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Joe
Zawinul
Joe Zawinul live in Melbourne, Australia, October
2000 It
took 22 years, but it was worth the wait. Since I first
heard the music of the great man, back in about 1986, I
dreamed of seeing him live, but I never really believed he
would ever come to Australia. And now here I was, standing
outside the Continental Cafe in Melbourne on a windy spring
evening, October 17, clutching my ticket, which stated "Joe
Zawinul and band, 9:15pm". A dream come true indeed. I was
lucky enough to have seen the band at their absolute peak,
in my opinion, in California in June '97, with Paco Sery,
and Gary Poulson, and I was hoping the current line-up would
suffice. I was not disappointed. Due to public demand, 2
nights became 5, and a good crowd turned out each night.
Technical faults marred the opening nights first set, and I
think some of the audience were a bit perplexed by what they
saw, especially the eternally crazy Manolo Badrena playing
the wall.......that even caused Victor Bailey to raise an
eyebrow...... but everyone soon got into it and it was a
descent show. The next nigh, however, the 18th, was a
knockout, totally blew me away. Especially a long, jazzy
improvisation of Rockin' in Rhythm and a splash of Birdland
and lots of other things thrown in, just pure magic. The
audience really went off. Equally popular was Victor
Bailey's rendition of Continuum, a worded tribute to the
great Jaco Pastorius, sung while sitting on a high chair.
(Victor had a broken foot from playing basketball and spent
the entire show seated.) Nathaniel Townsley seems like he is
really enjoying his stint with the band, he is a fine
drummer, although no Paco Sery, but then, who is? The
current guitarist is a Calcutta born American called Amit
Chatterjee, like Poulson, a very subtle player, not
overwhelming. I enjoyed his playing. Some said age is
catching up with our Joe, but I don't think it is, he is
playing brilliantly, and still seems to enjoy what he is
doing, and was genuinely pleased to be back in Australia for
the first time since the Mr. Gone tour by Weather Report in
1978. Joe Zawinul reminds me of an evergreen tree, it is
timeless, it just keeps on going and going. Nick Anchen,
November 1, 2000. Nick
Anchen, November 1st, 2000
Live at the Continental Cafe, Melbourne, Australia
Concert
Review by Nick
Anchen
Joe
Zawinul Australian Tour 2000 Poster
Courtesy of: David
Graham