R.I.P.
Say hallo to heaven and to Jaco.
Weather Report - Birdland
(Live στο Stadthalle Offenbach Concert, το 1978.)
(το τραγουδι που αλλαξε τη πορεια της μουσικης)
"Birdland" was named after the New York jazz club Birdland on 52nd Street, which is named after jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. The song is a tribute to Parker and the club which Zawinul frequented as a young musician.
Birth name Josef Erich Zawinul
Born July 7, 1932(1932-07-07)
Vienna, Austria
Died September 11, 2007 (aged 75)
Vienna, Austria
Genre(s) Jazz Fusion
Occupation(s) keyboardist, composer
Instrument(s) keyboard
Years active 1949–2007
Zawinul was born in Vienna, Austria. Zawinul, along with Corea and Hancock, was one of the first to integrate electric pianos and early synthesizers like the ARP 2600 in 1973's Sweetnighter. He was among the first to use a Fender-Rhodes with a Phasing effect and a Wah-Wah pedal. His creativity and attention to detail resulted in a very contemporary and modern sound. He also has played the kalimba on Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller and Mr. Gone.
Classically trained at the Vienna Conservatoire, Zawinul played in various broadcasting and studio bands before emigrating to the U.S. in 1959, where he played with Maynard Ferguson and Dinah Washington before joining the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1961.
During his nine-year stint on keyboards with Adderley, 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.
In the late 1960s, Zawinul recorded with Miles Davis's studio band and helped create the sound of the new Jazz fusion. Among others he played on the album In a Silent Way, the title track of which he composed, and the landmark album Bitches Brew, for which he contributed the twenty-minute track, "Pharaoh's Dance", which occupied the whole of side one. Zawinul is known to have played live with Davis only once, on July 10, 1991, shortly before Davis' death.
Zawinul's biggest commercial success came from his composition "Birdland", a 6-minute opus featured on Weather Report's 1977 album Heavy Weather. "Birdland" is one of the most recognizable jazz pieces of the 1970s, covered by many prominent artists from The Manhattan Transfer to Maynard Ferguson. Even Weather Report's version received significant mainstream radio airplay — unusual for them — and served to convert many new fans to music which they may never have heard otherwise.
Zawinul was hospitalized in his native Vienna on August 7, 2007[1], only one week after concluding a six-week tour in Hungary. He died of cancer on September 11, 2007, aged 75.
Website www.zawinulsite.com
Source : Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia