THE veteran jazz fusion musician, a founder of Weather Report, celebrates turning 70 with a thrilling and eclectic new album. Faces & Places is a terrifically rhythmic mix of world music and modern jazz masterminded by the synth maestro and band leader.
The cast list of players is dizzying, embracing musicians from Cameroon, India, the Ivory Coast, Peru, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Portugal - not forgetting the US. Zawinul was born in Austria and began his musical career half a century ago playing in a Viennese dance band, as recalled in Rooftops Of Vienna.
Moving to the States, he played with Miles Davis and then Cannonball Adderley (a union celebrated on the stunning The Spirit Of Julian "C" Adderley). All
About Simon is a high-energy rush, while the beautiful Siseya confines itself to a church-organ swell and the haunting African singing of Etienne Mbappe. Only the lumbering and saccharine Familiar To Me, sung by Richard Page, disappoints. All the rest adds up to a multi-national marvel.
Updated: 17:29 Thursday, November 14, 2002
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