| Joe Zawinul — Brown Street (2006) |
Joe Zawinul — Brown Street
Birth name: Josef Erich Zawinul
Born: July 7, 1932, Vienna, Austria
Died: September 11, 2007, Vienna, Austria
Album release: November 27, 2006
Record Label: Heads Up/Intuition Records/CREAM Records
Duration: 84:38
Tracks:
01. Brown Street (Wayne Shorter) 10:58
02. In A Silent Way 5:15
03. Fast City 9:05
04. Badia / Boogie Woogie Waltz 11:46
05. Black Market 7:32
06. March Of The Lost Children 5:50
07. A Remark You Made 8:06
08. Night Passage 6:26
09. Procession (Arr. Joe Zawinul) 9:02
10. Carnavalito 10:41
Credits:
• Alex Acuña Percussion
• Victor Bailey Bass
• Joachim Becker Mixing, Producer
• Rob Bruynen Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Mattis Cederberg Band, Trombone (Bass), Tuba
• Klaus Genuit Mixing
• Andy Haderer Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Annette Hauber Production Coordination
• Dave Horler Band, Trombone
• Ines Kaiser Photography
• John Marshall Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Vince Mendoza Arranger
• Jens Neufang Band, Clarinet (Bass), Sax (Baritone), Sax (Bass)
• Ludwig Nuss Band, Trombone
• Joachim Oster Design
• Klaus Osterloh Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Olivier Peters Band, Clarinet, Flute, Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
• Kenny Rampton Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Lucas Schmid Executive Producer
• Koji Paul Shigihara Band, Guitar
• Wayne Shorter Composer
• Karolina Strassmayer Band, Clarinet, Flute, Sax (Alto)
• Nathaniel Townsley Drums
• Heiner Wiberny Band, Clarinet, Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano)
• Ivan Zawinul Engineer, Mixing, Sound Effects
• Joe Zawinul Arranger, Composer, Keyboards, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocoder
Notes:
• Recorded live at "Joe Zawinul's Birdlan" Vienna in October 2005.
Awards:
• 2007 Brown Street Top Jazz Albums #20
Website: http://www.zawinulmusic.com/
El intruso: http://elintruso.com/2007/03/27/joe-zawinul-brown-street/
Jazz dimensions: http://www.jazzdimensions.de/reviews/jazz/2007/zawinul_brown_street.html
BBC Review:
Zawinul is heard constantly sending mischievous, darting runs of notes between the big...
Sid Smith 2007-12-19
• The last album Joe Zawinul released in his lifetime is a reminder of just how accomplished an artist he was. The boy who came down from the Austrian mountains and left the Vienna Conservatoire to live in America in1958, had a real ear for melodies that could be as light as a feather or pummel you with the kind of sub-sonic thump. Being at ease within these two aspects of his compositional personality was the secret weapon that propelled his career. His genius was that he rarely overplayed either.
• Though several of these tunes incorporated a brash rock-orientated dynamic in their original settings you'd never know that from this collection, sounding as though they were destined for this large-scale brassy setting from day one.
• Recorded in 2005 in Zawinul's own jazz club, from the opening shuffle of the title track, the feelgood factor has been set to max via Vince Mendoza's astounding arrangements. The '60s-born, Grammy-winning composer/arranger grew up listening to Weather Report and his respect and grasp of the all-important groove upon which Zawinul placed such importance, rightfully dominates.
• With ex-Reporter's Victor Bailey on bass and Alex Acuna on percussion augmenting Zawinul Syndicate drummer, Nathaniel Townsley, all on towering form, it is the top-drawer quality of the ensemble and solo playing of the WDR Big Band that consistently catches the breath. New York trumpeter, John Marshall offers velvet-smooth smooch around a touching, opulently romantic rendition of ''In A Silent Way'', whilst the athletic racing of Paul Heller's tenor shows how young player’s respond to challenge of something as tricky to navigate as ''Fast City'' from WR's 1980 Night Passage.
• It goes awry only very occasionally. The normally joyous ''Black Market'' canters a touch too sedately for it to ever really take off in the way we know it can.
• Despite Zawinul's propensity to make swaggering pronouncements about his talents, his soloing was always more akin to skimming pebbles across incoming waves than surfing for glory in his outfits before or after Weather Report. Here, with the massed ranks of brass largely liberating him from providing the textured layers within his compositions, Zawinul is heard constantly sending mischievous, darting runs of notes between the big band breakers, teasing and tugging in all the right places.
• For all his ability to move with the times, be it adding a soulful stitch to Cannonball Adderley's funky apparel, infusing Miles Davis' music with a pungent European twist, or hard-wiring electronics into the body of jazz itself, Zawinul never lost touch with either his roots or their traditions. The melodic and harmonic depth that informs the spacious compositions were always designed to provide a scorching back-drop for players to blaze brightly. In this respect he always proved an incredibly generous accompanist and writer.
• Brown Street resounds triumphantly to these winning facets of his character and Zawinul must have been rightly proud of what he had achieved here. A better memorial to his thrilling abilities than this 2 CD set it's difficult to imagine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: C. Michael Bailey — Published: Mar 23, 2007 at 8:14 am
• Brown Street shows the genius of Joe Zawinul against the brightly colored backdrop of a big band, in this case the German WDR Big Band of Cologne. The collection showcases Zawinul compositions from his time at the helm of Weather Report. Notably absent (perhaps by design) from the collection is WR’s most popular piece, “Birdland.” This is fortuitous as several other WP classics receive a big band treatment they richly deserve.
• Zawinul’s original orchestrations are recast by arranger Vince Mendoza, who does a yeoman’s job of drawing Zawinul’s orchestrations into tighter perspective using the wares provided by the WDR Big Band to splash this repertoire onto a big canvas. • Within the big band is the working unit of Zawinul, former WR members bassist Victor Bailey and percussionist Alex Acuna and Nathaniel Townsley who is the Zawinul Syndicate’s current drummer.
• This lineup summons that certain magic that made recordings like Sweetnighter (Columbia, 1973), Black Market (Columbia, 1976), and Heavy Weather (Columbia, 1977). But Zawinul and Mendoza do not restrict themselves only to Weather Report material. Certainly a densely orchestrated “Black Market,” a rocking medley of “Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz” and a balladic “A Remark You Made” are appropriate from the WR book. Zawinul and Mendoza attend to several para-WR pieces including an extrapolated “Carnavalito” and likely a definitive “In a Silent Way” where Zawinul perhaps finally wrestles the piece away from the late Miles Davis. Brown Street is a superb release from this fusion master. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discography:
As leader:
• To You with Love (Strand, 1959)
• Money in the Pocket (Atlantic, 1966)
• The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream (Vortex, 1968)
• Zawinul (Atlantic, 1971)
• Di•a•lects (Columbia, 1986)
• The Immigrants (Columbia, 1988)
• Black Water (Columbia, 1989)
• Lost Tribes (Columbia, 1992)
• My People (ESC-Records, 1996)
• Stories of the Danube (Polygram, 1996)
• World Tour (ESC, 1997)
• Mauthausen - Vom großen Sterben hören (ESC-Records, 2000)
• Faces & Places (ESC-Records, 2002)
• Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate – Vienna Nights – Live at Joe Zawinul's Birdland (BirdJAM, 2005)
• Brown Street (2006)
• 75 (BirdJAM, 2008)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Review by Richard S. Ginell
• Like his friend and onetime collaborator Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul was not one to look back on his past and savor the view. Yet as in the case of Miles (his parting concert in Montreux), Zawinul finally took the plunge in central Europe late in life by revisiting his old Weather Report repertoire -- live at his Vienna nightclub, Joe Zawinul's Birdland. The significant difference is that while Miles doubled back to a re-creation of the original Gil Evans charts, Zawinul retrofitted his tunes with new big-band arrangements by Vince Mendoza, read with gusto and heft by the crack visiting WDR Big Band of Cologne, Germany. To this, Zawinul added his own synthesizer virtuosity and some overdubs from his Malibu studio, two distinguished WR alumni who still play with him off and on -- bassist Victor Bailey and percussionist Alex Acuña -- and drummer Nathaniel Townsley. In just about every case, Mendoza's charts replicate and flesh out every twist and turn in the Weather Report originals, paying off big-time with "Brown Street," an overlooked swinger from the WR 8:30 album that gets the remake album off to a percolating start. Occasionally he piles on additional harmonic tissue, as in the Miles-period "In a Silent Way." Some of the writing seems a bit redundant, yet things never become too overloaded thanks to the ceaseless drive of the rhythm section, and there is plenty of room for solos. Only on "Procession" does Zawinul write his own big-band chart; though tied tightly to the original recording, it sounds looser than most of the Mendoza charts as it works out over the drone. A few of the song choices are unexpected: the frantic "Fast City" and the strutting title tune from the Night Passage album; the former features some liquid synth solos by Zawinul and stimulating tenor sax by Paul Heller, and the latter some relaxed flügelhorn from Kenny Rampton. Others aren't from the WR catalog at all; "Silent Way" predates it, of course, though WR did play the tune in concert, and "March of the Lost Children" and the perennial "Carnavalito" are from the post-WR solo years. Unlike most jazz tribute projects -- including a fairly bloodless, multi-artist 1999 salute to Weather Report on Telarc -- this double-CD set isn't burdened with artificial nostalgia, and it benefits a lot from the presence of one of the two founding co-leaders (the other being the absent Wayne Shorter). And Zawinul is the crucial one, because the crusty Austrian keyboardist sees to it that the swing is the thing and that the groove is deep. • 
| Joe Zawinul — Brown Street (2006) |
Joe Zawinul — Brown Street
Birth name: Josef Erich Zawinul
Born: July 7, 1932, Vienna, Austria
Died: September 11, 2007, Vienna, Austria
Album release: November 27, 2006
Record Label: Heads Up/Intuition Records/CREAM Records
Duration: 84:38
Tracks:
01. Brown Street (Wayne Shorter) 10:58
02. In A Silent Way 5:15
03. Fast City 9:05
04. Badia / Boogie Woogie Waltz 11:46
05. Black Market 7:32
06. March Of The Lost Children 5:50
07. A Remark You Made 8:06
08. Night Passage 6:26
09. Procession (Arr. Joe Zawinul) 9:02
10. Carnavalito 10:41
Credits:
• Alex Acuña Percussion
• Victor Bailey Bass
• Joachim Becker Mixing, Producer
• Rob Bruynen Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Mattis Cederberg Band, Trombone (Bass), Tuba
• Klaus Genuit Mixing
• Andy Haderer Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Annette Hauber Production Coordination
• Dave Horler Band, Trombone
• Ines Kaiser Photography
• John Marshall Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Vince Mendoza Arranger
• Jens Neufang Band, Clarinet (Bass), Sax (Baritone), Sax (Bass)
• Ludwig Nuss Band, Trombone
• Joachim Oster Design
• Klaus Osterloh Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Olivier Peters Band, Clarinet, Flute, Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
• Kenny Rampton Band, Flugelhorn, Trumpet
• Lucas Schmid Executive Producer
• Koji Paul Shigihara Band, Guitar
• Wayne Shorter Composer
• Karolina Strassmayer Band, Clarinet, Flute, Sax (Alto)
• Nathaniel Townsley Drums
• Heiner Wiberny Band, Clarinet, Flute, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano)
• Ivan Zawinul Engineer, Mixing, Sound Effects
• Joe Zawinul Arranger, Composer, Keyboards, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocoder
Notes:
• Recorded live at "Joe Zawinul's Birdlan" Vienna in October 2005.
Awards:
• 2007 Brown Street Top Jazz Albums #20
Website: http://www.zawinulmusic.com/
El intruso: http://elintruso.com/2007/03/27/joe-zawinul-brown-street/
Jazz dimensions: http://www.jazzdimensions.de/reviews/jazz/2007/zawinul_brown_street.html
BBC Review:
Zawinul is heard constantly sending mischievous, darting runs of notes between the big...
Sid Smith 2007-12-19
• The last album Joe Zawinul released in his lifetime is a reminder of just how accomplished an artist he was. The boy who came down from the Austrian mountains and left the Vienna Conservatoire to live in America in1958, had a real ear for melodies that could be as light as a feather or pummel you with the kind of sub-sonic thump. Being at ease within these two aspects of his compositional personality was the secret weapon that propelled his career. His genius was that he rarely overplayed either.
• Though several of these tunes incorporated a brash rock-orientated dynamic in their original settings you'd never know that from this collection, sounding as though they were destined for this large-scale brassy setting from day one.
• Recorded in 2005 in Zawinul's own jazz club, from the opening shuffle of the title track, the feelgood factor has been set to max via Vince Mendoza's astounding arrangements. The '60s-born, Grammy-winning composer/arranger grew up listening to Weather Report and his respect and grasp of the all-important groove upon which Zawinul placed such importance, rightfully dominates.
• With ex-Reporter's Victor Bailey on bass and Alex Acuna on percussion augmenting Zawinul Syndicate drummer, Nathaniel Townsley, all on towering form, it is the top-drawer quality of the ensemble and solo playing of the WDR Big Band that consistently catches the breath. New York trumpeter, John Marshall offers velvet-smooth smooch around a touching, opulently romantic rendition of ''In A Silent Way'', whilst the athletic racing of Paul Heller's tenor shows how young player’s respond to challenge of something as tricky to navigate as ''Fast City'' from WR's 1980 Night Passage.
• It goes awry only very occasionally. The normally joyous ''Black Market'' canters a touch too sedately for it to ever really take off in the way we know it can.
• Despite Zawinul's propensity to make swaggering pronouncements about his talents, his soloing was always more akin to skimming pebbles across incoming waves than surfing for glory in his outfits before or after Weather Report. Here, with the massed ranks of brass largely liberating him from providing the textured layers within his compositions, Zawinul is heard constantly sending mischievous, darting runs of notes between the big band breakers, teasing and tugging in all the right places.
• For all his ability to move with the times, be it adding a soulful stitch to Cannonball Adderley's funky apparel, infusing Miles Davis' music with a pungent European twist, or hard-wiring electronics into the body of jazz itself, Zawinul never lost touch with either his roots or their traditions. The melodic and harmonic depth that informs the spacious compositions were always designed to provide a scorching back-drop for players to blaze brightly. In this respect he always proved an incredibly generous accompanist and writer.
• Brown Street resounds triumphantly to these winning facets of his character and Zawinul must have been rightly proud of what he had achieved here. A better memorial to his thrilling abilities than this 2 CD set it's difficult to imagine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Author: C. Michael Bailey — Published: Mar 23, 2007 at 8:14 am
• Brown Street shows the genius of Joe Zawinul against the brightly colored backdrop of a big band, in this case the German WDR Big Band of Cologne. The collection showcases Zawinul compositions from his time at the helm of Weather Report. Notably absent (perhaps by design) from the collection is WR’s most popular piece, “Birdland.” This is fortuitous as several other WP classics receive a big band treatment they richly deserve.
• Zawinul’s original orchestrations are recast by arranger Vince Mendoza, who does a yeoman’s job of drawing Zawinul’s orchestrations into tighter perspective using the wares provided by the WDR Big Band to splash this repertoire onto a big canvas. • Within the big band is the working unit of Zawinul, former WR members bassist Victor Bailey and percussionist Alex Acuna and Nathaniel Townsley who is the Zawinul Syndicate’s current drummer.
• This lineup summons that certain magic that made recordings like Sweetnighter (Columbia, 1973), Black Market (Columbia, 1976), and Heavy Weather (Columbia, 1977). But Zawinul and Mendoza do not restrict themselves only to Weather Report material. Certainly a densely orchestrated “Black Market,” a rocking medley of “Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz” and a balladic “A Remark You Made” are appropriate from the WR book. Zawinul and Mendoza attend to several para-WR pieces including an extrapolated “Carnavalito” and likely a definitive “In a Silent Way” where Zawinul perhaps finally wrestles the piece away from the late Miles Davis. Brown Street is a superb release from this fusion master.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Discography:
As leader:
• To You with Love (Strand, 1959)
• Money in the Pocket (Atlantic, 1966)
• The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream (Vortex, 1968)
• Zawinul (Atlantic, 1971)
• Di•a•lects (Columbia, 1986)
• The Immigrants (Columbia, 1988)
• Black Water (Columbia, 1989)
• Lost Tribes (Columbia, 1992)
• My People (ESC-Records, 1996)
• Stories of the Danube (Polygram, 1996)
• World Tour (ESC, 1997)
• Mauthausen - Vom großen Sterben hören (ESC-Records, 2000)
• Faces & Places (ESC-Records, 2002)
• Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate – Vienna Nights – Live at Joe Zawinul's Birdland (BirdJAM, 2005)
• Brown Street (2006)
• 75 (BirdJAM, 2008)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Review by Richard S. Ginell
• Like his friend and onetime collaborator Miles Davis, Joe Zawinul was not one to look back on his past and savor the view. Yet as in the case of Miles (his parting concert in Montreux), Zawinul finally took the plunge in central Europe late in life by revisiting his old Weather Report repertoire -- live at his Vienna nightclub, Joe Zawinul's Birdland. The significant difference is that while Miles doubled back to a re-creation of the original Gil Evans charts, Zawinul retrofitted his tunes with new big-band arrangements by Vince Mendoza, read with gusto and heft by the crack visiting WDR Big Band of Cologne, Germany. To this, Zawinul added his own synthesizer virtuosity and some overdubs from his Malibu studio, two distinguished WR alumni who still play with him off and on -- bassist Victor Bailey and percussionist Alex Acuña -- and drummer Nathaniel Townsley. In just about every case, Mendoza's charts replicate and flesh out every twist and turn in the Weather Report originals, paying off big-time with "Brown Street," an overlooked swinger from the WR 8:30 album that gets the remake album off to a percolating start. Occasionally he piles on additional harmonic tissue, as in the Miles-period "In a Silent Way." Some of the writing seems a bit redundant, yet things never become too overloaded thanks to the ceaseless drive of the rhythm section, and there is plenty of room for solos. Only on "Procession" does Zawinul write his own big-band chart; though tied tightly to the original recording, it sounds looser than most of the Mendoza charts as it works out over the drone. A few of the song choices are unexpected: the frantic "Fast City" and the strutting title tune from the Night Passage album; the former features some liquid synth solos by Zawinul and stimulating tenor sax by Paul Heller, and the latter some relaxed flügelhorn from Kenny Rampton. Others aren't from the WR catalog at all; "Silent Way" predates it, of course, though WR did play the tune in concert, and "March of the Lost Children" and the perennial "Carnavalito" are from the post-WR solo years. Unlike most jazz tribute projects -- including a fairly bloodless, multi-artist 1999 salute to Weather Report on Telarc -- this double-CD set isn't burdened with artificial nostalgia, and it benefits a lot from the presence of one of the two founding co-leaders (the other being the absent Wayne Shorter). And Zawinul is the crucial one, because the crusty Austrian keyboardist sees to it that the swing is the thing and that the groove is deep. •