24th August 2020: Remembering Joe Zawinul: in conversation with keyboardist and ‘We Speak Luniwaz’ curator Scott Kinsey
The musical legacy that Austrian keyboardist and composer Joe Zawinul holds over the world of jazz is unique. Founder of the legendary Weather Report, his contribution to the world of jazz fusion has bestowed him legendary status amongst musicians today, and a dedicated following of fans too. One individual who straddles both camps is keyboardist Scott Kinsey, who recently released We Speak Luniwaz: The Music of Joe Zawinul on Whirlwind Recordings. We caught up with Scott to discuss Zawinul plus what he’s got planned for the future.
Interview by Hugh Morris (hugh@whirlwindrecordings.com)
WWR: How did you first come across the music of Joe Zawinul? It seems like a life-changing experience – do you remember a specific moment when it hit you or was it a slow grower?
SK: I do remember one instance… I was driving with my dad and ‘Birdland’ came on the radio. He liked it a lot so we decided to stop off at a record store and look for ‘Weather Report’. I wanted their latest record so I bought Sportin’ Life which was around 1985 I believe.
That record really changed my life and was a great introduction to this sort of loose, improvisational way of composing Joe had mastered.
WWR: For those who are new to your music, what is ‘Luniwaz’?
SK: Well to me, Luniwaz is a couple of things. Speaking broadly it’s Joe Zawinul’s musical language that I and some others have over time learned to ‘speak’. It’s also the title of my latest album on Whirlwind Recordings called We Speak Luniwaz!
WWR: What makes Zawinul’s music so important for you?
SK: Well among other things, Joe is the only significant improviser who’s main instrument was the synthesizer. The way he improvised with sound and texture as well as the notes was huge for me. And of course, he was just an inspiring creative genius in general.
WWR: Could you introduce the band you assembled for the project?
SK: Yes, it’s quite varied! The core band was myself on keyboards. Katisse Buckingham played winds, including flute which, to my knowledge, was rarely if ever used in the Zawinul universe. Not that he would have been against it – Katisse is a great player!
Hadrien Feraud is quite the genius on the electric bass. He is very influenced by Jaco Pastorius, but also has his own thing which is very strong. I think he’s one of today’s very best improvisers, on any instrument. Not to mention that he can also groove!
On drums we have the best here too, Gergo Borlai. Gergo listens and always plays what is the right thing for every moment. I feel like he is also is just intuitively wired to my mind, he just seems to know what I like to hear.
On percussion we have the one and only Bobby Thomas Jr, the genius percussionist from Weather Report who I believe holds the distinction of being the only guy who ever played with every version of Joe’s band.
There’s nothing like playing with Bobby. We toured together with the Zawinul Legacy Band where we played some great duets… and that was just something else. I hope we get more opportunities to work together in the future.
We also had as a special guest Arto Tuncboyaciyan on percussion and vocals. He also worked with Joe and then myself later with Human Element. He is an inspiration.
On two tunes as a special guest I got Jimmy Haslip to play bass. I’m sure you know Jimmy from his incredible work with the Yellow Jackets as well as the many other projects we have done together. He’s an unbelievable musician who basically needs no introduction! I absolutely love the way he plays on ‘The Harvest’! His groove and tone are second to none. We did that track live with Gergo, and it was 15 minutes long!
We also had a few other guest musicians like Cyril Atef, who is also on all my records. He joins us here as well as one of my oldest friends the brilliant Steve Tavaglione on Soprano saxophone. Danny Carey, the drummer from Tool also played electric percussion/Simmons Drums on the Harvest.
WWR: What’s on the horizon for you, both in music and out of it? How has Covid-19 changed how you work, and how have you adapted to it?
SK: Well most significantly during this Covid period, I have been making a new album with my ‘isolation partner’ and girlfriend Mer Sal. We met on a recording session and she’s truly an amazing singer, so we’ve taken advantage of this time to make a new record together with some old and new friends – but for the most part we had to record remotely. We have lots of fantastic guitar players; Scott Henderson, Nir Felder, Josh Smith, Alex Machacek and Oz Noy are all joining us, as well as Brad Dutz on percussion and Gary Novak and Gergo Borlai on drums.
I guess that’s the main difference with these Covid-19 times – we can’t actually get together to record. So that got me thinking about some other amazing musicians, so we also got Whirwind’s own Michael Janisch on acoustic bass on a couple tunes, and he played incredibly.
On a song called ‘Don’t Let Go’ Alex Machacek and his wife Sumitra Nanjundan also worked their incredible magic. Alex also got involved in the arranging with us on that song and came up with some really beautiful stuff for us. Sumitra sang some amazingly intricate backup vocals too!
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Scott’s album We Speak Luniwaz is available now on 12″ LP 180g Limited Edition / CD / DL: here
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