Jazz Legend Joe Zawinul Dead At 75
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Artist:
Joe Zawinul, jazz keyboardist and composer died early today(September 11), a spokeswoman for Vienna's Wilhelmina Clinic said, without giving details. He had been hospitalized since last month and suffered from a rare form of skin cancer, said Risa Zincke, his manager. 
Zawinul was one of the front runners in the development of jazz fusion along with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin and Miles Davis. Best known as the founder of the band Weather Report, with Miroslav Vitous and Wayne Shorter with whom he had previously recorded two albums as part of Davis' studio band, in his final years he headed the ensemble called The Zawinul Syndicate.He is credited with bringing the electric piano and synthesizer into the jazz mainstream, but was frustrated by the lack of respect for electric keyboards and new technology among jazz purists.Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer praised Zawinul's "unpretentious way of dealing with listeners" and said he wasn't "blinded by superficialities.""There is no difference between a Stradivarius or a beautiful synthesizer sound," Zawinul told Jazziz magazine earlier this year. "People make a big mistake in putting down electronic music. Yes, it's been misused and abused, but that's true of every music.
"There is nothing wrong with electronic music as long as you're putting some soul behind the technology."Born in 1932, Zawinul grew up in a working-class family during World War II in Landstraße, Vienna, where he went to school with the late former Austrian Federal President Thomas Klestil. Zawinul started playing accordion on the streets to make money and received classical piano training as a child prodigy. His mother was a Sinti ("Gypsy"). Zawinul emigrated to the United States in the late 1950s.In the postwar years, he grew interested in American jazz, playing in a dance band that included the future Austrian President Thomas Klestil and making a name for himself on the local jazz scene in bands led by saxophonist Hans Koller and others.Zawinul's biggest commercial success came from his composition "Birdland", a 6-minute opus featured on Weather Report's 1977 album ??Heavy Weather??. "Birdland" is one of the most recognizable jazz pieces of the 1970s, covered by many prominent artists from The Manhattan Transfer to Maynard Ferguson. Even Weather Report's version received significant mainstream radio airplay — unusual for them — and served to convert many new fans to music which they may never have heard otherwise.After Weather Report broke up in 1986, Zawinul went on to form The Zawinul Syndicate, which brought together a global village of musicians who recorded such albums as the Grammy-nominated "My People" (1996) and "World Tour" (1998).To read more about the rich life and times of Joe Zawinul, refer to his official site:http://www.zawinulsite.com/
Zawinul was one of the front runners in the development of jazz fusion along with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin and Miles Davis. Best known as the founder of the band Weather Report, with Miroslav Vitous and Wayne Shorter with whom he had previously recorded two albums as part of Davis' studio band, in his final years he headed the ensemble called The Zawinul Syndicate.He is credited with bringing the electric piano and synthesizer into the jazz mainstream, but was frustrated by the lack of respect for electric keyboards and new technology among jazz purists.Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer praised Zawinul's "unpretentious way of dealing with listeners" and said he wasn't "blinded by superficialities.""There is no difference between a Stradivarius or a beautiful synthesizer sound," Zawinul told Jazziz magazine earlier this year. "People make a big mistake in putting down electronic music. Yes, it's been misused and abused, but that's true of every music."There is nothing wrong with electronic music as long as you're putting some soul behind the technology."Born in 1932, Zawinul grew up in a working-class family during World War II in Landstraße, Vienna, where he went to school with the late former Austrian Federal President Thomas Klestil. Zawinul started playing accordion on the streets to make money and received classical piano training as a child prodigy. His mother was a Sinti ("Gypsy"). Zawinul emigrated to the United States in the late 1950s.In the postwar years, he grew interested in American jazz, playing in a dance band that included the future Austrian President Thomas Klestil and making a name for himself on the local jazz scene in bands led by saxophonist Hans Koller and others.Zawinul's biggest commercial success came from his composition "Birdland", a 6-minute opus featured on Weather Report's 1977 album ??Heavy Weather??. "Birdland" is one of the most recognizable jazz pieces of the 1970s, covered by many prominent artists from The Manhattan Transfer to Maynard Ferguson. Even Weather Report's version received significant mainstream radio airplay — unusual for them — and served to convert many new fans to music which they may never have heard otherwise.After Weather Report broke up in 1986, Zawinul went on to form The Zawinul Syndicate, which brought together a global village of musicians who recorded such albums as the Grammy-nominated "My People" (1996) and "World Tour" (1998).To read more about the rich life and times of Joe Zawinul, refer to his official site:http://www.zawinulsite.com/
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