Joe Zawinul
Albums
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Joe Zawinul's final edition of his Zawinul Syndicate band was a terrific ensemble that was perfect for any jazz festival. The multi-ethnic content, driving funky pulse, and Zawinul's colorful [more]
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Appearances
Weather Report's biggest-selling album is that ideal thing, a popular and artistic success -- and for the same reasons. For one thing, Joe Zawinul revealed an unexpectedly potent [more]
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One of the giants of American popular song gets his due with this three-disc Verve box, comprising a trio of separately released compilations. Though Mercer's [more]
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![Fiddler on the Roof [Bonus Tracks]](/cache/JHS/f8/130x130_on-sale_f87140pvu4v.png)
It is a bit strange that none of the eight songs performed on this LP found their way into Adderley's permanent repertoire, for the altoist is quite inspired [more]
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P. Bouk; A few words from Cannonball; Gemini; Work Song; More words from Cannonball; Trouble in Mind; Dizzy's Business.
Julian [more]
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![Domination [Bonus Tracks]](/cache/JHS/g9/130x130_on-sale_g96849p4mxj.png)
One of the lesser sessions from Cannonball Adderley's days with Capitol, Domination features arrangements by Oliver Nelson and William Fischer. Recorded in April of [more]
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"Life is an adventure and a challenge." —Miles Davis
Despite the presence of classic tracks like Joe Zawinul's "Great Expectations," Big Fun feels like the compendium of sources it is. These tracks are all outtakes from other sessions, most [more]
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Thought by many to be the most revolutionary album in jazz history, having virtually created the genre known as jazz-rock fusion (for better or worse) and being the jazz album to most [more]
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Thanks to its ownership of some of Cannonball Adderley's Riverside recordings, Capitol was able to stretch the definition of Best of Cannonball [more]
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Cannonball Adderley's most popular album, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy wasn't actually recorded "Live at 'The Club'," as its subtitle says. The hoax was [more]
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![Weather Report [1982]](/cache/JHS/d3/130x130_on-sale_d36589cul96.png)
For some crafty reason, Weather Report gave its 11th Columbia album the same eponymous title as its first, which no doubt led to massive retail confusion. It is the last WR [more]
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Biography
- Born Jul 7th 1932 in Vienna, Austria
- Died Sep 11th 2007 in Vienna, Austria
- Styles
- Soul Jazz
- Instrument(s)
Joe Zawinul belongs in a category unto himself -- a European from the heartland of the classical music tradition (Vienna) who learned to swing as freely as any American jazzer, and whose appetite for growth and change remains insatiable. Zawinul's curiosity and openness to all kinds of sounds made him one of the driving forces behind the electronic jazz-rock revolution of the late '60s and '70s -- and later, he would be almost alone in exploring fusions between jazz-rock and ethnic music from all over the globe. He is one of a bare handful of synthesizer players who actually learned how to play the instrument, to make it an expressive, swinging part of his arsenal. Prior to the invention of the portable synthesizer, Zawinul's example helped bring the Wurlitzer and Fender Rhodes electric pianos into the jazz mainstream. Zawinul also has became a significant composer, ranging (like his idol Duke Ellington) from soulful hit tunes to large-scale symphonic jazz canvases. Yet despite his classical background, he now prefers to improvise compositions spontaneously onto tape, not write them out on paper.
At six, Josef Erich Zawinul started to play the accordion in his native Austria, and studies in classical piano and composition at the Vienna Conservatory soon followed. His interest in jazz piano, initially influenced by George Shearing and Erroll Garner, led to jobs with Austrian saxophonist Hans Koller in 1952 and gigs with his own trio in France and Germany. He emigrated to the United States in late 1958 after winning a scholarship to Berklee, yet after just one week in class, he left to join Maynard Ferguson's band for eight months, where Miles Davis first took notice of him. Following a brief stay with Slide Hampton, Zawinul became Dinah Washington's pianist from 1959 to 1961, and then spent a month with Harry "Sweets" Edison before Cannonball Adderley picked him to fill the piano chair in his quintet. There Zawinul stayed and blossomed for nine years, contributing several compositions to the Adderley band book -- among them the major pop hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," "Walk Tall," and "Country Preacher" -- and ultimately helping to steer the Adderley group into the electronic era. While with Adderley, Zawinul evolved from a hard bop pianist to a soul-jazz performer heavily steeped in the blues, and ultimately a jazz-rock explorer on the electric piano. Toward the end of his Adderley gig (1969-1970), he was right in the thick of the new jazz-rock scene, recording several pioneering records with Miles Davis, contributing the title tune of Davis' In a Silent Way album.
After recording a self-titled solo album, Zawinul left Adderley to form Weather Report with Wayne Shorter and Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous in November 1970. Weather Report gave the increasingly self-confident Zawinul a platform to evolve even further as his interest in propulsive grooves and music from Africa and the Middle East ignited and developed. He gradually dropped the electric piano in favor of a series of ever more sophisticated synthesizers, which he mastered to levels never thought possible by those who derided the instruments as sterile, unfeeling machines. Weather Report eventually became a popular group that appealed to audiences beyond jazz and progressive rock, thanks in no small part to Zawinul's hit song "Birdland."
When Zawinul and Shorter finally came to a parting of ways in 1985, Zawinul started to tour all by himself, surrounded by keyboards and rhythm machines, but resurfaced the following year with a short-lived extension of Weather Report called Weather Update (which did not leave any recordings). Weather Update quickly evolved into another group, the Zawinul Syndicate, which over the span of a decade tilted increasingly toward groove-oriented world music influences. Zawinul has showed renewed interest in his European roots, collaborating with fellow Viennese classical pianist Friedrich Gulda from 1987 to 1994, producing a full-blown classically based symphony, Stories of the Danube, in 1993, and following the near-disastrous Malibu fires of 1994, moving from California to New York City in order to be closer to Europe. In 2002 he released Faces & Places, his first studio album in several years and one that boasted an international roster of supporting musicians. Since that time he has released a handful of albums including Midnight Jam in 2005 and Brown Street in 2007.
Though he continues to explore new musical paths at an age when most jazzers are long set in their ways, Zawinul's influence upon jazz has waned in recent years due to the jazz mainstream's retreat from electronics back to acoustic post-bop. But Zawinul's uplifting, still-invigorating later music may make him a prophet again if global music infiltrates the jazz world. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
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