This set, made in 2007, is the last studio recording Joe Zawinul worked on before his death. It places the great Austrian pianist/composer in front of a mixed-genre chamber orchestra led by young Estonian classical conductor Kristjan Jarvi, and concentrates on the music of Zawinul's later years with his Syndicate, rather than the more famous two-decade reign of Weather Report. The dressing of jazz, improv or fusion ideas in classical music's graceful robes often does few favours to any of the contributing genres, but this is an exception: sustaining the Syndicate's headlong energies while enhancing passing melodic ideas that the erudite Zawinul would sometimes casually toss out.

Fans of Kristjan Jarvi’s Absolute Ensemble and their previous recordings Absolute Zawinul and Absolution will get the chance to wallow in the splendid sounds of Arabian Nights Live at Town Hall NYC come August 10th. Set for release on the Enja Records label, Arabian Nights is a sumptuous, exotic fusion where classical, jazz, world and Middle Eastern music meet in a kaleidoscopic melange of pure goodness. The Absolute Arabian Nights Project flowered out of a post-September 11th memorial concert performed as part Musikfest Bremen in Bremen, Germany. UNESCO Artist for Peace and musician Marcel Khalife, musician Bassam Saba, composer and musician Dhafer Youssef and composer and musician Daniel Schnyder teamed up with Krisjan Jarvi and the Absolute Ensemble to create “an honest, apolitical statement of peace and unity in the music world” with the Absolute Arabian Nights Project. The project grew to fruition in 2007 with a performance at New York City’s Town Hall as part of the Not Just Jazz Series.