Talk about getting flashbacks. The time? The ''pre-'' Internet 1990s. The place? St Pancras. London Town. Turning up to a venue I was unfamiliar with and ticketless was not ideal. I think I'd seen the gig listed in Time Out and wanted to review it for a magazine I was working for at the time, the Romilly Street based Jazz Express. After a bit of pleading I blagged a ticket off the promoter Jon Dabner standing there in the lobby looking bored but expectant. Somehow I recognised him. He wasn't the easiest of geezers but was perfectly amenable to begging. The place reeked of a mix of disinfectant and urine, a fact I seemed to recall Dabner commenting on. Everybody in the hall seemed to be smoking. You could in those days. There was also a strong smell of weed. A long wait. No one was in any hurry And then the Zawinul Syndicate blew us all away.
Best bits on Luniwaz Live? Difficult - but the storming treatment of the serenely gathered Night Passage (1980) Zawinul Weather Report tune 'Fast City' is pretty epic to say the least
Yank keyboardist Scott Kinsey who hails from Owosso, Michigan went to Berklee and was in one of the great jazz fusion bands ever for years Tribal Tech idolises Zawinul who sadly left the planet in 2007 years before Wayne his co-leader of Weather Report passed just last year. Kinsey has even MD'd the Zawinul Legacy Band founded by Joe's eldest son, Tony that debuted at Carnegie Hall a decade ago. Down the years I met both Wayne and Joe briefly - Wayne at a hotel in Mayfair interviewing him when we talked mainly about the great Michael Moore and some of Moore's classics like Roger and Me and some old movies like 40s flick The Red Shoes which was one of his favourites. Zawinul I met only the once, interviewing him over a few beers in a hotel in Bloomsbury. As you can imagine by then - that being the 1990s - he was extremely used to being interviewed and he was very cool but not standoffish at all. It was like talking to someone you'd known for years but you wouldn't want to get the wrong side of as he could smell bullshittery a mile off.
Kinsey has form to say the least in paying homage to Zawinul - check out We Speak Luniwaz - also on Whirlwind - which appeared 5 years ago and has a few connections among the personnel in common here. Zawinul exec produced Kinsey's heavyweight strewn Kinesthetics issued in 2006. What's here - based on a live recording at a jazz bar cafe venue in Prague called Jazz Dock - isn't puny at all. You couldn't imagine it on one of those wishy washy copycat wannabe ECM productions at all - you know the sort of label when the basic thinking is solid but somehow everything gets lost in translation and so nothing much happens for quite a while. You light a candle as you are listening, say shush to yourself and probably an ave desiring brevity and go om even as you listen in the privacy of your own gaff. Not ideal given that vast swathes of your life seem to have elapsed in the listening but no fears on that count here as if anything Luniwaz Live seems too brief. Kinsey has mega chops - if a UK jazz fan the only player who can do justice to Zawinul by keeping him in mind while still being original is Django Bates now living in Switzerland. Kinsey's up a pretty steep mountain too climbing towards that summit and on a ledge with Django. No need for crampons or oxygen. And yet nobody dies.
Free fallin' frenzy
No need to put on a Tom Petty classic at all either if back in the real world and have headed outside for a smoke and have put oldies radio on to avoid the shock jocks banging on about elections. This free fallin' of a different musically diverse and progressive kind couldn't be further from what you might hear on even half decent but much less adventurous rocker radio (Full Moon Fever - belonging to a far less thrilling ecosystem - came out three years after Weather Report's last studio album). 'Volcano For Hire' bursts out of the speakers and is supremely gutsy, Weather Report fans will be delirious with 'Black Market: Running The Dara Down' and 'Badia: Boogie Woogie' is a pleasure.
One of the world's top jazz-rock bass guitarists is once again by Kinsey's side and yes it's worth isolating Hadrien Feraud's sound if you have the kit, know-how and a console by your bed. Bumble playalong only if you dare. But muso and air bassist you must. Drummer Gergo Borlai is also on the record as is altoist Patrick Bartley with a few guests notably guitar genius Pedro Martins on a couple of tracks near the end where he is joined by perky percussionist Robert Thomas Jr who was on Night Passage. The album was recorded last year. There's a lot of spirit here and what a great way to kick off your Friday. Any Friday.
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