniel Townsley, and Alex Acuna.

Behind The Notes has recently launched a video web site featuring musicians with live performances discussing how they approach the creative process of making music. Two musicians that that are featured are electric bassist Etienne Mbappe and drummer Roger Biwandu, both of whom toured with the Zawinul Syndicate. You can get a preview of these documentaries on YouTube by going here for Biwandu, and here for MBappe.

The BBC Big Band capped the 10-day London Jazz Festival with a tribute concert to Joe Zawinul, performing the music of Brown Street. Joe had been scheduled to perform with the big band that night, but after his death the concert was recast as a tribute to him. Manning the keyboards was Django Bates, who earned rave reviews in the UK press. This Is Aberdeen said Bates “played magnificently,” adding it was “Bates who [made] the evening special. His unaccompanied prelude to ‘In a Silent Way’ was a thing of wonder.” Victor Bailey propelled the rhythm section along with local musicians Martin France on drums and John Parricelli on guitar.

The concert will be broadcast on BBC’s Radio 3 on December 8, presented by Julian Joseph, with comments from Zawinul biographer Brian Glasser. Check the Radio 3 web site for details.

Well, the stars finally aligned and I managed to be in Los Angeles at the same time that the Scott Kinsey Group performed. As long-time visitors of Zawinul Online may know, I’ve been a fan Scott’s going back to his work with Tribal Tech–especially their last two albums, Thick and Rocket Science–and his work on Gary Willis’ two solo albums, No Sweat and Bent. Those Willis albums are underrated gems. No longer in print, they are available as downloads from Willis’ web site, and I highly recommend that you check them out if you haven’t already. Earlier this year Scott released his first album under his own name, Kinesthetics, which I wrote about in an previous post.

Scott regularly performs around L.A. and I’ve been wanting to catch him live for some time. Fortunately, I got to see him last week at The Baked Potato, a small club that has been a fixture on the L.A. jazz scene for years and regularly features fusion artists (for lack of a better term). The night I was there Kinsey’s group consisted of regular bassist Jimmy Earl; Steve “Tav” Tavaglione on saxes, flute and EWI; and Marvin “Smitty” Smith, in his first performance with Kinsey.

Scott is really doing some cool stuff. He’s sometimes compared to Zawinul–something I’ve done myself. But I wouldn’t say that he emulates Zawinul, as Scott has established his own voice. Rather, he captures Joe’s spirit in many ways. His creative use of sound and electronic keyboards is one example, and his use of grooves and rhythmic elements is another.

Scott has had an ongoing musical relationship with Tavaglione going back at least to the Willis albums, and the two have developed a real chemistry. (Check out “Wishing Tree” on Kinesthetics for an example of their live improvisations.) Tavaglione’s work on EWI is particularly creative, and after hearing him play it live, I remain perplexed as to why the EWI isn’t used by more players.

L.A. is lucky to have Kinsey, and Zawinul fans in the area would do well to check him out. Tomorrow night he will be performing at La Va Lee Jazz Club in Hollywood with Tavaglione and Earl, drummer Kirk Covington, and Arto Tunçboyaciyan–a name that should be familiar to Zawinul fans. Wish I could be there for that one!