Zawinul Syndicate and former Weather Report bass player Victor Bailey is the subject of a lengthy interview by Bill Milkowski in the January/February issue of BASSICS magazine.

The new Memoribilia section is now opened, featuring a complete 1978 Weather Report tour program, Weather Report and Zawinul Syndicate clothing, and other momentos. If you have any items in your collection that you would like to include, let me know. I also added new photos from the upcoming Az-Iz Zawinul Syndicate documentary.

The world-renowned New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival released its 2000 schedule today, confirming that the Zawinul Syndicate will perform on April 29 as part of the festival’s opening weekend. According to reports from Zawinul’s European booking agent, Victor Bailey will not be available for this performance (or the Denton Jazz Festival performance the previous day) because he will be winding up his own European tour. Bailey will rejoin the Syndicate for its May concerts in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Rumor has it the subsitute bass player will be Richard Bona, but this is unconfirmed.

Tower Records is taking orders for the upcoming tribute album, Celebrating the Music of Weather Report. Additional information, including a list of tracks and personnel, can be found at Tower’s Web Site.

Az-Iz Films has completed post-production work on the documentary Two Years with the Zawinul Syndicate, and the company anticipates a March release. Needless to say, this will be a must-have for Joe Zawinul fans. Az-Iz has graciously allowed me to display some photographic stills from the film.