|
|
b. Josef Erich Zawinul, 7 July 1932, Vienna,
Austria. After studying music at the Vienna Conservatory Zawinul's musical ambitions soon
outgrew the limited opportunities for a jazz musician in Austria shortly after the war.
But financial necessity meant that he spent the 50s almost exclusively involved in local
session work. Playing piano in dance and radio orchestras, and working as the house
pianist for Polydor Records, he played only briefly with the talented saxophonist
Hans Koller in 1952. However his fortunes improved suddenly in 1959, when he won a
scholarship to Berklee College Of Music in Boston. Emigrating to the USA, he
immediately received a huge amount of attention, and decided to spend the rest of 1959
touring with Maynard
Ferguson. Two years with Dinah
Washington followed this, and then in 1961 he began a musical collaboration with Cannonball
Adderley ( Mercy,
Mercy, Mercy 1966) which was to last nine years. Although he recorded with other
musicians during this period - most notably Miles
Davis ( In
A Silent Way 1969, Bitches
Brew 1969), it was his work with Adderley which spread his reputation as an
inventive improviser and talented writer. His composition 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy' won a
Grammy Award for the group. At the end of 1970 he joined Wayne
Shorter to form the highly influential Weather
Report, the band with which he will always be primarily associated. When the group
disbanded in 1985, after 15 years of phenomenal success, Zawinul began touring Europe and
the USA again as a soloist. More recently forming Weather Update and Zawinul Syndicate,
his dark and ominous chord voicings and electric piano sound will remain a distinctive
part of fusion for many years to come. Encyclopedia
of Popular Music Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989 - 1998
Weather Report
Founded by Joe
Zawinul (keyboards) and Wayne
Shorter (reeds). The highly accomplished Weather Report was one of the groups
credited with inventing jazz-rock fusion music in the 70s. The two founders had worked
together as members of Miles
Davis 's band in 1969-71, playing on Bitches' Brew. The first line-up of
Weather Report included Airto
Moreira (percussion) and Miroslav
Vitous (bass). Signing to CBS Records, the group's first album included
compositions by Shorter and Zawinul and the line-up was strengthened by Eric Gravatt
(drums) and Um Romao (percussion) on the best-selling I
Sing The Body Electric. Among the tracks was Zawinul's ambitious 'Unknown
Soldier', evoking the experience of war. During the mid-70s, the group adopted more
elements of rock rhythms and electronic technology, a process which reached its peak on Black
Market where Zawinul played synthesizer and the brilliant electric bassist Jaco
Pastorius made his first appearance with the group. Pastorius left the group in
1980.
Weather Report's popularity was at its peak in the late 70s
and early 80s, when the group was a four-piece, with drummer Peter
Erskine joining Pastorius and the two founder members. He was replaced by Omar
Hakim from George
Benson 's band in 1982, and for the first time Weather Report included vocals on
Procession.
The singer was Janis Siegel from Manhattan
Transfer. During the mid-80s, Zawinul and Shorter made solo albums before
dissolving Weather Report in 1986. Shorter led his own small group while Zawinul formed
Weather Update with guitarist Steve
Khan and Erskine. Hakim went on to become a touring drummer, highly acclaimed for
his work with Sting
and Eric
Clapton. Plans were afoot in 1996 to re-form the band around the nucleus of
Shorter and Zawinul.
Encyclopedia of Popular Music Copyright Muze UK Ltd. 1989
- 1998 |
