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| Joe Zawinul Passed Away Joe (Josef Erich) Zawinul, a jazz keyboardist and composer, one of the first jazz fusion musicians along with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin and Miles Davis, died from cancer on September 11th, 2007 in Vienna, his native town. He was hospitalized on August 7, merely a week after concluding a six-week tour in Hungary. Zawinul was 75 years old. Zawinul was born in Vienna, Austria on July 7, 1932. Classically trained at the Vienna Conservatoire, Zawinul played in various broadcasting and studio bands before emigrating to the U.S. in 1959, where he played with Maynard Ferguson and Dinah Washington before joining the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1961. During his nine-year stint on keyboards with Adderley, Zawinul wrote the hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." In the late 60s, Zawinul recorded with Miles Davis's studio band and helped create the sound of the new Jazz fusion. Among others he played on the album In a Silent Way, the title track of which he composed, and the landmark album Bitches Brew, for which he contributed the twenty-minute track "Pharaoh's Dance" which occupied the whole of side one. Zawinul is known to have played live with Davis only once, on July 10, 1991, shortly before Davis' death. Zawinul, along with Corea and Hancock, was one of the first to integrate electric pianos and early synthesizers into jazz. Zawinul's biggest commercial success - "Birdland", a 6-minute opus featured on Weather Report's 1977 album Heavy Weather. "Birdland" is one of the most recognizable jazz pieces of the '70s, covered by many prominent artists. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |