Reviewed by Eric Shifrin

75 is the final release from keyboard legend Joe Zawinul who succumbed to skin cancer during 2007.  This live 2 CD set, mostly recorded during one concert in Lugano, Switzerland, and puts an international cast of virtuosity on display.  With their leader in the driver’s seat at the keys, The Zawinal Syndicate performs a series of extended tunes in a percussion driven, expansive atmosphere.   

When electronic instruments became commonplace in the sixties it proved to be a boon for guitar players but sometimes more of a Pandora’s Box for keyboardists.   Joe Zawinul was one of the first keyboard players to embrace the Fender Rhodes and to prove it’s effectiveness by writing and playing on “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” a huge hit for Cannonball Adderly in 1966.

From that time onwards Joe Zawinul remained current and electronic keyboards were his main voice.   During one interview he said that he preferred electronic keyboards because they offered, more or less, complete control over the entire life of each note.  In other words, a note on the piano will always have the same envelope of sound (loudest at the start and then an eventual decay), while an electronic note can be sculpted from start to finish.

A scant three years after “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” Joe Zawinul would become an important voice in the influential Miles Davis’ electric period, again contributing relevant compositions along with his unique keyboard facility.  “In a Silent Way,” is revisited here, with a cameo from Wayne Shorter on his soprano saxophone.  Shorter was a long time Miles Davis band member, and he also played on the original version of, “In A Silent Way.”  Zawinul introduces him to the live audience in Hungary as, “the greatest living musician.”

Joe Zawinaul served his apprenticeship with masters like Adderly and Davis, luminaries who could hire just about any musicians they wanted, and he eventually became a leader in his own right.  In the 70’s Zawinul and Shorter founded Weather Report, which enjoyed unprecedented success for an instrumental group.  Their biggest hit was once again a Zawinal composition, the song “Birdland.”

Miles Davis’ uncanny knack for spotting and developing talent seems to have been passed on to Zawinul.  The personnel of Weather Report as well as the hand picked members of The Zawinul Syndicate perform at an extremely high level of musicianship.  The energy, the chops and the soul exhibited on 75 is nothing short of astounding.

The vocalists, starting with Moroccan, Aziz Sahmaoui on the opening track “Orient Express,” and continuing later with Belgian, Sabine Kabongo on “Zansa II,” evoke a stirring exoticism bordering on ritual.  Bassist Linley Marthe solos with intense flurries of notes in the manner of Weather Report’s  bassist, the late Jaco Pastorius.

Almost everyone in The Zawinul Syndicate can play percussion and sing, but Paco Sery is the main drummer, and he plays the wonderfully exotic kalimba for, “Zanza II.” The relentlessly burning tracks, “Orient Express,” and “Café Andalusia,” showcase Sery’s prowess, as well as that of percussionist Jorge Bezerra.  The final member of the group is guitarist Alegre Correia who brings an edgy rock vibe when needed. Correia also plays berimbau, as well as contributing vocals.

This is a bittersweet project, part celebration and part elegy, due to Zawinal’s terminal illness. Joe Zawinul’s 75, with The Zawinal Syndicate is a strongly retrospective album, and yet it serves just as well as an introduction to an honest, hard working, and noble musician, who never stopped growing.