Two Zawinul CDs will be released shortly. A new album, currently scheduled for April release only in Europe, is inspired by the plight of prisoners at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp during World War II. Produced in conjunction with Frank Hoffman, whose spoken words are heard on the World Tour album, the disc stems from a 1998 Austrian-government sponsored event commemorating the inhumanity of the camp, in which Hoffman read letters of inmates, and Zawinul unveiled a composition which “[transformed] the impressions of witnesses to the events at Mauthausen.” (Read the press release here.)

Also scheduled for release at the end of March is a new Zawinul compilation disc, part of WEA’s Les Incontournables series. A description of the disc can found at the Tower Records web site. I believe this is also a European release.

And finally, a poster on the rec.music.bluenote newsgroup said he recently noticed the Legacy Recordings website listed the following item for April 18 release: Weather Report”Live and Unreleased. Legacy has subsequently removed the listing. Hmmm.