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[4] (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.[5] 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.[4] He then accompanied Dinah Washington.[6] He spent most of the 1960s with Cannonball Adderley. During this time he wrote "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and "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.'"[7]
At the end of the decade Zawinul recorded with Miles Davis on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, as Davis was establishing the genre of jazz fusion, combining jazz with rock.[2]
With Weather Report
Zawinul with Weather Report in Toronto, 1977 Photo: Jean-Luc Ourlin
In 1970, Zawinul founded Weather Report with Wayne Shorter.[5] 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.
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.
The Zawinul Syndicate, live in Freiburg, 28 March 2007
The Zawinul Syndicate was a jazz fusion band formed in 1988. It evolved out of Weather Report.[9]
Their style could be described as a combination of unusual grooves, driving and swinging 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.[10]
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.[11]
Zawinul became ill and was hospitalized in his native Vienna on 7 August 2007,[12] 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.[13][14] 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.[7]
^Carlberg, Robert (April 1986). "Joe Zawinul Interview". Electronic Musician. Berkeley, California: Mix Publications. p. 44. Josef Zawinul (pronounced zav-in-ul) was born July 7, 1932 in Vienna, Austria, a city rich in musical history.
^ abRichard S. Ginell. "Joe Zawinul". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
^ abWalters, John L. (13 September 2007). "Obituary: Joe Zawinul". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
^ abKernfeld, Barry (2002). Kernfeld, Barry (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Vol. 3 (2 ed.). New York: Grove's Dictionaries. pp. 1015–1016. ISBN1-56159-284-6.
Glasser, Brian (2001). In a Silent Way: A Portrait of Joe Zawinul. London: Sanctuary. ISBN1-86074-326-9. OCLC45900631.
Baumann, Gunther (2002). Zawinul: Ein Leben aus Jazz [Zawinul: A Life of Jazz] (in German). Salzburg; Wien: Frankfurt am Main; Residenz. ISBN3-7017-1291-3. OCLC469270497.
Yamashita, Kunihiko (2006). Joe Zawinul: On the Creative Process. Tokyo: Rittor Music. ISBN4-8456-1337-9. OCLC169983180.
