The jazz world suffered yet another loss as today it was announced that keyboardist Josef Zawinul died of cancer in Vienna. As perhaps the leading jazz synthesizer player in the history of jazz, Zawinul influenced an entire generation of musicians.
After early training in classical music in his native Austria, Zawinul moved to the U.S. in the 50s where he began playing with Maynard Ferguson and Dinah Washington. In 1961, he joined Cannonball Adderley, for whom he wrote "Walk Tall," "Country Preacher" (for Dr. Martin Luther King) and the popular standard "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy."
Later in the '60s, Zawinul joined Miles Davis, who covered the keyboardist's "In A Silent Way" and with whom he recorded the landmark fusion album, "Bitches Brew." During this time, he became one of the pioneers of the electronic keyboard in jazzthrough his use of the Fender Rhodes electric piano.
Teaming with Miles Davis alum, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Zawinul next founded the seminal fusion band Weather Report, who achieved greatest popularity during the '70s and '80s, when groundbreaking fretless electric bass phenom Jaco Pastorious became the 3rd member of this exceptional musical triumverate. Zawinul's synthesizer work and world music/ African-influenced composition style was a central part of Weather Report's sound, and the group even produced a hit single (unusual at the time for a jazz band) out the Zawinul composition, "Birdland."
Since breaking up the group in 1985, Zawinul had continued to compose, record and tour with groups such as The Zawinul Syndicate and the WDR Big Band, with whom he had just completed a tour. His most recent release, this year's "Brown Street," was recorded live with the WDR Big Band, and has received acclaim for its reworking of Weather Report compositions in a big band setting.
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