aworks :: "new" american classical music

Domino Theory (1984). Joe Zawinul

domino theory image via WikipediaI've been listening to the jazz fusion group Weather Report since high school. I've heard and mostly owned every album they had. And yet, clicking around lala turns up an album, Domino Theory, from 1984 that I somehow never heard. The Peasant and Domino Theory may be the tracks of choice. About the latter:

Robin Tolleson asked Hakim who programmed the "outrageous" drum machine part on "Domino Theory." "Joe did. Joe's nuts with that stuff. He's hearing all these rhythms. Man, he's crazy. He's a madman, but he loves it..."

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Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (1966). Joe Zawinul /austrian & american soul/

Cannonball Adderley's spoken introduction to Mercy, Mercy, Mercy:

You know, sometimes we're not prepared for adversity. When it happens sometimes, we're caught short. We don't know exactly how to handle it when it comes up. Sometimes, we don't know just what to do when adversity takes over. <chuckle>. And I have advice for all of us, I got it from my pianist Joe Zawinul who wrote this tune. And it sounds like what you're supposed to say when you have that kind of problem. It's called Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.

A Zawinul Q&A via Darcy James Argue:

What was your introduction to synthesizer?

I was reading about Milton Babbitt and wondering about people like Morton Subotnick and John Cage. I could hear that there was really something in those instruments, although their music always seemed sort of pulled out of a hat to me. At that time I was in Cannonball's band, just making enough to survive, I couldn't afford anything new...

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aworks: thanks for the memory

Recollections (1970). Joe Zawinul

This is a track from the complete Bitches Brew sessions. It's definitely laid-back although because it's Bitches Brew, you expect things at any time to break out into frenzied improvisation. But restraint wins out.

Buried in the mix is some gratuitous sitar. No bass clarinet, though.

milesdavisturbomix5 says that the Joe Zawinul/Wayne Shorter group Weather Report played jazz-funk, not jazz-rock. I'll call Recollections electro-ambient jazz.