75 (album)

''75'' is a live album by Austrian-American jazz musician Joe Zawinul and his band the Zawinul Syndicate. It was recorded in 2007 at two performances in Switzerland and Hungary, among bandleader Joe Zawinul's final performances. The album was produced by Joachim Becker and originally released in 2008 by JVC Compact Discs, with the Zawinul Estate and Becker serving as executive producers. It was later released by BHM Productions and Heads Up International, the BHM release with the alternate title ''75th''. It peaked at number eighteen on '' Billboard'' Top Jazz Albums chart and won the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. The album received a generally positive critical reception.

Overview

With the exception of one track, ''75'' was recorded during the Zawinul Syndicate's 7 July 2007 appearance at a festival in Lugano, Switzerland, which happened to be bandleader Joe Zawinul's seventy-fifth birthday. The concert was a part of the Zawinul Syndicate's twentieth anniversary world tour. The remaining track, "In a Silent Way", was recorded from their 2 August 2007 show in Veszprém, Hungary. Zawinul was joined on stage by Wayne Shorter on soprano saxophone for this track. This marked a reunion for Zawinul and Shorter, two original members of Weather Report, both of whom played on the original version of this song from Miles Davis's 1969 album of the same name. Shortly after these performances, on 11 September 2007, Zawinul died of Merkel cell carcinoma. The Veszprém concert was Zawinul's penultimate performance.

Composition

''75'' opens with "Orient Express" from Zawinul's 1992 solo album '' My People''. Zawinul plays the vocoder on this track. The second track, "Madagascar", also features Zawinul on vocoder and is one of two tracks that originally appeared on Weather Report's album '' Night Passage''. Another Weather Report piece, "Scarlet Woman", follows and features a bass solo by Linley Marthe. "Zansa II" is a duet with Paco Sery on kalimba and Zawinul on synthesizer and vocoder. The first disc concludes with "Cafe Andalusia". Sabine Kabongo provides scat vocals on this track.

A combination of two Weather Report pieces "Fast City" and "Two Lines" opens disc two and features more scat singing by Kabongo. Next, "Clario" features vocals by Alegre Corrêa. Another melding of Weather Report tunes, "Badia" and "Boogie Woogie Waltz", follows and features Corrêa on Berimbau and Kabongo on vocals. The next track is a recording of Kabungo leading the audience in a chorus of " Happy Birthday" directed at Zawinul. "In a Silent Way", a duet between Shorter and Zawinul originally from Miles Davis's album of the same name, follows. The album closed with "Hymn", which seemed to one reviewer "as though awinulknew the end was near".

Critical reception

''75'' received a generally positive critical reception. Michael G. Nastos of Allmusic wrote that the album exemplified Zawinul's "personalized direction" before he died and that it "exudes all of the energy the group produced in concert". ''JazzTimes'' Bill Milkowski described Zawinul's keyboard playing as creating "dazzling, free-flowing lines with the right hand while deftly orchestrating dense chords and Ellingtonian shout choruses with the left hand". All About Jazz's Woodrow Wilkins called the album a "musical adventure" and Zawinul's performance "a testament to his talent and dedication in sharing his gift". John Kelman, managing editor for All About Jazz, wrote that based on his performance Zawinul gave "no indicators that he was ill, let alone approaching death". He closed his review by calling ''75'' a "fitting finale to the career of an artist whose creativity, forward thinking and extensive discography mean that he may be gone, but he'll never be forgotten." In the '' Pittsburgh Tribune-Review'', Bob Karlovitis called the release "a great statement about awinul'screativity". He described the album's opening piece, "Orient Express" as "almost tiring in its energy".

The BBC
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