Capt. W./TX.

A couple of observations from a confirmed WR junkie: 1.) I was always fascinated by the opening theme Zawinul wrote for "Gibraltar" (cut 3 of "Black Market"). It consists of four phrases. Each phrase is a variant and development of the one before it. 2.) WR, IMO, began as a band with an Ornette-like methodology (i.e. short group themes that lead in to mostly free improvisation; examples of this are "Directions', "Seventh Arrow" and "Morning Lake". The orchestral difference came from the Fender-Rhodes piano (with Echoplex reverb and ring modulation), Miroslav Vitous' use of the wah-wah pedal and amp feedback, and the various percussionists WR employed. The playbook , seemingly written by Miles during the "Bitches' Brew" period, could actually be traced back to Ornette's group of the late 50's. (Airto was originally asked to join WR, but declined. He did agree to play on the debut album. His parts were all overdubbed.) The longer form stuff began with the "Sweetnighter" album and developed from there on. "Birdland", compositionally, appears to be structured along the same lines as the Ellington masterpieces of the 1939-42 period, like "Jack The Bear" and "Harlem Airshaft" (i.e. multi-thematic pieces not necessarily in standard AABA form). Zawinul obviously admired Duke and often featured himself at WR concerts playing solo renditions of Ellington material. The longest-form WR pieces were probably Zawinul's "Nubian Sundance" and "Night Passage". 3.) According to interviews Zawinul gave during the 70's (WR's heyday), he got a lot of his own stuff merely by extemporizing at the piano with a tape recorder running, sending the tape to a transcriber/copyist and then editing and tweaking it later. One account I recall claimed that Zawinul's piece "The Juggler" (on "Heavy Weather"-and a great piece!) was totally through-composed by Joe at the piano; the form of the piece was exactly as he played it off the top of his head-no editing! Which leads me to believe that, had he chosen to, Zawinul could have done the extemporaneous solo piano route taken by Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley and others, and probably cut ALL of them at it! Peter Erskine told me in 1984 that Shorter's piece "Palladium" (on "Heavy Weather") was pieced together from three different tunes Wayne was working on. He also told me Zawinul was the greatest musician he'd ever worked with.