Joe Zawinul

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[4] (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.[5] 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.[4] He then accompanied Dinah Washington.[6] He spent most of the 1960s with Cannonball Adderley. During this time he wrote "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and "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.'"[7]

At the end of the decade Zawinul recorded with Miles Davis on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, as Davis was establishing the genre of jazz fusion, combining jazz with rock.[2]

Zawinul with Weather Report in Toronto, 1977 Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin

In 1970, Zawinul founded Weather Report with Wayne Shorter.[5] Their first two years emphasized a relatively open, group improvisation format similar to what Miles Davis was doing in a more rock oriented format. However, Zawinul started making changes with their third album, Sweetnighter. Funk elements such as bass guitar and wah-wah pedal began to be introduced to the band's sound. With the fourth album, Mysterious Traveller, the musical forms were composed similar to classical music, and the combination of jazz harmonies with 1970s groove helped move the band into its most commercially successful period.

The band's biggest commercial success came from Zawinul's composition "Birdland" on the 1977 album Heavy Weather, which peaked at number 30 on the Billboard pop albums chart. "Birdland" is one of the most recognizable jazz pieces of the 1970s, recorded by The Manhattan Transfer, Quincy Jones, Maynard Ferguson, and Buddy Rich among others. The song won him three Grammys.

Weather Report was active until the mid-1980s, with Zawinul and Shorter remaining the sole constant members through multiple personnel shifts. Shorter and Zawinul went separate ways after recording Sportin' Life, but it was discovered they had to do one more album to fulfill their contract with CBS Records. This Is This! therefore became the band's final album.

In 1991, Zawinul was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music and on this occasion performed with a group consisting of Matthew Garrison, Torsten de Winkel, Abe Laboriel Jr. and Melvin Butler.[8]

The Zawinul Syndicate, live in Freiburg, 28 March 2007

The Zawinul Syndicate was a jazz fusion band formed in 1988. It evolved out of Weather Report.[9] 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.[10]

After the death of Zawinul in 2007, several members of The Zawinul Syndicate decided to reform and performing Zawinul's music live under their shortened name The Syndicate.[11]

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.

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.

Joe Zawinul's grave in Vienna Central Cemetery, Vienna

Zawinul became ill and was hospitalized in his native Vienna on 7 August 2007,[12] 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.[13][14] 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.[7]

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]