Sunbirds Sunbirds

The fusion group Sunbirds was founded by the jazz musicians Klaus Weiss (drums) and Fritz Pauer (keyboards) in Munich in 1971, when the two of them had already made a name for themselves. Musically the Sunbirds' albums can best be qualified as "flute groovers". That is to say, they are seasoned in the jazz idiom, but also wanted to venture into the psychedelic sounds of the day. But the Sunbirds also had that Krautrock thing going on. Plenty of wild fuzz guitar and electric piano. Especially on the first album, the Sunbirds could have easily fit on the Brain label, and may have had they come around a year or two later.

Fusion from Munich, some smoothly relaxed kind of music with Latin influences. After the first Sunbirds LP from 1971, with Philip Catherine on guitar, the album at hand is the band's second and last one, recorded in 1972 and released in 1973. It is the first CD version, drawn from the master tapes, including the bonus track "Mbira" which was then recorded during the same session. All of the musicians were masters of their trade. Drummer Klaus Weiss, keyboardist Fritz Pauer and bassists Jimmy Woode and Ron Carter were world-famous even back then, and the others were in no way inferior. The nine artists were so skilled that nearly all recordings were perfect at the first attempt. Unfortunately, the two studio albums should remain the band's only releases. There weren't any Sunbirds gigs for lack of time.