Joe Zawinul - Brown Street (Live 2005 with WDR Big Band)

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Joe Zawinul - Brown Street (Live 2005 with WDR Big Band)

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Joe Zawinul and hiscore group meshes with the WDR big band to romp through his songs. I'm familiar with some of the Weather Report songs, but most of the songs were new to me. The overall mood, as you can probably tell from the samples, is peppy. The first song sets the mood, it's bouncy and swinging. This CD highlights that Joe Zawinul's keyboard may be able to play a lot of notes and make different sounds, but is no substitute for having a whole mess of horn players. A big band has more dynamics and power, and while fusion may be in jazz terms 180 degrees from big band music, in this case they have a lot in common. "In A Silent Way" focuses more on Zawinul in favor of using the band. "Fast City" is true to its name. In the fast songs, Victor Bailey plays dizzyingly fast bass lines. His tone cuts through the mix, so you can readily hear him whirling along. I think a song or two might have been better served by a slower, funkier bass line like the Jaco lines on "Black Market". There are 10 songs, and the total album length is 84 minutes, so it's barely a double CD, but the price is that of a single. This is one of the better jazz CD's of 2007 so far.