This wonderful composition by keyboardist Joe Zawinul, with its multidimensional elements, is a perfect platform for the orchestral-like instruments of the WDR BIG BAND to convincingly demonstrate the expertise and professionalism of its members. A brilliant performance!! Five Stars!!!!!
Agree! Sometime after Joe had passed away, I saw the WDR Big Band performing the piece live on TV, as a tribute to him. The performance blew me away - the song had long been a favourite of mine with Weather Report - and a little later I looked up the album they had cut together with Joe, live in Vienna, named Brown Street, and bought it. :) Great musicians all of them.
ONE OF A KIND GREAT AND AMAZING MUSIC! I WILL MISS JOE ZAWINAL'S MUSIC BUT CHERISH WHATS HERE NOW. WISH I WAS PART OF THIS BAND BUT SERY IS THE BEST HERE.
I been checking out videos of Brown Street and this one is different and Zawinul starts wit a different groove. The others have that low synth bass pulse, This has Victor playing some nice lead bass lines then goes into the melody after a world music type groove Z is known for. This version is the BEST ! I take that back its really great . Zawinul's work is so very adaptable to larger instrumentation. Harmonizing and orchestrating Wayne Shorter's lines? I dunno
With me it was the opposite - when I first heard WR for real, picking up "8:30" twenty years after it had been released, I was just blown away - and Brown Street was one of my instant favourites, one of the tracks that impressed me the most. The Joe+WDR live album is great too though!
