Although
Zawinul tried touring alone in the immediate wake of the breakup of
Weather Report, he soon returned to a group format, first with
Weather Update in 1986 and a couple of years later with the raffishly named
Zawinul Syndicate. The multi-national
Syndicate basically expands the
Weather Report format into a sextet, with a rock guitar (
Scott Henderson) replacing the sax, an extra percussionist on board to join
WR's Alex Acuna, and more vocal support then ever -- and if a
Wayne Shorter-like melody line was needed,
Zawinul would play it himself on his new Korg Pepe wind synthesizer. If anything,
The Immigrants burrows even further into the world-music bloodstream than
WR ever did, with vocals in Spanish and wordless syllables on top of
Zawinul's one-chord Third World grooves. There is also a heavier pop emphasis (again nothing new for
Zawinul), including a recomposition of "Mercy Mercy Mercy" called "No Mercy for Me," now an assertive paean to self-reliance that is soulfully sung by the Perri sisters. Some of the tunes and grooves fall short of
Zawinul's irresistible best, but "King Hip" swaggers at a high level and "From Venice to Vienna" -- another of
Zawinul's nostalgic memoirs of Europe -- lingers hauntingly at the album's close.