Joe Zawinul - Brown Street

French pressing in a deluxe tri-fold digipak. In his 74th year, renowned keyboardist, prolific composer and venerable bandleader Joe Zawinul shows no signs of slowing down. A living legend whose most popular tunes - 'Mercy Mercy Mercy' with the Cannonball Adderley quintet, 'In a Silent Way' with Miles Davis, 'Birdland' with Weather Report - have been covered numerous times by a wide variety of artists from the pop and jazz worlds, Zawinul's music has indeed stood the test of time. The Austrian-born maestro continues to tour the world with his pan-global juggernaut, the Zawinul Syndicate, which will be celebrating it's 20th year in 2007. Meanwhile, he has realized a major triumph with Brown Street, his majestic collaboration with the 15-piece WDR Big Band Koln on Joe's own Birdjam label. Recorded live on October 26, 2005 at Joe Zawinul's Birdland club in Vienna, this powerhouse project showcases Zawinul along with current Syndicate drummer Nathaniel Townsley, former Weather Report and Syndicate bassist Victor Bailey and former Weather Report drummer Alex Acuna on percussion in expanded, orchestral renditions of vintage Weather Report tunes and Zawinul compositions like 'Black Market', 'A Remark You Made', 'Night Passage' and 'Boogie Woogie Waltz.' All the music on this ambitious collaboration was adapted and arranged by Vince Mendoza, with the exception of 'Procession, ' which was arranged by Joe himself. (Mendoza had previously worked up big band renditions of vintage Brecker Brothers material from the '70s in their live encounter with the WDR Big Band Koln, released in 2005 as Randy Brecker's Some Skunk Funk).