"Joe Zawinul"

"joe zawinul"

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