Sunday, 30. October 2005

(This is primarily for myself to help my brain remember in the years to come.)
19 years ago I had the pleasure of attending a Zawinul Big Band concert in Vienna, a front row seat, left side, perfect.
This time there was a small shadow in my heart because one of us four had to cancel because she had to go to a funeral instead (I really do not like motorbikes).
First thing after getting our tickests was a remark by Erich Zawinul, telling me, that I indeed had a super table reservated for me. In fact it was the No. 1 and 2 tables right in front of Zawinul. (I was lucky to read about these concerts a long time in advance at the WDR Big Band’s hompage so I must have been one of the firsts to order tickets.)
Before the concert started I could take a photo of the guitarist’s tracklistlist:
The music was great. Of course it was not written for a Big Band in the first place, so sometimes there was the danger of too many notes being played. And having 20 instead of 5 or 6 musicians sharing the stage with him could not change Zawinuls attitude toward playing his music. Which means the usual experiments with drummer and percussionist were still taking place while the a sax solo took most of the attention of the audience. Always searching for something special. And because of this the main focus was on Zawinul and the music, not necessarily providing a „show“ for the audience.

Some commenst:
Night Passage & Fast City:
If you know those songs you can imagine what it sounded like. Big Band, some soloing. No real surprises here.
In a silent way:
The first 3 minutes seemed to be a note by note transcription from the version you can hear on 8:30, the duet with wayne that is form e the very essence of the song. This was followed by an arrengement fort he full Big Band. Very beautiful, but could not hold up to the beginning.
Procession:
I always like the way this song starts building up momentum, growing and growing. Much more so with this band.
Brown Street: I always love this one from 8:30. But having the Band at full blow without the nuances, the searching chords of the original being lost, was so unbelievable.
Indiscretions: It was a sextet and not a quartet as shown on the tracklist, guitar and sax and the core group.
D flat Waltz:
Wow! I have heard this played by Weather Report in 83 when it was brand new. And this might bet he one song that has the most to gain from the power of th Big Band. And it made full use of that. (Back the form e this song marked the end of listening to hard rock for a while.)
Break:
The couple weh ad brought with us had never been to a Zawinul concert, nor did they have any of his CDs. Suffice to say I h now have to give them a call whenever he will play again...
March of the Lost childeren:
A little long form y taste, but the people enjoyed. (There seems to ba a pattern: The less I like something played by Zawinul, the more the others seem to go wild. Hmm.)
A Remark You Made:
The best ballad since I do not know when and played in great style. Bass, sax, and Joe’s minisolos sounding so fresh like he had found the ideas only in the second he touched the keys. Having not played the song for 22 years might have helped.
Badia (and Boogie Woogie Waltz)
What to say: Might be the only song he played with Weather Report, Weather Update, Zawinul Syndicate, and now with the Band. Some might argue, that by now this has very little to do with the original songs recorded in 1974 and 1973, that’s the way life is and typical of Zawinul.
Lost Tribes:
They skipped that
Black Market:
This was an average performance of this song. Which still makes it a five star experience.
Continuum:
Was Bailey’s sung version, asking „Do you know who Jaco was?“ In the latter part there was a problem with power and /or other equipment, and in the few seconds of silence a grinning Joe said: That was Jaco. The power came back and so did the music.
Carnavalito:
Was Carnavalito. Near the end Joe was gesturing for a sax solo at a time when the band had laid their instruments down. So the sax player took a few seconds to „reboot“. And the Zawinul started to „work“ with Acuna and Townsley in an intense exchange that is so typical and so different from everything else I hear elsewhere.
So the second part was the more relaxed one, more Zawinul per beat. ;)
Here is the line up as from Birdland Web page:

Line up:
Joe Zawinul - keyboard
Paul Shigihara - guitar
Victor Bailey - bass
Nathaniel Townsley - drums
Alex Acuna - percussion

Heiner Wiberny - 1. alto sax
Karolina Strassmayer - 2. alto sax
Olivier Peters - 1. tenor sax
Paul Heller - 2. tenor sax
Jens Neufang - baritone sax
Andy Haderer - 1. trumpet
Rob Bruynen - 2. trumpet
Klaus Osterloh - 3. trumpet
John Marshall - 5. trumpet
Ludwig Nuss - 1. trombone
Dave Horler - 2. trombone
Bernt Laukamp - 3. trombone
Mattis Cederberg - bass, trombone

And to bring this to an end: There are to best things about this:
There will be a Live CD of the concerts during this week.
I will be there again tomorrow night.

Gerhard Hauer