Customer Reviews

75th

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the way I would want to go out, with the hottest band of my career playing at full tilt. What an amazing concert, and what an incredible band. Every player in the band is a whirlwind, and they're all giving it everything they've got (which I would expect with any band that has Paco Sery behind the drums). But even better, they play with an uncanny synchronicity. What a tribute to a man who has produced so much incredible music in his life, to have what may be his best recording ever at the very end. Just buy it.

This is an outstanding live album by an artist that I have been following for many years. Released posthumously, this concert recorded at the Lugano festival in Switzerland would ultimately become one of his last live performances. And what a show to go out on...

This concert can be seen in its entirety on Youtube, and I've seen it probably a thousand times. If you've seen it, you know that the only bad thing about this otherwise fantastic show is that Joe was having lots of signal problems with his keyboards during the first couple songs in the set. I was happy to hear that a lot of these problems were corrected on this live CD, either by burying them in the mix, editing them out, or boosting the signal level when it was cutting out during the show.

In any case, there's no taking away from the pulsating energy of the 10+ minute Orient Express and the playful and powerful Madagascar, also fine renditions of Zansa II and Cafe Andalusia. The show closes with an absolutely explosive version of the classic Badia/Boogie Woogie Waltz.

But this album really goes to another level when Joe reunities with Wayne Shorter for a 14+ minute version of In a Silent Way. I was convinced that the big band version of this song on Joe's Brown Street live album was the best that this song could sound, but this simple keyboard and tenor sax interpretation is dynamic, moving, and intense.

Needless to say Joe accompanies himself with a dream team of very capable musicians--as he always does--, particularly bass virtuoso Linley Marthe and drummer Paco Sery, both Zawinul Syndicate veterans.

If you care about good experimental jazz/fusion with a heavy tinge of world music influences, this CD comes highly recommended from this listener.

He played jazz and rythm'n'blues, made classical works, was a seminal voice on Miles Davis' groundbreaking jazzrock records in the 60s. And co-led one of the finest, most daring bands ever: Weather Report.

But the last years of his life was mainly devoted to fruitful explorations into world music and a brimming amalgam of African, South American and European music. Playing, like here, mainly with musicians from 'third world' countries.

An important move in a time where the West seems to isolate itself more and more in agressive self-righteousness. And providing him with the inspiration to continue to develop his musical palette to the very end.

This CD, mostly recorded live in Lugano on his 75th birthday, is clear testimony to the brilliance of his vision. The excellent rythm section of the harddriving yet subtle drumming of Paco Sery and bassvirtuoso Linley Marthe, the last, but in no way least, in the long, illustrious line of formidable Zawinul-bassplayers. Add to that a three-piece percussion-section, whose dense and ferrocious playing reminds of another visionary world music embassador, Carlos Santana. The percussionists, among them the beautiful Sabine Kabongo, also add vocal chants. And on top of that the vocoder vocals and wonderfully weird keyboards of the maestro himself, as far out and adventurous as ever.

However awesome the tracks with Zawinul Syndicate are things move to a higher realm when Zawinul reunites with Wayne Shorter for a completely transcendental "In A Silent Way" (recorded in Budapest). To hear these two musical giants reunited again is just as emotional as the recent Cream and Led Zeppelin reunions, perhaps even more so due to Zawinul leaving his body so shortly after.

This is art born out of the eternal, nor aimed at the marketplace but for the more appreciative humanity in a hopefully not too distant future. Let those who have ears hear.

It is very strange that this album should document a player/composer so at the top of his game-- with much more to offer-- only to be gone later that same year from a rare form of skin cancer. Still, Zawinul's legacy is a broad one, and it is fortunate that we can hear these 2 CDs and appreciate the expansion of his synthesis of world music, his mission for the past 25 years or more. What a talent, who surrounded himself with other extremely talented people-- who would not have been given the world stage that Joe was able to set them on and the recognition they all richly deserve. Godspeed, Joe Zawinul.

As with Sun Ra and Miles Davis, mounting health problems did not prevent Joe Zawinul from maintaining a hectic performance schedule, which seemingly gave them renewed energy from the interaction with the audience and musicians.

The concert from Lugano, Switzerland, with the Zawinul Syndicate, was recorded on July 7, 2007, with one track taken from a show in Hungary that features Wayne Shorter. Zawinul entered the hospital in August and passed away on September 11 from a rare form of skin cancer.

There is an unbridled joy in the numbers, with Zawinul in full-flight on keyboards; his distinctive "voice" being heard as band leader and soloist. As long as jazz music is played, the legacy of Zawinul will continue to reach new generations of fans and musicians.

This release is not Zawinul saying farewell...it is an amazing display of living life to the fullest under the bright lights of the big stage.

Zawinul was a maestro and this is a fitting way for him to go out! Every track is a gem and shows that at 75 he still had quite a touch and rapport with world musicians.

This is a great recording, its live but its fantastic recorded on his 75 th birthday what a concert, I love it.

The Zawinul Syndicate finally won a Grammy for "Best Contemporary Jazz" with this sensational live recording. Due to the gig being part of a festival the concert is somewhat short. (I heard them at the Birdland in Vienna some 10 days earlier where the played for more than 2 hours). But it has all the classic Zawinul qualities, immense drive and fire and precision and fun and love for the music.

And if the "Zawinul Estate" succeds there will soon be more recordings of Zawinuls music with a new Band. ANd there must be TONS of live recordings too in the vaults.

Zawinul ( I always though of him as the most underrated living musician when he was still alive) may be dead but through his music he will live for a loooong time.

This is my favorite of Joe's releases of the last few years. Madagascar is worth the price of admission alone - it has taken its place among the very best of Joe's recordings. To hear this guy keep up with Paco Sery at the ripe old age of 75 is utterly amazing. He checked out only a couple months later in his native Vienna, Austria.

Colorful, refined and charged with a force prior to the very notion of harmony: splendid