Customer Reviews

World Tour

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

 

 

Zawinul and the Syndicate turn in muscular performances from 1997. Covers much of the Syndicate catalogue as well as cuts from "My People" and "Stories of the Danube". OG style Fusion, World Beat and BeBop; World Tour has it all, and it smokes! Weather Report for the 90s! I have seen them several times and this CD really captures what the shows are like: high energy, furious improv exchange, thundering grooves that can modulate to sensitive introspective explorations and then turn back again on a dime, played by the some of the best musicians in the world. Features Drummer Paco Sery, Percusionist Manolo Badrena, Guitarist Gary Poulson, Bassists Victor Bailey and Richard Bono (Manolo Badrena played on "Heavy Weather" and Victor Bailey replaced Jaco). Shame no earlier work with Gerald Veasley or Matthew Garrison included. If you enjoy the Zawinul Syndicate studio releases or Weather Report, then this CD is a must buy.

I saw them on this tour in summer '97 and it was a mostly cookin' / slammin' show . There were some technical difficulties that Joe was having with his keyboards from the humidity.. ( was an outdoor show in the dead of the Pittsburgh summer here ) . He was grumbling and cursing his gear out at times .. hehehe.. it was amusing ... But... yea.. as other people on here have noted ... Paco, the drummer is a good player ... knows when to play and when not to and has that uniquely African sense of accentuation that I haven't heard since Manu Katche` ( drummer with peter gabriel , sting , robbie robertson and others ) ... Manolo Badrena is really the other good half of Paco though, playing off him with wonderful bemusement , .... Manolo is perhaps the best hand percussionist i've ever heard... and seen ... he sang a few tracks when I saw them as well ... If there's any complaint I have about this release is that it's perhaps too much of the African aesthetic and not enough jazz fusion as Joe is better known for ... I think he got a little too obsessed with being Mister-World Music . I feel he also relies on the vocoder ( a device that makes his voice sound harmonic and strange ) too much ... He's better suited in the post-Miles Davis/ post Weather Report thing in my opinion ... He oughta leave the African entendres to others I think ... As well... a few of the tracks that are comprised of just Joe playing his keys are a lot too elevator-music -cum sing - songy mamby pamby---.... " Sunday Morning/Sunday Evening " being one of them ... The track ' Success ' with the spoken word poetry comes off a little out of place as well , a little too spooky for the collective vibe of the rest of the cds . " When there was royalty" is another track that feels and seems out of place on this 2 cd set, being a monaurally-recorded single piano performance piece that was done in a studio and had nothing to do with the live show ... this piece would better be suited on a piano/unplugged only sort of release from Joe Zawinul . But overall ... this is as close to what Weather Report did live as any other release that I know of ( as far as live stuff ) . I wish Joe would release more live Syndicate stuff ... this set teases me for more ... There is talk of Columbia Records releasing a boxset with a bunch of not heard before Weather Report .... that should be dazzling ....

THIS 2CD PACKAGE CAPTURES THE ESSENCE OF A BAND PLAYING THEIR SOCKS OFF IN A LIVE SETTING REMINISCENT OF WEATHER REPORT IN THEIR HAYDAY..PACO SERRY IS THE 'WARHEAD' IN THIS LINEUP, BUT THE ENTIRE BAND GEL SUBLIMELY, WITH FUNK GROOVES AND WORLD MUSIC, FIRE & WATER, LIGHT & SHADE.. THE IMPROVISATIONAL PASSAGES ARE RICH WITH EXERPTS FROM PREVIOUS ZAWINUL ANECTODES. A MUST FOR ANY LISTENER WHO ENJOYED WEATHER REPORT.

Coming from Austria it therefore shouldn't surprise anyone that this gentleman is THAT good. Inheriting a legacy of other genius classical music composer...WOW! In my reckoning, he is probably the greatest jazz-world-music Caucasian composers ever. And, undoubtedly the best synthesiser master. Check out "Indiscretions", damn, the build up, the conversation with Richard Bona, another genius, I'm glad to be alive to be able to listen to music this good. My dream for this band, let Bona come back and play alongside Victor Bailey a la Henry Threadgill and Ornette Coleman kinda line-up...and with, to boot, Wayne or Steve Coleman. Ouch! We wait for more fom the master himself. Signing out from South Africa.

What an eclectic guy was Joe Zawinul is 'collected' in most of his collaborations and albums with musicians such as Maynard Ferguson, Dinah Washington, Ben Webster, Mark Murphy, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Friedrich Gulda, Miles Davis (among all, the marvelous "In a silent way" then re-issued by Columbia-Sony as 3 CDs 'Complete Session') and many others, reaching the joint longlasting leadership with Wayne Shorter in that great "creature" called "Weather Report".

His eager curiosity for new instruments such has the Hammond Organ (discovered in the '60ies') and other "electronic stuff" and the ability to get always the right sound from them, drove him to evolutional experiments all along his life into all kinds of music.

His "high mixed blood" where co-existed his Hungarian, Czech, Rom and Austrian origins was driving him to reach the right mixture, the contamination, the dialogue with many other cultures ... a melting pot of great sensations exploded out from that in every simple tune he wrote and/or just played.

Even though not all the Zawinul's recordings are "top of the art" - but many of them actually are - all the above are condensed and distilled in this live recording (2CDs) with the Zawinul Syndicate where acoustic and electric harmonies are patiently and spontaneously woven, driving the listener - as a sort of "mysterious traveler" - through various cultural areas of this world called "earth" and, why not, "heart".

So, in conclusion, let's freely abandon ears and mind to this very recommended experience.

a must for all drummers, paco rips. one of the best ever heard. smokin' band.