Joe Zawinul emigrated to the United States in 1959 and played keyboards with Maynard Furguson and Dinah Washington. In 1961 he joined Cannonball Adderley and played with him for nine years before briefly collaborating with Miles Davis.
Joe was a major influence on Davis’ album Bitches Brew with his fusion style of jazz incorporating the synthesizer into his music. In fact he was instrumental in bringing the Wurlitzer and Fender-Rhodes electric pianos into mainstream Jazz.
After releasing his first solo album in 1970 Joe joined forces with saxophonist Wayne Shorter and formed the band Weather Report recording 17 albums. His song “Birdland” won three Grammys as performed by Weather report, Manhattan Transfer and Quincy Jones in each of three successive decades.
When Weather Report broke up Joe formed a new group calling it Weather Update and then later as the Zawinul Syndicate receiving a number of Grammy nominations.
Tonight’s show was recorded July 7th, 2007 – the 20th Anniversary of the Zawinul Syndicate and also Joe’s 75th birthday.
Unfortunately cancer claimed Joe two months after this show.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I hope you enjoyed the show!
See you next week.