zawinul syndicate
Queens Hall
1997-10-17 CD Edinburgh Soundboard

Disc 1 [56:03]01. Introduction To A Great Theme > [4:22]02. Waraya [9:01]03. Patriots [17:05]04. Indiscretions [12:22]05. Asi Trabajamos > [2:15]06. Bimoya [10:57]Disc 2 [47:32]01. Gypsi [13:15]02. Zanza II [7:51]03. N'Awlins > [8:47]04. Loch Lomond > [2:20]05. You Want Some Tea, Grandpa? > [3:04]06. Two Lines > [5:06]07. Carnavalito [7:01]Joe Zawinul - keyboards, vocalsGary Poulsen - guitarVictor Baily - bassPaco Sery drumsMano Badrena - percussion, voice

Duke Ellington's recorded words opened this concert and another departed Zawinul mentor, Miles Davis, was there at times in spirit. But it was absent, though still around, friend Wayne Shorter whose presence was most required.
Since their days together in Weather Report, Zawinul has replaced the saxophonist in his bands largely with guitarists. The latest, Gary Poulson, was good in the groove department but rather short on soloing inspiration, whereas Shorter, one felt, would have lifted those becalmed passages into high drama with one of his minimal but incisive interjections and generally supplied an improvisational spark.

That apart, this was vintage Zawinul. The material from his My People album, given exuberant percussion and vocal colour and sure, springy basslines by returning Weather Reporters Manolo ''call me Billy Connolly'' Badrena and Victor ''on holiday from Madonna'' Bailey respectively, bore all the crucial Zawinul hallmarks.
Bold, folksy melodies, oodles of keyboard colour ,and those irresistible, go-for-it extended codas were there in abundance. Old tunes, too, sounded great, the stealthy Black Market and a relaxed, funky Doctor Honoris Causa showing a Miles-like talent

for renewal.
It was Zawinul's talent for talent-spotting, however, that produced probably the biggest talking point. Mr Z has gotten through more drummers than the whisky industry uses bottles, but in Paco Sery he has found a modern percussion master bearing outrageous gifts.
Quite apart from his effortless authority in maintaining a dynamic ebb and flow, Sery's punctuating rim-and-cymbal stops could only be the product of telepathy and, for producing musical confirmation of good things coming in sma' bulk, his brilliant thumb piano feature's only known rivals are Airto Moreira's tambourine tours de force.