Zawinul* ‎– Zawinul

trivia: "Arrival In New York" is actually an excerpt of "Country Preacher", from the Cannonball album of the same name, but slowed down by 4x...

From Mosaic Contemporary website:
"Keyboardist Joe Zawinul is certainly best known for his work with the trailblazing jazz outfit Weather Report. Although the group's debut recording wouldn't come out until a year later, Zawinul represents the first time that founding members Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and bassist Miroslav Vitous recorded together, and the combination would serve up truly groundbreaking results.

Although Zawinul first recorded his classic composition "In A Silent Way" with Miles Davis one year earlier, he reinterprets it here as a more complexly orchestrated piece, realizing his own vision of this brilliant work. This track, in addition to the song "Double Image", stand as a direct link between Miles's early electric work and Weather Report, thus setting the stage for nearly every eclectic contemporary jazz effort that followed."

One stunning LP, so much like other Davis LP's that if you were not aware of the Lp's title you'd think this was actually all Davis or from a lost session. It took me a while to figure out that the track "Arrival In NY" is actually a studio trick from a live concert. When played at 78 rpm then you can only begin to release that is a just a very tiny section from a performance, then slowed down for LP effects. A cool studio trick no doubt, try it out.

This record can be seen as a companion piece to Miles' "In A Silent Way", as it incorporates not only that tune, but that sound and style. It has been said that Miles Davis (and in post-production, producer Teo Macero) deconstructed Zawinul's landmark composition, in various degrees, both melodically and chordally, and this is evidenced on the great "Complete In A Silent Way Sessions" Columbia box set. The evolution that the piece went through in order to arrive at the iconic LP version is remarkable.

"Zawinul", released just prior to the first Weather Report LP, gives us a chance to observe this music as originally envisioned by its composer, while still remaining firmly in the early psychedelic fusion sound that characterized both the Miles release and the first Weather Report release.

This fantastic record also includes the well-known (to Miles fans) "Double Image", in a rather different musical context here as well. It is so refreshing to hear the different angles approached by much of the same personnel, at the onset of the jazz fusion movement, but in three different collective headspaces.
For this reason, I recommend Miles Davis' "In A Silent Way", Joe Zawinul's "Zawinul", and the eponymously titled Weather Report album as an inseparable set of records that document so well the fountainhead of one of the most important and influential musical movements of the 20th century.