JOE ZAWINUL
The Rise And Fall Of The Third Stream (32 Jazz)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Recorded for Atlantic in 1968, this pre-Weather Report album was in some ways one of Zawinul's first forays into fusion. It wasn't, though, the jazz-rock fusion of Weather Report. This time out, it was a fusion of Zawinul's jazz style with the avant-garde compositions of William Fischer.

Interestingly, while Zawinul was a classically trained European musician who had moved to the US and become a leading composer and player in the jazz field, Fischer was an American with a rhythm and blues background (his early career included stints with Muddy Waters, Joe Turner and Ray Charles) who went to Europe to become immersed in the European classical tradition and assume a role as one of the most forward looking composers in that arena.

The music on The Rise And Fall Of The Third Stream sounds very free, but while it's outside conventional musical boxes, it's not truly outside in the typical jazz sense of the term. It was, in fact, carefully arranged and annotated. The score, though, was produced in Fischer's idiosyncratic non-metric fashion, requiring the musicians to learn to read a new musical language, one that offered new musical possibilities.

The result is an album of challenging music that points toward some of Zawinul's future experimentation, but stands apart as a unique document of his range and development. Original producer Joel Dorn has resurrected it for this 32 Jazz release. It's a well deserved and long overdue re-release.

Track List:

Baptismal * The Soul Of A Village Parts 1 & 2 * The Fifth Canto * From Vienna, With Love * Lord, Lord, Lord * A Concerto, Re-titled

© 2000 - Shaun Dale