visit Joe Zawinul Unofficial Italian Fan Site
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 become 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 writing 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 bandbook — 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 the 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 has been tilting increasingly toward groove-oriented world music influences. Zawinul has also shown renewed interest in his European roots, collaborating with fellow Viennese classical pianist Friedrich Gulda from 1987 to 1994, producing a full-blown classical-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.
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 , AMG
Joe Zawinul Videography with Cannonball
Video title | DATE | LABEL |
Cannonball Sextet Live at the BBC part I | 05/12,/964 | Jazz 625 WAP |
Cannonball Sextet Live at the BBC part II | 05/ 12/1964 | Jazz 625 WAP |
Jazz Scene USA | 1962 | Schnatchie |
Jazz Casual | 10/ 24/1961 | Rhino |
Play Misty for Me | 1971 | Warner bros |
Sextet in Lugano , Switzerland | 03/24/1963 | Unpublished |
Live in Comblain ,Belgium | 05/08/1962 | Unpublished |
Live in Tokyo , Japan | 07/07/1963 | Unpublished |
Live in Gothenburg ,Sweden | 03/20/1963 | Unpublished |
Live in Baden Baden , Germany | 03/21/1963 | Unpublished |
Joe Zawinul Discography under Cannonball leadership
ALBUM TITLE | DATE SESSION | LABEL | Ref |
SEXTET IN NEW-YORK | jan,12 & 14,1962 | RIVERSIDE | RLP-9404 |
AN ORDERLY EVOLUTION (side 2) | march,10,1962 | ALTO REC. | AL 722 |
LIVE AT COMBLAIN-LA-TOUR | august,04 & 05,1962 | RIVERSIDE | RM 499 |
NANCY WILSON & CANNONBALL 5tet | september,01,1962 | CAPITOL | T 1657 |
JAZZ WORKSHOP REVISITED | sep,22 & 23,1962 | RIVERSIDE | RM 444 |
HOORAY FOR CANNONBALL | november,11,1962 | SESSION | 119 |
LUGANO 1963 | march,24,1963 | TCB | 2032 |
THE JAPANESE 1963 TOUR | |||
A DAY WITH CANNONBALL | june,15,1963 | BAYBRIDGE | ULS 6125 |
THE JAPANESE CONCERT | july,09,1963 | MILESTONE | M-47029 |
LIVE IN TOKYO / Autumn Leaves | july,09,1963 | RIVERSIDE | RLP 9501 |
THE SEXTET | july,14,1963 | MILESTONE | M-9106 |
NIPPON SOUL | july,14,1963 | RIVERSIDE | RLP-9477 |
LIVE ! | august,01,1964 | CAPITOL | T 2399 |
Featuring ERNIE ANDREWS | october,04,1964 | CAPITOL | T 2284 |
GOOD BYE CHARLIE | september,08,1964 | CAPITOL | 5281 |
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF | october,19,1964 | CAPITOL | ST-11008 |
DOMINATION | april,26,1965 | CAPITOL | ST 2203 |
GREAT LOVE THEMES | april,06,1966 | CAPITOL | T 2531 |
LIVE IN PARIS | april,23,1966 | ULLYSSE | AROC 50709 |
MERCY,MERCY,MERCY | july,1966 | CAPITOL | SN 16153 |
CANNONBALL IN JAPAN | august,26,1966 | CAPITOL | ECJ-50082 |
JAZZ AT MONTEREY | september,17,1966 | ? | ? |
74 MILES AWAY | 1967 | CAPITOL | ST 2822 |
WHY AM I TREATED SO BAD | 1967 | CAPITOL | ST 2617 |
RADIO NIGHTS | 1967/68 | VIRGIN | VNCD2 |
Dizionario Enciclopedico del Jazz (it. Bootleg) | march,14,1969 | DEJ | 09 |
Musica jazz (italian Bootleg) | march,19,1969 | MJCD | 1093 |
LIVE AT PLEYEL | march,27,1969 | TREMA | 710381 |
COUNTRY PREACHER | october,1969 | CAPITOL | 80 411 (D) |
ALTO GIANT | 1969 | JOKER | UPS-2057 |
THE PRICE YOU GO TO PAY | 1970 | CAPITOL | SWBB 636 |
IN PERSON | 1970 | CAPITOL | ST 162 |
THE EXPERIENCE IN E | june,1970 | CAPITOL | ST 484 |