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Joseph Zawinul (born July 7, 1932 in Vienna, Austria as
Josef Erich) is one of the front runners in the development of jazz fusion along with
Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and
Miles Davis. In 1971 he formed a band, Weather Report, with Wayne Shorter. Some of the other members who played in Weather Report at some point include Jaco Pastorius, Miroslav Vitous, Alphonso Johnson, Alex Acuña and Manolo Badrena. Currently Zawinul is touring with his Zawinul Syndicate.
Zawinul, along with Corea, was one of the first to integrate electric pianos and early synthesizers such as Bob Moog's minimoog into jazz. He is still a prominent artist and composer in the jazz community.
During a nine-year stint on keyboard with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, Zawinul wrote the hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy." He also composed "Walk Tall" and "Country Preacher," the latter a tribute to U.S. Civil Rights Movement leader Rev. Jesse Jackson. In this title cut to the quintet's popular 1969 album release, Austrian-born Zawinul demonstrated a sophisticated and intimate understanding of the African/African-American concept of cool, of motion and interval. When "Country Preacher" debuted at a live recording session in Chicago at Jackson's Operation Breadbasket, it elicited enthusiastic cheers of immediate recognition from the mostly African-American audience.
Zawinul also wrote "In a Silent Way" for
Miles Davis' 1968 like-titled album, which many consider the best fusion effort of Davis' career.
He is probably most famous for composing Birdland, a 6-minute opus featured on the group's 1977 album Heavy Weather
. Birdland is one of the most recognizable jazz pieces of the '70s because of its distinctive bassline by Pastorius.
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