Dutch drummer Ron van Stratum sends word that he has a new CD out, Swingin’ In The Swamp, which includes a very Zawinul-esque tune, “Zawinizm,” as well as some other tasty tracks. I think I’m going to have to buy this one.
It’s always good to hear folks keeping the Zawinul spirit alive. Best to Ron.
Today is the third anniversary of the passing of Joe Zawinul. To honor his memory, I have chosen a clip from an interview I did with him in February 2007. We sat on lounge chairs at Joe’s Malibu home, high on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The main purpose of our interview was to talk about the history of Joe’s band, the Zawinul Syndicate. But there were a few other nuggets as well. In this clip I ask Joe about the importance of the human voice in his music and he gave me a revealing explanation of his musical philosophy.
We miss you, Joe, but your music lives!
I am pleased to report that Alphonso Johnson will receive the 2010 Bass Player magazine Lifetime Achievement Award. The ceremony will take place on Saturday, October 23 at the evening event of Bass Player LIVE! 2010, after which Alphonso will perform along with David Garfield, Mike O’Neill and Leon “Ndugu” Chancler.
Alphonso is best known to Zawinul fans for his two-year stint with Weather Report. He first came to Joe and Wayne’s attention in 1973, when Weather Report shared a bill with Chuck Mangione in Johnson’s hometown of Philadelphia. Alphonso was Mangione’s bass player at the time and Wayne and Joe liked what they heard. They later invited him to audition during the recording of Mysterious Traveller. He had just turned 23 years of age.
“Alphonso Johnson had a lot,” Zawinul recalled years later. “He was young, he was bright, he was disciplined, and he could lay down a groove that hurt and that’s what I wanted.” Alphonso was the linchpin that enabled Weather Report to transition into its mature phase that led to a string of ground-breaking albums. On Mysterious Traveller, Johnson memorably improvised the bass hook that launched the band into a jam that produced the ultra-funky tune “Cucumber Slumber.” He also brought in the composition “Scarlet Woman.”
Johnson toured with Weather Report throughout 1974 and 1975, and when Chester Thompson took over the drum chair, the band jelled and produced some blistering music that can be heard on the album Live and Unreleased. He also played on the albums Tale Spinnin’ and Black Market. The last track on the latter was “Hernandu,” which Joe once described as “a great tune by Alphonso Johnson.”
Joe and Wayne’s respect for Alphonso remained undiminished decades later. When I casually mentioned Johnson’s name to Joe during a 2004 interview, his response was immediate and unequivocal: “Ohh! He had the funk, man! He was the funkiest of ‘em all–even more than Jaco.”
And in an interview last year, Wayne gave a more abstract but equally meaningful response when asked about Alphonso: “We liked the way he set a groove–we use to say a ‘loping’ kind of groove. And we liked him as a person. He was well-mannered. He was tall and he carried his height well. He didn’t have a problem with self-esteem. He didn’t hide behind his instrument, or hide behind being a musician. He was well-tutored by his mother and father. Miles [Davis] used to say, (imitating Miles), ‘Some people are raised well.’”
In addition to Chuck Mangione and Weather Report, Alphonso has performed or recorded with Santana, Woody Herman, The Crusaders, Bob Weir, George Duke, En Vogue, Wayne Shorter, Sergio Mendes, Tony Williams, Joe Williams, Gregory Hines, Eddie Henderson, Flora Purim, Quincy Jones, Lee Ritenour, Phil Collins, The Whispers, John McLaughlin, Jeffrey Osborne, Sarah Vaughan, Dori Caymmi, Carl Anderson, and The Meeting. He also has three albums under his own name.
Alphonso is also a music educator, and he is currently on the faculty of the University of Southern California Jazz Studies Department.
Bass Player LIVE! is an annual two-day event that “brings players, manufacturers, and artists together in an intimate environment for hands-on access to the latest instruments, equipment and instruction on playing technique and application.” Previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award include Charlie Haden, Rocco Prestia, Tony Levin, Lee Sklar, Verdine White, Anthony Jackson, Will Lee, Oteil Burbridge, Leo Fender, Percy Heath, Milt Hinton, Jerry Jemmott, Al McKibbon, Joe Osborn, Chuck Rainey, Bobby Rodriguez, and Billy Sheehan.
Congrats to Alphonso. If you’re in L.A. in October, get out to the Key Club and give him his props.
Ever since watching video of the Metropole Orchestra performing the music of Joe Zawinul, I’ve been hoping that these recordings would be officially released on CD, if not DVD. Now such a CD is in the offing.
BHM Records has announced that it will release Fast City, a tribute to Joe Zawinul performed by the Metropole Orchestra under the direction of Vince Mendoza. The release is scheduled for Germany in October. If past practice is an indicator, a US distributor won’t pick it up until many months later, although AbstractLogix frequently stocks import CDs for purchase in the US.
I wrote about the orchestra’s Zawinul tribute in April 2009. The orchestration and performances are amazing. Mendoza is a gifted orchestrator and his empathy for Zawinul’s compositions makes for transcendent music. Songs such as “Peace,” “Jungle Book” and “Nubian Sundance” are noteworthy both because one wouldn’t expect to ever hear them played live, but also for the way in which the Metropole Orchestra reveals layers that extend beyond the original recordings by Joe and Weather Report.
Fast City will consists of six tracks recorded on January 26, 2008 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The remaining three tracks were recorded live at the North Sea Jazz Festival on July 11, 2008. Guest artists on both occasions included Peter Erskine, Amit Chatterjee, Victor Bailey, and Jim Beard. Alex Acuña plays percussion on the Concertgebouw tracks while Efrain Toro handles percussion on the North Sea recordings.
More in October.
Track List
1. “Jungle Book” (07:39) - Joe Zawinul/ arr. Vince Mendoza. Recorded January 26, 2008 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
2. “Orient Express” (09:32) - Joe Zawinul/arr. Vince Mendoza. Recorded July 11, 2008 at the North Sea Jazz Festival.
3. “The Juggler” (05:24) - Joe Zawinul/ arr. Vince Mendoza. Recorded July 11, 2008 at the North Sea Jazz Festival.
4. “Nubian Sundance” (10:29) - Joe Zawinul/ arr. Vince Mendoza. January 26, 2008 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
5. “Dream Clock” (07:37) - Joe Zawinul/ arr. Vince Mendoza. January 26, 2008 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
6. “Fast City” (06:07) - Joe Zawinul/ arr. Vince Mendoza. Recorded July 11, 2008 at the North Sea Jazz Festival.
7. “Peace” (11:05) - Joe Zawinul/ arr. Vince Mendoza. January 26, 2008 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
8. “Tower Of Silence” (06:47) - Joe Zawinul/ arr. Vince Mendoza. January 26, 2008 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
9. “In A Silent Way” (04:20) - Joe Zawinul/ arr. Vince Mendoza. January 26, 2008 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Weather Report: Live In Hamburg 1971 has been released on NTSC DVD suitable for playback on US DVD players. This DVD documents the original incarnation of the band with Miroslav Vitous, Alphonse Mouzon and Dom Um Romao. Originally recorded for broadcast on the German television program “Beat Club,” the video and audio quality are excellent (although it was recorded in mono). The set clocks in at 48 minutes and includes performances of “Orange Lady,” “Directions,” “Seventh Arrow,” “Waterfall” and “Dr. Honoris Causa.” This is a rare glimpse at the band in its earliest days, and not be missed by Weather Report fans.
Stanley Clarke, talking about the tune “Larry Has Traveled 11 Miles and Waited a Lifetime for the Return of Vishnu’s Report” on his new album, The Stanley Clarke Band:
“If you study the title, it has little fragments of the names of five or six really influential jazz-rock fusion bands, like Larry Coryell’s Eleventh House, Miles Davis of course, Mahavishnu Orchestra, the Tony Williams Lifetime, Return to Forever, and Weather Report,” he explains. “And that tune, if you listen to it really carefully, you’ll hear elements of all those bands—although to me it sounds more like Weather Report than anybody.
“Even though I was in Return to Forever, and I love Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles and all that stuff, to me the most creative out of all those bands was Weather Report,” he adds. “Don’t tell Chick I said that!”
Really? Corea wouldn’t be bothered by this well-deserved nod to the late Joe Zawinul, would he?
“Ah,” says Clarke, laughing, “you don’t know Chick like I know him!”
I’m maintaining The Syndicate concert dates on the Tour Dates page, so look there for the latest information that I have.
I also happened upon a couple of videos of the band:
Photo: Celigge
The Syndicate, the band formed by several members of the Zawinul Syndicate in order to carry on Joe’s legacy, has several concerts scheduled for this spring. The Syndicate features four members of the final edition of the Zawinul Syndicate: Drummer Paco Sery, percussionist/vocalist Aziz Sahmaoui, percussionist Jorge Bezerra, and guitarist Alegre Corrêa. Additional members are Aloune Wade on bass, Emile Parisien on sax, and Thierry Eliez on keyboards.
The following concerts are scheduled for next week: Mar. 16, Moods, Zurich, Switzerland; Mar. 17, Blue Note, Milano, Italy; Mar. 18, Porgy & Bess, Vienna, Austria; Mar. 20, Jazzhouse, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Additional concerts on the books for this year are: May 1, Budapest; May 19-22, Festival Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Jul. 24, Parc Floral, Paris; Aug. 27, Güssing, Austria; and Nov. 26, Prague, Czechoslovakia.
I haven’t heard this band, but my guess is that this is as close to the Zawinul Syndicate as you’re going to get without Joe. If anyone reading this does attend one of their concerts, drop me a note and let me know what it was like.
Warner Jazz has reissued a remastered edition of Money In The Pocket, Joe’s first album recorded in the United States under his own name. Originally issued in 1965 by Atlantic Records, this was the first of three albums Joe recorded for Atlantic Records and producer Joel Dorn, the others being Rise And Fall of The Third Stream, and 1970’s Zawinul. So far as I know, it is only available in the UK, but stateside fans can purchase it via Amazon UK.
The Recording Academy announced today that Joe’s album, 75, won the Grammy award in the category Best Contemporary Jazz Album. Other nominees in that category were Urbanus, Stefon Harris & Blackout; Sounding Point, Julian Lage; At World’s Edge, Philippe Saisse; and Big Neighborhood, Mike Stern.
It was Joe’s first Grammy win for an album under his own name. Several of his post-Weather Report albums were nominated, as was the Zawinul-produced Salif Keita album, Amen. Congratulations to Joe and the Zawinul estate.