Black market
(Zawinul)
Zawinul has spoken often of the inverted keyboard
that he played on "black market." It was made
possible by a feature on the arp 2600 that allowed
inverting the keyboard voltage so that the upper
portion of the keyboard played the lower sounds
and vice versa. Len lyons, in a 1977 keyboard
magazine interview, asked zawinul why he
experimented with it: Because it was a challenge for
me to play in a mirrored system. It's good for the
mind. If you improvise on chords, for example,
You've got to transpose, and your mind has to be
very, very fast. I was recording one day at home on
the inverted setup, and that's When the song "black
market" was put together. After listening to it, i
played the melodies on the straight keyboard, and it
didn't Sound as good as it did the mirrored way.
Then i had to write the melody down and relearn it
on the inverted keyboard, because at First it was
improvised. On-stage, i play the first melody of the
song with the right hand on the inverted keyboard,
and the left hand Accompanies on the rhodes until
after the first six notes into the bridge. Then the right
hand plays the contrapuntal chord voicings On the
polyphonic [oberheim] synthesizer. The left hand
continues the melody where the right hand stopped,
putting a chord or two On the rhodes into the
spaces. It takes a little while to get used to thinking
in the mirrored system. Only c and f# are the same
as On the straight keyboard. B becomes c#, bb
becomes d, a becomes eb, and so on. I also play
chords on the bridge of "black Market" on the
oberheim. The chord is going upwards and the
melody is going downwards--in contrary motion. It's
beautiful to Challenge yourself visually. It makes
you play new things. Zawinul explained to conrad
silvert that "when you change keys and play it with
the left hand, it's very difficult. But it changes the
Rhythmic and melodic feeling of the music, like a
mirror image. It's almost like going into the fourth
dimension, like being on both Sides of that wall
simultaneously." In terms of the character of the
sound zawinul achieved on "black market," lyons
asked him if there were sounds he could only get
With a particular instrument. "yes," zawinul replied.
"the sound on 'black market' is one i can only get on
the arp, not because of The reversed voltages, but
because of a certain twang that only the arp has. If
you check out the melody of 'black market,' you'll
Hear something unique, something you can't really
recognize." Zawinul went on to say, "i try to stay
away from electronic sounds And go for natural
sounds instead. They don't have to be known
natural sounds. On 'black market,' for example, the
sound isn't One that's known--you wouldn't
recognize it as anything else--but it is acoustic. It
sounds like some kind of native instrument." in
1984 he explained, "on 'black market' the melody i
played was totally different, and it was hip. The filter
moves through It another way and you get those
different shadows and shades. It takes a lot of
thinking."
In other interviews zawinul has said the sound of
"black market" goes back to his accordion-playing
childhood. "when i came up [as a child] and played
the accordion, i immediately started playing with the
instrument. I took the soundboard off and glued felt
Into it. I got the sound of 'black market.' i did the
same thing on the bass side, where the buttons are
and then i reversed the Whole thing, to get the
melodies with the bass notes. Imagination had limits
in the older days. Now it doesn't." And, "with The
accordion you have these different registers that
change the sound continuously. I took pieces of felt
and covered the sound Holes and glued it in
different ways to give it a nasal sound. It's like
filtering, and it's the same as the first arp sounds i
had, you Know, these little woodwind sounds."
Regarding the voices heard at the beginning of
"black market," alex acuna explained their origin to
zawinul biographer brian Glasser. "the song 'black
market,' at the start there's the sound of many
people talking, like a market. Joe copied that from a
tape Of mine. I had that tape playing in my room
when we were in adjoining rooms on tour, and he
came in and said, 'hey, alex, let me Hear that!' then
he borrowed the tape, and it's now 'black market.'
that's a tape that i made in my house with my family,
live. I Was listening to music and i was recording
music, and my family and children were in the
background--that's there voices. He never Told me
that, but i knew it because i can recognize it."
Both chester thompson and narada michael walden
performed on "black market." "on the first song on
the album there are two Drummers from two
different days," thompson told glasser. "if you listen
carefully, the sound completely changes in the
middle, Where the music changes. The feel goes
from straight-eight to a sort of swing feel. Most
people don't catch it at first, though once You hear it
it's so obvious it's quite funny." Walden told glasser:
"it starts out with chester, then there's a hard edit
onto me when The song changes and switches
gears all of a sudden. I play on from there through
the whole jam, just smokin'. Wayne's solo was Cut
live. I played on the whole song, but i think he
wanted to keep the opening with chester because it
was so relaxed. Then he Wanted a big short of fire
when he cut me in. We maybe played it two or three
times. It wasn't too many times, because the fire
was So hot. It was hot, man! I was surprised when it
came out they didn't use the whole version i cut, but
i think it's brilliant the way he Did it. I think it's right."
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