Monthly Archives: June 2007

Joe and Wayne, Together Again At La Villette

A Zawinul Online visitor tipped me off to the events listing for Jazz à la Villette 2007, the jazz festival held each September at Cite de la Musique at Parc La Villette in Paris, France. Lo and behold, on September 6 the Zawinul Syndicate is scheduled to perform with a special guest: none other than Wayne Shorter.

Wayne is one of the festival’s featured musicians this year, and the Syndicate concert is the last of four performances over five nights at La Villette by Shorter. On September 2 he will play with the Gretchen Parlato Quintet. On the fourth he will perform with his own quartet and the National Orchestra of France, and the next evening Wayne’s quartet will be paired with the Imani Winds.

Although Joe and Wayne have appeared on the same bill at various jazz festivals over the years, to my knowledge they have not performed together since the 1991 Miles Davis tribute concert, also at La Villette. So this would seem to be a pretty special event, indeed.

Zawinul Summer Tour

Joe will kick off his European summer tour by performing three concerts with the Konse Conservatory of Music Workshop Band. This is something Joe did last year with graduating students of the Vienna Conservatory of Music. The band will consist of three saxophones, two trumpets, trombone, Joe, a full rhythm section, and six singers. Joe is providing the arrangements, including Ernie Wilkens’ “Dizzy’s Business,” Thelonious Monk’s “Little Rootie Tootie,” and some of Joe’s own tunes.

After that, the Syndicate embarks on a five-week tour of Europe, with performances at several major jazz festivals along the way.

See the Tour Dates page for the details.