Joe Zawinul 1932 - 2007

Joe Zawinul, the keyboard player and composer has died today in Austria.
Zawinul was born in Vienna in 1932 where he later went on to study music at the Vienna Conservatory.
In 1959 he emigrated to the USA where he toured with Maynard Ferguson, accompanied Dinah Washington, and in 1961 joined Cannonball Adderley with whom he performed and recorded until 1970.
It was in 1970 that Zawinul and Wayne Shorter formed 'Weather Report'.
Zawinul was one of the most original and prolific composers to emerge in the 1970's, and it was Zawinul's experimentation with the Wurlitzer and electric pianos, that influenced other jazz musicians to adopt these instruments, which drastically altered the tone and colour of an entire branch of jazz music.

Weather Report have been hugely influential on Robin's life, in particular the album 'Heavy Weather' which had the perfect chemistry of musicians and the time was right for their musical statement to be made.
The fact that we still listen to their music on a regular basis shows how important it has been.

Due to a technical hitch, the video I've posted can be found below, under it's own title.
It is Weather Report, (with Jaco), performing 'Black Market' in 1978.