Josef Erich Zawinul ( ; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007)[[1] ]
Biography
Early life and career
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
(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.
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.
He then accompanied
Dinah Washington.
He spent most of the 1960s with Cannonball Adderley. During this time, he wrote "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", "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.'"
At the end of the decade, Zawinul recorded with Miles Davis on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, as Davis established the genre of jazz fusion by combining jazz with rock.
With Weather Report
In 1970, Zawinul founded
Weather Report with
Wayne Shorter.
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 Grammy Award.
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.
With The Zawinul Syndicate
The Zawinul Syndicate was a jazz fusion band formed in 1988. It evolved out of
Weather Report.
Their style could be described as a combination of unusual grooves, driving and
Swing rhythm 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.
After the death of Zawinul in 2007, several members of the Zawinul Syndicate decided to reform and perform Zawinul's music live under their shortened name the Syndicate.
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.
Stories of the Danube
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
Anton 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.
Death
Zawinul became ill and was hospitalized in his native Vienna on 7 August 2007,
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.
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.
Discography
As leader/co-leader
|
|
| 1959-09 | To You With Love | Strand | 1961 | As Joe Zawinul Trio |
1963-09-20,
1963-10-14 | Soulmates
with Ben Webster | Riverside | 1963 | |
| 1966-02-07 | Money in the Pocket | Atlantic Records | 1966 | |
1967-10-16, -21
1967-12-12 | The Rise and Fall of the Third Stream | Vortex Records | 1968 | |
1970-08-06 –
1970-10-28 | Zawinul | Atlantic | 1971 | |
| 1985 | Di•a•lects | Columbia Records | 1986 | |
| 1988-05-20, -21 | Music for Two Pianos
with Friedrich Gulda | Capriccio | 1988 | Produced by Wolfgang Hirschmann. WDR Big Band conducted by Jerry van Rooyen on 1 track. |
| 1988? | The Immigrants | Columbia | 1988 | As the Zawinul Syndicate |
| 1989? | Black Water | Columbia | 1989 | As the Zawinul Syndicate |
| 1992? | Lost Tribes | Columbia | 1992 | As the Zawinul Syndicate |
1992 –
1996 | My People | ESC | 1996 | |
1995-11,
1996-02 | Stories of the Danube | Philips Classics | 1996 | Commissioned by the Brucknerhaus |
1997-05,
1997-11 | World Tour | ESC | 1998 | 2CD Live with the Zawinul Syndicate in Trier and Berlin. Nominated to Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Performance. |
1998 –
2000 | Mauthausen - Vom großen Sterben hören | ESC | 2000 | Accepted a request for memorial music from the Mauthausen concentration camp community. |
2000 –
2002-03 | Faces & Places | ESC | 2002 | Partially live recorded in Sydney and Paris. Nominated to Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. |
| 2002-11-07 | Midnight Jam | ESC | 2004 | 2CD Live at Zawinul's 70th birthday party at the Leverkusener Jazztage with WDR Big Band |
2004-05-26 – -30,
2004-09-21 –
2004-10-01 | Vienna Nights: Live at Joe Zawinul's Birdland | BHM/JVC | 2005 | 2CD Live with the Zawinul Syndicate in Vienna. Dedicated to Thomas Klestil. |
| 2005-10 | Brown Street | Intuition | 2006 | 2CD Live recorded in Vienna with Victor Bailey, Alex Acuña, Nathaniel Townsley and WDR Big Band |
2007-01,
2007-04,
2007-09 | Absolute Zawinul
featured by the Absolute Ensemble | Intuition | 2009 | Conducted by Kristjan Järvi. Partially live recorded in Vienna. Overdubs recorded in June 2007 and June 2008. Posthumous release. |
2007-07-07,
2007-08-02 | 75 | BHM/JVC | 2008 | 2CD Live recordings with the Zawinul Syndicate. A session at Zawinul's 75th birthday party and another TV session with Wayne Shorter at Veszprém. Posthumous release. Won Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. |
Compilations
-
Concerto Retitled (Atlantic, 1976)
-
Joe Zawinul and the Austrian All Stars, His majesty swinging nephews 1954 - 1957 (RST, 1992)
-
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: (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
-
(Columbia, 2006)3CD
-
(Columbia, 2015)4CD
As leader of Weather Update
-
Joe Zawinul and Weather Update (Pioneer/Geneon, 2005)DVD-Video – live rec. 1986 at the Munich Philharmonic hall. Posthumous release.
As sideman
With Cannonball Adderley
-
Nancy Wilson/Cannonball Adderley (Capitol, 1962) - rec. 1961
-
The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York (Riverside, 1962)
-
Cannonball in Europe! (Riverside, 1962)
-
Jazz Workshop Revisited (Riverside, 1962)
-
Nippon Soul (Riverside, 1964) - rec. 1963
-
Cannonball Adderley Live! (Capitol, 1964) - live
-
Live Session! (Capitol, 1964) - live
-
Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler on the Roof (Capitol, 1964)
-
Domination (Capitol, 1965)
-
Great Love Themes (Capitol, 1966)
-
Cannonball in Japan (Capitol, 1966) - live
-
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at 'The Club' (Capitol, 1967) - rec. 1966
-
74 Miles Away (Capitol, 1967)
-
Why Am I Treated So Bad! (Capitol, 1967)
-
In Person (Capitol, 1968)
-
Accent on Africa (Capitol, 1968)
-
Country Preacher (Capitol, 1970) - live rec. 1969
-
The Cannonball Adderley Quintet & Orchestra (Capitol, 1970)
-
The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free (Capitol, 1970)
-
Autumn Leaves (Riverside Japan, 1975) - rec. 1963
-
The Sextet (Milestone, 1982) - rec. 1962-1963
-
Radio Nights (Night, 1991) - rec. 1967–1968
-
Money in the Pocket (Capitol, 2005) - rec. 1966
With Nat Adderley
-
Naturally! (Jazzland, 1961)
-
Autobiography (Atlantic Records, 1965)
-
Live at Memory Lane (Atlantic, 1967) - live rec. 1966
-
The Scavenger (Milestone, 1968)
-
Calling Out Loud (CTI, 1968)
-
You, Baby (CTI Records, 1969) - rec. 1968
With Miles Davis
-
1969: In a Silent Way (Columbia, 1969)
-
1969: Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970)
-
1970: Live-Evil (Columbia, 1971)
-
compilation: Big Fun (Columbia, 1974)
-
compilation: Circle in the Round (Columbia, 1979)
With Yusef Lateef
-
The Centaur and the Phoenix (Riverside, 1960)
-
Suite 16 (Atlantic, 1970)
With Herbie Mann
-
A Mann & A Woman (Atlantic, 1967) – also with Tamiko Jones. rec. 1966.
-
The Beat Goes On (Atlantic, 1967) – rec. 1964-1967
With Dinah Washington
-
What a Diff'rence a Day Makes! (Mercury, 1959)
-
The Two of Us (Mercury, 1960) – also with Brook Benton
-
Live at Birdland (Baldwin, 1997) – live rec. 1962
With others
-
Friedrich Gulda and his Eurojazz-Orchestra, Eurosuite / Variations (Preiser Records, 1967) - rec. 1966
-
Trilok Gurtu, Crazy Saints (CMP, 1993)
-
Victor Feldman, Soviet Jazz Themes (Äva, 1963) - rec. 1962
-
Jimmy Forrest, Out of the Forrest (Prestige Records, 1961)
-
Eddie Harris, Silver Cycles (Atlantic, 1969) – rec. 1968
-
Sam Jones, Down Home (Riverside, 1962)
-
Quincy Jones, Back on the Block (Quest/Warner Bros, 1989) – rec. 1988–1989
-
Katia Labèque, Little Girl Blue (Dreyfus, 1995)
-
Salif Keita, Amen (Mango, 1991)
-
David "Fathead" Newman, The Many Facets of David Newman (Atlantic, 1969) – rec. 1968–1969
-
Miroslav Vitouš, Purple (CBS/Sony, 1970)
Biographies
Further reading
External links
