75 (album)

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75
Live album by
Joe Zawinul and
The Zawinul Syndicate
ReleasedSeptember 24, 2008
RecordedJuly 7, 2007 and
August 2, 2007
VenueLugano, Switzerland (July),
Veszprém, Hungary (August)
GenreJazz
Length93:00
LabelBHM, JVC
ProducerJoachim Becker
Joe Zawinul chronology
Brown Street
(2006) 		75
(2008) 		Absolute Zawinul
(2010)

75 is a

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.[1]
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

Merkel cell carcinoma.[4] The Veszprém concert was Zawinul's penultimate performance.[3]

Composition

Joe Zawinul (pictured in 2007) died shortly after 75 was recorded.

75 opens with "Orient Express" from Zawinul's 1992

kalimba and Zawinul on synthesizer[3] and vocoder.[5] The first disc concludes with "Cafe Andalusia". Sabine Kabongo provides scat vocals on this track.[3]

A combination of two Weather Report pieces "Fast City" and "Two Lines" opens disc two and features more scat singing by Kabongo.[2] Next, "Clario" features vocals by Alegre Corrêa.[3] Another melding of Weather Report tunes, "Badia" and "Boogie Woogie Waltz", follows and features Corrêa on Berimbau and Kabongo on vocals.[3] The next track is a recording of Kabongo leading the audience in a chorus of "Happy Birthday" directed at Zawinul.[3] "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 [Zawinul] knew the end was near".[3][4]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
75
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic
[5]
The Times[6]

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".[5] JazzTimes's 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".[3] 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".[2] 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."[4] In the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Bob Karlovitis called the release "a great statement about [Zawinul's] creativity". He described the album's opening piece, "Orient Express" as "almost tiring in its energy".[7]

The BBC's Jon Lusk did not share the high opinions of other critics. He was "not mad about" vocalists Aziz Sahmaoui and Sabine Kabongo but found Alegre Corrêa "agreeable enough". He liked "In a Silent Way", calling it "beautifully serene" but wished there were other performances with similar "reflective moments".[8] The review in The Times by John Bungey was more positive. He noted that it was not a "generally sad affair, hard-to-take document" as are most final recordings of great artists, but instead "a compelling last testament of a mighty group and a fine human being".[6] Nick Coleman's review in The Independent was mixed; he wrote that the "tempos border on the frantic, phrases are spat, the will to trade licks is never less than testosteronal" but quipped that for "every sublime passage there's a butch one".[9] John Fordham of The Guardian contrasted the release to Zawinul's 2005 live album Vienna Nights. One difference he emphasized was "the typhoon drumming of Paco Sery and a battalion of percussionists [that] gives Zawinul the option of letting long stretches of the music simply groove". He also noted that there was no comparable track with the duet with Shorter on Vienna Nights.[10]

Track listing

Disc One
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Introduction to Orient Express" (originally from My People)Joe Zawinul3:10
2."Orient Express" (originally from My People)Zawinul10:07
3."Madagascar" (originally from Night Passage)Zawinul10:00
4."Scarlet Woman" (originally from Mysterious Traveller)Alphonso Johnson, Wayne Shorter, Zawinul6:55
5."Zansa II" (originally from World Tour)Paco Sery, Zawinul6:39
6."Cafe Andalusia" (originally from Faces & Places)Zawinul8:52
Disc Two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Fast City / Two Lines" (originally from Night Passage / Procession)Zawinul12:37
2."Clario"Alegre Corrêa5:45
3."Badia / Boogie Woogie Waltz" (originally from Tale Spinnin' / Sweetnighter)Zawinul10:16
4."Happy Birthday"Mildred J. Hill, Patty Hill1:39
5."In a Silent Way" (originally from In a Silent Way)Zawinul14:20
6."Hymn"Traditional3:30

Personnel

Wayne Shorter joined Joe Zawinul for a duet on "In a Silent Way".

Musicians

Production

Credits adapted from AllMusic and album liner notes.[5][11]

Charts

75 reached a peak position of number eighteen on Billboard's Top Jazz Albums chart.[1]

Year Chart Peak position
2009 Billboard's Top Jazz Albums 18

Awards

The album won the

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.[12] The other nominees for the award were Urbanus by Stefon Harris, Sounding Point by Julian Lage, At World's Edge by Philippe Saisse, and Big Neighborhood by Mike Stern.[13]

Release history

Date Type Title Label Catalog #
24 September 2008
CD
 75
JVC Compact Discs
 61575/6[5]
24 October 2008 75th BHM Productions 4002-2[14]
24 February 2009 75 Heads Up Records 3162-25[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "75: Charts & Awards". Allmusic. Archived from the original on 5 April 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d Wilkins, Woodrow (17 February 2009). "Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate 75". All About Jazz. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Milkowski, Bill (January–February 2009). "75 Joe Zawinul & the Zawinul Syndicate". JazzTimes. Archived from the original on 13 September 2010. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  4. ^ a b c Kelman, John (13 March 2009). "Joe Zawinul & The Zawinul Syndicate 75". All About Jazz. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  5. ^
    All Media Guide. Archived
    from the original on 4 April 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  6. ^
    ISSN 0140-0460. Archived
    from the original on 17 August 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  7. ^ Karlovits, Bob (1 March 2009). "75 is a fitting testament to Zawinul's talent". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Tribune-Review Publishing Company. Archived from the original on 2009-03-02. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  8. ^ Lusk, Jon (28 October 2008). "Review of Joe Zawinul – 75th". BBC Online. Archived from the original on 11 February 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  9. OCLC 185201487. Archived from the original
    on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  10. OCLC 60623878. Archived
    from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  11. ^ 75 - Joe Zawinul and the Zawinul Syndicate (CD insert). Heads Up International. 2008.
  12. ^ Barton, Chris (31 January 2010). "Familiar names dot jazz categories". The Victoria Advocate. Victoria, Texas. Archived from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  13. ^ Levine, Doug (26 January 2010). "A Look at This Year's Grammy Award Jazz Nominees". Voice of America. Archived from the original on 11 May 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  14. ^ "Joe Zawinul 75th". BHM Productions. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  15. ^ "75 Joe Zawinul". Concord Music Group. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2011.

External links

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