Joe Zawinul -

Joe Zawinul (July 7, 1932 — Sept. 11, 2007) was an Austrian keyboardist, composer, and bandleader, active on the international jazz scene for a half century. Between 1971 and 1986, he co-headed the multi-national jazz-funk/ambient ensemble Weather Report with American saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

Background

Joe Zawinul was born Josef Erich Zawinul on July 7, 1932, in Vienna, Austria. His father worked as a locksmith at the municipal gasworks and played harmonica. His mother Maria sang, played some piano, and had perfect pitch. Zawinul began accordion at age six and entered the Vienna Conservatory on a piano scholarship at age seven, where he studied classical piano, violin, and clarinet.

Zawinul left Vienna with twenty-eight conservatory classmates for an estate in the Czech Sudetenland as Allied bombing intensified late in World War II. Zawinul first heard jazz at the estate when a fellow conservatory student played Fats Waller’s “Honeysuckle Rose” on piano. He returned to Vienna after the war and continued classical piano study. Zawinul earned money on accordion in small combos and played clubs on American military bases. He first used a Hammond organ at the military clubs.

Zawinul joined saxophonist Hans Koller in 1952 and led his own trio on engagements in France and Germany. He co-founded the Austrian All Stars in 1954 with saxophonists Hans Salomon and Karl Drewo, bassist Rudolf Hansen, and drummer Viktor Plasil. The group cut four Elite Special titles that October, including the Zawinul composition “Mekka,” followed by concert recordings, HMV sides, two titles with trumpeter Dick Murphy, and a final session for Continent Records. The Austrian All Stars completed sixteen recorded titles across those dates.

In 1955, Johannes Fehring incorporated the Austrian All Stars into his big band. Zawinul and Drewo left the Fehring orchestra in 1956 for the Fatty George Two Sounds Band but continued occasional Austrian All Stars dates. The Joe Zawinul Trio paired him with bassist Johnny Fischer and drummer Viktor Plasil for a March 1957 Vienna session. The trio recorded “Easy Living,” “What a Difference a Day Made,” and the Zawinul–Fischer–Plasil composition “Beat.”

Zawinul recorded “Red Top” with Fatty George in Hamburg in 1957 and submitted the performance with a Down Beat scholarship application the following year. Down Beat awarded Zawinul one of five additional scholarships for study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston. He sailed to New York in January 1959 and continued to Boston for classes.

Zawinul took a substitute Boston engagement within his first weeks at Berklee with bassist Gene Cherico and drummer Jake Hanna, who recommended him to trumpeter Maynard Ferguson after the engagement. Ferguson hired Zawinul for the big band, where he met saxophonist Wayne Shorter. The band recorded A Message from Birdland at Birdland in June 1959 with Zawinul on piano.

Zawinul joined Dinah Washington later in 1959 and remained her pianist into the early 1960s. He played piano on Washington titles later issued across What a Diff’rence a Day Makes!, The Two of Us, and I Concentrate on You. Zawinul led a September 1959 New York session for Strand Records with bassist George Tucker, drummer Frankie Dunlop, and conguero Ray Barretto. He made his bandleader album debut when Strand issued the session as To You With Love.

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