Joe Zawinul

Josef Erich Zawinul ( ; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, a musical genre that combined jazz with rock. He co-founded the groups Weather Report and The Zawinul Syndicate. He pioneered the use of electric piano and synthesizer, and was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" twenty-eight times by the readers of DownBeat magazine.

Biography Early life and career Zawinul grew up in Vienna, Austria. Accordion was his first instrument. When he was six or seven, he studied clarinet, violin, and piano at the Vienna Conservatory (Konservatorium Wien). During the 1950s, he was a staff pianist for Polydor. He worked as a jazz musician with Hans Koller, Friedrich Gulda, Karl Drewo, and Fatty George. In 1959, he moved to the U.S. to attend Berklee College of Music, but a week later he received a job offer from Maynard Ferguson, so he left school and went on tour. He spent most of the 1960s with Cannonball Adderley. During this time, he wrote "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", "Walk Tall" and "Country Preacher", and played electric piano. As recounted in Zawinul's New York Times obituary, "It was uncommon then for a black bandleader like Adderley to hire a white sideman like Mr. Zawinul and touring could be problematic. 'I often had to sit in the bottom of the car when we drove through certain parts of the South,' Mr. Zawinul said in a 1997 interview with Anil Prasad of Innerviews magazine. But, he added, with characteristic bravado, 'Those kinds of things never fazed me; I wanted to play music with the best, and I could play on that level with the best.'"

At the end of the decade, Zawinul recorded with Miles Davis on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, as Davis established the genre of jazz fusion by combining jazz with rock.

With The Zawinul Syndicate

The Zawinul Syndicate was a jazz fusion band formed in 1988. It evolved out of Weather Report. Their style could be described as a combination of unusual grooves, driving and swinging rhythms and many borrowings from different music cultures.

Zawinul himself stated that he gave the band its name due to a syndicate bearing more resemblance to a family than "just" a band.

After the death of Zawinul in 2007, several members of the Zawinul Syndicate decided to reform and perform Zawinul's music live under their shortened name the Syndicate.

Several major members of the Syndicate over the years include Scott Henderson, Bobby Thomas Jr, Linley Marthe, Paco Sery, Manolo Badrena, Nathaniel Townsley, Sabine Kabongo, Gary Poulson, Richard Bona, and Victor Bailey.

Stories of the Danube

Zawinul also wrote a symphony, called Stories of the Danube, which was commissioned by the Brucknerhaus, Linz. It was first performed as part of the Linzer Klangwolke (a large-scale open-air broadcast event), for the opening of the 1993 Bruckner Festival in Linz. In its seven movements, the symphony traces the course of the Danube from Donaueschingen through various countries ending at the Black Sea. It was recorded in 1995 by the Czech State Philharmonic Orchestra, Brno, conducted by Caspar Richter.

Death Zawinul became ill and was hospitalized in his native Vienna on 7 August 2007, after concluding a five-week European tour. He died a little over a month later from a rare form of skin cancer (Merkel cell carcinoma) on 11 September 2007. He was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering and his ashes buried in Vienna Central Cemetery. His wife Maxine had died earlier the same year. They were survived by their sons Erich, Ivan, and Anthony. 1998 –2000 Mauthausen - Vom großen Sterben hören ESC 2000 Accepted a request for memorial music from the Mauthausen concentration camp community. Wayne Shorter on 1 track. 2000 –2002-03 Faces & Places ESC 2002 Partially live recorded in Sydney and Paris. Nominated to Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. 2002-11-07 Midnight Jam ESC 2004 [2CD] Live at Zawinul's 70th birthday party at the Leverkusener Jazztage with WDR Big Band 2004-05-26 – -30, 2004-09-21 –2004-10-01 Vienna Nights: Live at Joe Zawinul's Birdland BHM/JVC 2005 [2CD / 1CD (JVC)] Live with the Zawinul Syndicate in Vienna. Dedicated to Thomas Klestil. 2005-10 Brown Street Intuition 2006 [2CD] Live recorded in Vienna with Victor Bailey, Alex Acuña, Nathaniel Townsley and WDR Big Band 2007-01, 2007-04, 2007-09 Absolute Zawinul featured by the Absolute Ensemble Intuition 2009 Conducted by Kristjan Järvi. Partially live recorded in Vienna. Overdubs recorded in June 2007 and June 2008. Posthumous release. 2007-07-07, 2007-08-02 75 BHM/JVC 2008 [2CD] Live recordings with the Zawinul Syndicate. A session at Zawinul's 75th birthday party and another TV session with Wayne Shorter at Veszprém. Posthumous release. Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

Compilations Concerto Retitled (Atlantic, 1976) The ESC Years (ESC, 2011)

As leader of Weather Report 1971: Weather Report (Columbia, 1971) 1972: I Sing the Body Electric (Columbia, 1972) 1972: Live in Tokyo (CBS/Sony, 1972) – live 1973: Sweetnighter (Columbia, 1973) 1974: Mysterious Traveller (Columbia, 1974) 1975: Tale Spinnin' (Columbia, 1975) 1975–76: Black Market (Columbia, 1976) 1976–77: Heavy Weather (Columbia, 1977) 1978: Mr. Gone (Columbia, 1978) 1978–79: 8:30 (Columbia, 1979) – live 1980: Night Passage (Columbia, 1980) 1981: Weather Report (Columbia, 1982) 1983: Procession (Columbia, 1983) 1983: Domino Theory (Columbia, 1984) 1984: Sportin' Life (Columbia, 1985) 1985: This Is This! (Columbia, 1986)

Posthumous compilations Live and Unreleased (Columbia, 2002)[2CD] Forecast: Tomorrow (Columbia, 2006)[3CD & DVD-Video] The Legendary Live Tapes: 1978-1981 (Columbia, 2015)[4CD]

As leader of Weather Update Joe Zawinul and Weather Update (Pioneer/Geneon, 2005)[DVD-Video] – live rec. 1986 at the Munich Philharmonic hall. Posthumous release.

As sideman

With Cannonball Adderley Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley (Capitol, 1962) - rec. 1961 The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York (Riverside, 1962) Cannonball in Europe! (Riverside, 1962) Jazz Workshop Revisited (Riverside, 1962) Nippon Soul (Riverside, 1964) - rec. 1963 Cannonball Adderley Live! (Capitol, 1964) - live Live Session! (Capitol, 1964) - live Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler on the Roof (Capitol, 1964) Domination (Capitol, 1965) Great Love Themes (Capitol, 1966) Cannonball in Japan (Capitol, 1966) - live Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club' (Capitol, 1967) - rec. 1966 74 Miles Away (Capitol, 1967) Why Am I Treated So Bad! (Capitol, 1967) In Person (Capitol, 1968) Accent on Africa (Capitol, 1968) Country Preacher (Capitol, 1970) - live rec. 1969 The Cannonball Adderley Quintet & Orchestra (Capitol, 1970) The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free (Capitol, 1970) Autumn Leaves (Riverside [Japan], 1975) - rec. 1963 The Sextet (Milestone, 1982) - rec. 1962-1963 Radio Nights (Night, 1991) - rec. 1967–1968 Money in the Pocket (Capitol, 2005) - rec. 1966

With Nat Adderley Naturally! (Jazzland, 1961) Autobiography (Atlantic, 1965) Live at Memory Lane (Atlantic, 1967) - live rec. 1966 The Scavenger (Milestone, 1968) Calling Out Loud (CTI, 1968) You, Baby (CTI, 1969) - rec. 1968

With Miles Davis 1969: In a Silent Way (Columbia, 1969) 1969: Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) 1970: Live-Evil (Columbia, 1971) compilation: Big Fun (Columbia, 1974) compilation: Circle in the Round (Columbia, 1979) compilation: Directions (Miles Davis album) (Columbia, 1981)

With Yusef Lateef The Centaur and the Phoenix (Riverside, 1960) Suite 16 (Atlantic, 1970)

With Herbie Mann A Mann & A Woman (Atlantic, 1967) – also with Tamiko Jones. rec. 1966. The Beat Goes On (Atlantic, 1967) – rec. 1964-1967

With Dinah Washington What a Diff'rence a Day Makes! (Mercury, 1959) The Two of Us (Mercury, 1960) – also with Brook Benton Live at Birdland (Baldwin, 1997) – live rec. 1962

With others Friedrich Gulda and his Eurojazz-Orchestra, Eurosuite / Variations (Preiser, 1967) - rec. 1966 Trilok Gurtu, Crazy Saints (CMP, 1993) Victor Feldman, Soviet Jazz Themes (Äva, 1963) - rec. 1962 Jimmy Forrest, Out of the Forrest (Prestige, 1961) Eddie Harris, Silver Cycles (Atlantic, 1969) – rec. 1968 Sam Jones, Down Home (Riverside, 1962) Quincy Jones, Back on the Block (Quest/Warner Bros, 1989) – rec. 1988–1989 Katia Labèque, Little Girl Blue (Dreyfus, 1995) Salif Keita, Amen (Mango, 1991) David "Fathead" Newman, The Many Facets of David Newman (Atlantic, 1969) – rec. 1968–1969 Miroslav Vitouš, Purple (CBS/Sony, 1970)