Joe Zawinul belongs in a category unto himself -- a European from the heartland of the
classical music tradition (Vienna) who learned to swing as freely as any American jazzer, and whose appetite for growth and change remains insatiable.
Zawinul's curiosity and openness to all kinds of sounds made him one of the driving forces behind the electronic
jazz-rock revolution of the late '60s and '70s -- and later, he would be almost alone in exploring fusions between
jazz-rock and ethnic music from all over the globe. He is one of a bare handful of synthesizer players who actually learned how to play the instrument, to make it an expressive, swinging part of his arsenal.
Prior to the invention of the portable synthesizer,
Zawinul's example helped bring the Wurlitzer and Fender Rhodes electric pianos into the
jazz mainstream.
Zawinul also has became a significant composer, ranging (like his idol
Duke Ellington) from soulful hit tunes to large-scale symphonic
jazz canvases. Yet despite his
classical background, he now prefers to improvise compositions spontaneously onto tape, not write them out on paper.
At six, Josef Erich Zawinul started to play the accordion in his native Austria, and studies in
classical piano and composition at the Vienna Conservatory soon followed. His interest in
jazz piano, initially influenced by
George Shearing and
Erroll Garner, led to jobs with Austrian saxophonist Hans Koller in 1952 and gigs with his own trio in France and Germany. He emigrated to the United States in late 1958 after winning a scholarship to Berklee, yet after just one week in class, he left to join
Maynard Ferguson's band for eight months, where
Miles Davis first took notice of him. Following a brief stay with Slide Hampton,
Zawinul became
Dinah Washington's pianist from 1959 to 1961, and then spent a month with Harry "Sweets" Edison before
Cannonball Adderley picked him to fill the piano chair in his quintet. There
Zawinul stayed and blossomed for nine years, contributing several compositions to the
Adderley band book -- among them the major pop hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," "Walk Tall," and "Country Preacher" -- and ultimately helping to steer the
Adderley group into the electronic era. While with
Adderley,
Zawinul evolved from a
hard bop pianist to a
soul-jazz performer heavily steeped in the
blues, and ultimately a
jazz-rock explorer on the electric piano. Toward the end of his
Adderley gig (1969-1970), he was right in the thick of the new
jazz-rock scene, recording several pioneering records with
Miles Davis, contributing the title tune of
Davis'
In a Silent Way album.
After recording a self-titled solo album,
Zawinul left
Adderley to form
Weather Report with
Wayne Shorter and Czech bassist
Miroslav Vitous in November 1970.
Weather Report gave the increasingly self-confident
Zawinul a platform to evolve even further as his interest in propulsive grooves and music from Africa and the Middle East ignited and developed. He gradually dropped the electric piano in favor of a series of ever more sophisticated synthesizers, which he mastered to levels never thought possible by those who derided the instruments as sterile, unfeeling machines.
Weather Report eventually became a popular group that appealed to audiences beyond
jazz and progressive rock, thanks in no small part to
Zawinul's hit song "Birdland."
When
Zawinul and
Shorter finally came to a parting of ways in 1985,
Zawinul started to tour all by himself, surrounded by keyboards and rhythm machines, but resurfaced the following year with a short-lived extension of
Weather Report called
Weather Update (which did not leave any recordings).
Weather Update quickly evolved into another group,
the Zawinul Syndicate, which over the span of a decade tilted increasingly toward groove-oriented
world music influences.
Zawinul has showed renewed interest in his European roots, collaborating with fellow Viennese
classical pianist Friedrich Gulda from 1987 to 1994, producing a full-blown classically based symphony,
Stories of the Danube, in 1993, and following the near-disastrous Malibu fires of 1994, moving from California to New York City in order to be closer to Europe. In 2002 he released
Faces & Places, his first studio album in several years and one that boasted an international roster of supporting musicians. Since that time he has released a handful of albums including Midnight Jam in 2005 and Brown Street in 2007.
Though he continues to explore new musical paths at an age when most jazzers are long set in their ways,
Zawinul's influence upon
jazz has waned in recent years due to the
jazz mainstream's retreat from electronics back to acoustic
post-bop. But
Zawinul's uplifting, still-invigorating later music may make him a prophet again if global music infiltrates the
jazz world. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
(
collapse)
