mjzee

The Electric Joe Zawinul His jazz compositions deserve more attention and respect By JIM FUSILLI December 30, 2006; Page P10 "Forecast: Tomorrow" (Columbia), Weather Report's recently released 39-track retrospective, supports the conclusion that the band was the best of the 1970s electric jazz-fusion groups. It also invites a reappraisal of Joe Zawinul, the keyboard player and composer who, along with saxophonist Wayne Shorter, founded the group. Why revisit Mr. Zawinul and not his longtime partner? For one, Mr. Shorter is on the lofty pedestal he deserves, having more or less escaped the scorn of jazz purists who loathe electric jazz. In 2000, he introduced a dazzling new quartet that builds on the beloved acoustic postbebop model he helped create as a member of Miles Davis's great mid-1960s quintet. Several of Mr. Shorter's early melodic and harmonically complex compositions are part of the jazz canon, and his recordings with his new group, particularly the in-concert albums "Footprints Live!" and last year's "Beyond the Sound Barrier," both on the Verve label, suggest his latter period will be ripe for exploration as well. As for Mr. Zawinul, his credentials ought to be beyond dispute too. He joined the Davis group as it began to explore electric jazz, coming over after a nine-year stint as pianist for Cannonball Adderly, for whom he wrote some 50 songs. From the beginning of the electric-jazz era, the Austria-born and classically trained Mr. Zawinul was the most imaginative keyboard player, blending brawny blocks of colorful chords with feathery filigrees. To hear him at work is to believe there's no sound he can't produce and that his surprising-but-inevitable choices will suit perfectly the music he's performing. He's been voted Best Electric Keyboard player 28 times by Down Beat magazine. He isn't as widely acknowledged for his compositions, though he wrote Davis's "In a Silent Way" and two of the rare jazz songs to become mainstream hits -- "Mercy Mercy Mercy" for Adderly in 1966 and "Birdland" for Weather Report 11 years later. As "Forecast: Tomorrow" illustrates, Mr. Zawinul's compositions explore the full range of human emotions -- his ballads speak of loss and yearning as well as any modern jazz composer's. But, with the occasional exception of his three most famous tunes, not many Zawinul compositions are covered by traditional jazz artists -- a baffling oversight that suggests the bias against electric jazz still lives. Last year, on its album "Trio" (ECM), the Polish acoustic-jazz combo Wasilewski, Kurkiewicz and Miskiewicz reworked Mr. Shorter's Weather Report composition "Plaza Real." Many Zawinul tunes would do just as well in such thoughtful hands. Nowadays, the 74-year-old Mr. Zawinul rarely returns to acoustic jazz and continues to rely on funk, rock and, most of all, African and Latin American rhythms and modes for his mix. At a late October performance at New York's Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, the beautiful new temple of traditional jazz, Mr. Zawinul mostly played percussive funk, fronting a band of young musicians from Brazil, Mauritius, Morocco and Uganda. Not only did he avoid acoustic jazz, he barely tapped his Weather Report-era songbook, leaning heavily on his 2005 live album, "Vienna Nights" (BHM). The show was touted as the first by a fusion band at Jazz at Lincoln Center since it opened in 2004. With close to half the theater's 1,200 seats empty, who knows whether there will be another soon. An extraordinary vehicle for Mr. Zawinul and Mr. Shorter, Weather Report regularly altered its lineup, changing drummers and bass players to adapt to an audience that increasingly included rock fans. The boxed set presents the initial unit as patient and ethereal, with Miroslav Vitous's acoustic bass providing a supple anchor; the band sounded much like the quieter moments of Davis's groundbreaking and once-disparaged "Bitches Brew" album, particularly on Mr. Zawinul's "Orange Lady," which he wrote for Davis. Another Zawinul composition that Davis recorded during that period, "Directions," is more fully realized in the previously unreleased Weather Report version as Mr. Shorter and Mr. Vitous prove fusion and bebop were never incompatible. A live version of Mr. Shorter's "Nubian Sundance" demonstrates how the band became more assertive when Alphonso Johnson assumed the bass role. The arrival in 1976 of the brilliant bassist Jaco Pastorius made Weather Report a super-group that played with the power and brashness of a rock band and the adroitness and sophistication of a jazz combo. A DVD of a 1978 concert included in the package presents Weather Report at its height, though "Forecast: Tomorrow" is a reminder that while the Pastorius-era group is now legendary, it was extraordinary before his arrival and after he departed. "Forecast: Tomorrow" reveals the richness of Mr. Zawinul's compositions and raises the hope that they will be appreciated one day for their musicality and capacity to communicate on an intellectual and visceral level. At times, the band's clever, sometimes remarkable performances obscure the beauty at the heart of his writing. But beauty is there, as well as adventure, daring and real harmonic invention. Sooner or later, bias will give way to the realization that Mr. Zawinul is a rare and wonderful jazz composer worthy of intelligent and passionate exploration.

OK, it has jazz uses too. For instance, I just dubbed from LP the Oscar Peterson Jam from Montreux '77: The Art of the Jam Session. Since I want to put the set in the Oscar Peterson folder, and not create a separate Oscar Peterson Jam folder, the Artist is Oscar Peterson, and the Album Artist is Oscar Peterson Jam. That's what I figured; thanks for the confirmation, rostasi.

In the latest version of iTunes, there's a new field available named "Album Artist" (as opposed to "Artist", which is still there). Does anyone know what this new field is used for?

Very sad. RIP.

I remember that their LPs were issued in the U.S. by United Artists, and the covers had some great dye-cut graphics - covers that fold out in interesting ways. The "Fearless" cover had pages like a book, and the "Bandstand" cover had a big hole where the TV screen is. The paper was thin, though, so one had to be really careful refiling the LP. It was a great time for LP graphics - a lot of fun experimenting was going on.

This month's downloads: Charlie Parker - Bird on 52nd St Joe Pass - Meditation Charlie Byrd - Mr. Guitar The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall Bud Powell - Winter Broadcasts 1953 Art Tatum Group Masterpieces #2 (w/Roy Eldridge) Pee Wee Russell & Coleman Hawkins - Jazz Reunion Mike Ledonne - On Fire Eric Dolphy & Booker Little - Memorial Album Dave Brubeck - Live at Oberlin Russell Malone - Live at the Jazz Standard

When they started carrying Candid, they started with just a few titles; each month, they add more. Now they have a large part of the catalog. Here's hoping they'll do the same with Storyville.

CHARLIE ROUSE: Freddie Hubbard (tp), Charlie Rouse (ts), McCoy Tyner (p), Bob Cranshaw (b), Billy Higgins (dm). Englewood Cliffs, N.J., January 22, 1965 1505 tk.1 One for five 1506 tk.9 Little Sherri (rejected) untitled original (rejected) untitled minor blues (rejected) 1507 I'm glad there is you (rejected)

Exciting news - it seems that eMusic now has the Storyville label. See: Dexter Gordon - Jazz at Highschool Duke Ellington - Masters of Jazz Ben Webster Plays Ballads Plus others.

I attended a Revolutionary Ensemble loft concert in Soho in 1975 or 76, where I bought "The Psyche."

I like figuring things out on my own, listening to music without preconceived notions of how I "should" react. I also like pursuing musicians I find interesting. Right now, I'm following connections between Oscar Pettiford, Lucky Thompson, Osie Johnson...all interesting, smart musicians. Following the thought processes of a Gigi Gryce can be very illuminating, sometimes moreso than a John Coltrane, because you're not "told" that he's great; you can come to your own opinion about him.

Jazz Concerts of the '50s to '70s, Now Seen as Well as Heard By NAT HENTOFF November 30, 2006; Page D8 For years, jazz musicians coming back from Europe have told me of being part of concerts -- televised live by state-owned stations in Europe -- that have been among the most deeply satisfying of their musical lives. Uninterrupted by commercials and produced without concern for competitive audience ratings, these gigs freed the musicians from time constraints. I've long regretted not having been able to see any of these performances, but now the first nine "Jazz Icons" DVDs have resoundingly arrived -- produced by Reelin' in the Years Productions on the international TDK label, distributed in North America by Naxos America. Filmed in Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Denmark and Switzerland from the 1950s into the 1970s, "none of these performances" -- say the ceaseless explorers of Reelin' in the Years, David Pack and Phillip Galloway -- "has ever been officially released, and in many cases, the material was never originally broadcast." To this jazz enthusiast, this is like the discovery of a bonanza of previously unknown manuscripts of plays by William Shakespeare. Among the international icons and their sidemen are Louis Armstrong; Dizzy Gillespie; Count Basie; Thelonious Monk; Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers; Buddy Rich; Quincy Jones; Ella Fitzgerald; and Chet Baker. My recommendations among them begin with the DVD of the 1960 Quincy Jones ensemble, which Mr. Jones understandably called his "dream band." In the brass section (whose élan reminded me of Duke Ellington's "Braggin' in Brass" tribute to his horn men) are trumpeters Clark Terry and Benny Bailey and trombonists Quentin Jackson and Melba Liston (the latter long ago having proved that jazzwomen do have "chops"). And always going for a home run, there is Phil Woods on alto saxophone. Also of historic and present joy are the 1958 Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers with the thrilling (I mean the term denotatively) trumpet of Lee Morgan -- with Mr. Blakey, as usual, on fire on drums. Also, the full presence of Thelonious Monk in a 1966 concert bears out what I tell listeners too young to have ever seen Monk -- that he was almost as mesmerizing to watch as to hear. On the Ella Fitzgerald DVD, there are two concerts (1957 and 1963) in which Ella, reveling in her incomparable mastery of jazz time and swiftly inventive wit, is backed on the earlier set by my choice of a "dream rhythm section": Jo Jones, Ray Brown and Oscar Peterson. Dizzy Gillespie, too, was best seen as well as heard to get the full, flavorful impact of his delight in continually surprising himself during his 1958 and 1970 concerts. Louis Armstrong, as Wynton Marsalis says of Satchmo's 1959 "Jazz Icon" concert, "is the most modern trumpet player we've ever heard and the most ancient at the same time...this DVD captures that intangible power and allows us to gaze upon it in wonder." The Count Basie band of 1962 brings me back to that time when, going down the stairs into New York's Birdland, the swinging gusts from the bandstand below almost blew me against the wall. And Buddy Rich, who could have swung a military band, bursts into view with his 1978 big band, which he called, with manifest pride, the "Killer Force." Also among these first nine "Icons," with more to come, are 1964 and 1979 performances by Chet Baker, whose trumpet playing and singing have, for me, been an acquired taste that I've not been able to master. But many have, and still do. Not only are these performances previously unavailable -- to most of us, unknown to have existed -- and invaluable contributions to the history of the music, but they also serve as a much needed model of economic justice to jazz sidemen. Uniquely, in my experience, each sideman in these concerts, as producers Peck and Galloway note, is being paid directly -- or if they're dead -- via the American Federation of Musicians, through the musicians' estates. The reason that so many jazz sidemen who have been sidelined -- for reasons of health or changing fashions -- are often hard put to pay their rent is that sidemen do not get royalty payments from sales of recordings, and relatively few of them ever become leaders of bands or combos. Also part of the care Messrs. Peck and Galloway have taken with these DVD additions to the jazz heritage is the quality of the sound in the remastering and the knowledgeable liner notes, which include both the commentary of jazz critics and some of the reminiscences of colleagues and family members of the icons. In the Thelonious Monk booklet, Don Sickler -- long associated with Monk and his family, and himself a trumpet player and an arranger of Monk's music -- has this illuminating passage, quoting drummer Ben Riley, who's on the DVD: "Monk lets the music breathe. He doesn't clutter anything up. He leaves space for you to create. John Coltrane said that playing with Thelonious Monk was like opening a door and stepping into a room, and there was no floor. So now you have to figure how to stand up on your own." (Duke Ellington, a major influence on Monk, used to say to a sideman asking for instructions on how to solo on a wholly new piece of Duke's music: "Listen, sweetie, listen!") Having opened doors to a pantheon of jazz creators with this first series of "Jazz Icons," Messrs. Peck and Galloway are trying to make arrangements to get artists' and other clearances to release "an incredible 60-minute concert from 1966 with Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington; various concerts of John Coltrane, Sarah Vaughan and (Rahsaan) Roland Kirk; and 90 minutes of live and in-studio concerts from 1964 with Charles Mingus and Eric Dolphy, filmed a few months before Dolphy passed away." I heard about that Dolphy concert from one of Mingus's sidemen, who told me knowing that I had had the privilege of recording the often astonishing Dolphy: "Eric that day went beyond anything he's ever done before!" Reelin' in the Years Productions does not focus solely on jazz. Messrs. Peck and Galloway have a library of more than 10,000 filmed performances from, they note, "over 30 TV stations that we exclusively represent from Europe, Japan and Australia." Among their previous releases are "American Folk Blues Festival 1962-69" and three James Brown "soul" concerts from 1966 to 1971. Who knows? Maybe somewhere there is a recording of the legendary New Orleans trumpet player Buddy Bolden, whose horn on the streets could be heard for 10 miles -- or so I was told by musicians there remembering tales of their boyhoods. If such a recording exists, Messrs. Peck and Galloway will find it. Mr. Hentoff writes about jazz for the Journal.

I saw it performed as part of the Newport Jazz Festival in NY when the album came out. It was a double bill: Ornette and band backed by a 40-piece orchestra, then Charlie Mingus (they were both on Columbia, and I think "Let My Children Hear Music" was also recently released). I remember being bored by Skies of America: the orchestra would play a section, then Ornette and band would play a section, then the orchestra, then Ornette, etc - rarely did both play together. Things got much livelier when Mingus hit the stage - he was really funny introducing the pieces, leafing through his sheet music trying to decide what to play, etc.

I believe most or all of these are available for download on eMusic.

My Royal Flush booklet is fine - no typos, no wrong pages.

In the CD booklet for Trompeta Toccata, two pages are mistakenly from the Ike Quebec release. I have the first page of Blumenthal's "A New Look at Trompeta Toccata," but the next two pages are the second page of Blumenthal's notes for the Quebec, and the song list for the Quebec. Blue Note quality control strikes again!

marcus you are the best!!! The interesting thing about the Charlie Hunter is that, not only did he follow the song sequence of Natty Dread, his performance lengths were exactly those of the original Marley LP.

I had a two-record set on Savoy of Sammy Price, called "Rib Joint." Not really jazz, more barrelhouse juke joint rock and roll, and excellent. King Curtis was all over it, and so was Kenny Burrell (as well as, on one date, Panama Francis). I'm surprised Savoy never released it on CD.

Can anyone recommend some titles available on eMusic by the following artists: Dave McKenna Earl Hines Dorothy Donegan TIA.

Listen to "Swiss Nights, Vol. 1" (Steeplechase), recorded live 8/23/75. Listen to him kick off the concert with a "Tenor Madness" BLAM! going 120 miles an hour. Guaranteed to bring bliss.

I saw this mention in a recent issue of Cargo Magazine: www.plusdeck.com (Paraphrase:) "Essentially, a dashboard-style head unit that installed into one of a PC's drive bays, the device comes with software used to convert cassettes into MP3 files. It plays the tapes through the computer speakers, too, so you can decide which ones to transfer. $150."

Thanks for the tip; I'll try it out.

I saw this band at the Felt Forum, NYC. About 17 pieces, right? Tim Buckley opened. Great show.

Have you heard it yet? It's an odd lineup. I like George Duke, but ... I had this as an LP on Everest (called "Gordon's Gotham"). Good playing, but sound quality's a bit iffy - sounds like a recording from the audience, and Dexter's not exactly on mic. George Duke acquits himself, though - he plays pretty nicely.

Some rock CDs have "hidden tracks." For example, the Dead's Dick's Picks #13, CD two, lists the 4th track as "Saint of Circumstance (6:35)." However, the track is actually 42:47, and consists of "Saint," a long period of silence, and then two other songs from a different concert. iTunes only shows one track, "Saint," with a length of 42:47. I'd like to transfer "Saint" and the two other songs, individually, to iPod/iTunes, and drop out the silence. I know this can't be done with iTunes. Can anyone recommend a way to achieve this? TIA.