I just heard the sad news that keyboardist Joe Zawinul passed away in Vienna this Morning. Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!

I had read that he was very ill.

His last CD is awesome....wow...what a bummer, RIP Joe Z.

Bummer - was just enjoying some Zawinul last night. RIP.

Sorry to hear the news. Zawinul was a great musician. I enjoyed him with Weather Report, Miles Davis, and Cannonball Adderley.

His last CD is awesome....wow...what a bummer, RIP Joe Z.

Yes is was and it wasn't that long ago either. Shocking news.

RIP Joe

Great composer as well. He will be deeply missed! RIP sir! Your music touched the souls of millions!

i just loved his weather report stuff. rip and thanks.

Damn--another legend gone. I saw Shorter in concert earlier this year. I was looking forward to seeing Zawinul in November. I guess that's not going to happen. RIP.

Ray

Rest In Peace, Joe.

Spring 2007.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Zawinul_syndicate_2007-03-28_live_in_freiburg.jpg/800px-Zawinul_syndicate_2007-03-28_live_in_freiburg.jpg

I was looking forward to seeing Zawinul in November. I guess that's not going to happen.


No levity, but I sure hope not, Ray.

I just found out. What a real damper on a very bad day. It was 6 years today that I lost a very close friend in the Twin Towers horror. I am really starting to hate this date.

Sad, sad, sad....:tears::tears::tears: I will miss him so much. I owe him a lot for the things he brought into my life. As if this date wasn't sad enough...

And I didn't even know he was ill. God bless you, Joe. I will play your music every night in your honor, for many days.

I hope he meets Frank Zappa, my other favorite!

The end of an Era. A great innovator. Kind of like when Jobim died.

One of the finest and most innovative composers/improvisors of the 20th century. His music will be performed, listened to, and studied for years to come. I still think it was unforgivable that Zawinul, Shorter, and their work alone and with Weather Report wasn't mentioned in Ken Burns's documentary on jazz. I overheard Weather Report mentioned on a news show and thought that maybe they were reuniting for a CD or tour. When I found out about his passing away a few minutes later it hit me hard.

One of the finest and most innovative composers/improvisors of the 20th century. His music will be performed, listened to, and studied for years to come. I still think it was unforgivable that Zawinul, Shorter, and their work alone and with Weather Report wasn't mentioned in Ken Burns's documentary on jazz .

Ken Burns' oversight really irked me, also. Not one mention in the whole series. I question Burns' credibility. I would have give the documentary 5 stars if Joe would have been included.

The Zawinul Syndicate is also a fabulous group.

Weather Report taught me to appreciate jazz. I saw them in concert in 1973, and was hooked forever.

RIP Joe. We'll miss you.

RIP Joe. I enjoy your music.

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Joe Zawinul, the jazz keyboardist who soared to fame as one of the creators of jazz-rock fusion with the band Weather Report, has died, a hospital official said. He was 75.

Zawinul died early Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Vienna's Wilhelmina Clinic said, without giving details. He had been hospitalized since last month and suffered from a rare form of skin cancer, said Risa Zincke, his manager, according to the Austria Press Agency.

Zawinul won acclaim for his keyboard work on chart-topping Miles Davis albums such as ''In A Silent Way'' and ''Bitches Brew,'' and was a leading force behind the so-called ''Electric Jazz'' movement.

In 1970, Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter founded Weather Report and produced a series of albums including ''Heavy Weather,'' ''Black Market,'' ''I Sing the Body Electric,'' and the Grammy-winning live recording ''8:30.''

He is credited with bringing the electric piano and synthesizer into the jazz mainstream, but was frustrated by the lack of respect for electric keyboards and new technology among jazz purists.

''There is no difference between a Stradivarius or a beautiful synthesizer sound,'' Zawinul told Jazziz magazine earlier this year. ''People make a big mistake in putting down electronic music. Yes, it's been misused and abused, but that's true of every music.

''There is nothing wrong with electronic music as long as you're putting some soul behind the technology.''

Herbie Hancock, who took part in the ''Bitches Brew'' session, called Zawinul ''a force'' in the jazz world.

''Joe Zawinul is one of my oldest friends in the music business,'' Hancock said in a statement released through his publicist. ''He was a force as a composer and an amazing conceptualizer.

''He opened up a doorway between jazz and rock n' roll and was a major influence on Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter and me. The world has never been the same since he made his contribution to our society.''

Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer praised Zawinul's ''unpretentious way of dealing with listeners'' and said he wasn't ''blinded by superficialities.''

Born in 1932, Zawinul grew up in a working-class family during World War II in the Austrian capital. He played accordion on the streets to make money and received classical piano training as a child prodigy at the Vienna Conservatory. In the postwar years, he grew interested in American jazz, playing in a dance band that included the future Austrian President Thomas Klestil and making a name for himself on the local jazz scene in bands led by saxophonist Hans Koller and others.

''One thing about Viennese musicians, they can really groove, more than even the German bands can,'' Zawinul said in a 2007 Downbeat magazine interview. ''It's something in our nature, perhaps. We're cosmopolitan and interracial -- Czech, Slavic, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish a little bit.''

In 1959, Zawinul emigrated to the United States on a scholarship to study at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, but left to join Maynard Ferguson's big band. He next landed a gig with Dinah Washington; his funky piano can be heard on her 1959 hit ''What a Diff'rence a Day Made.''

Zawinul rose to international fame after joining alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's band in 1961. During his nine-year stint with the band, he composed such tunes as ''Walk Tall,'' ''Country Preacher,'' and most notably the gospel-influenced, soul-jazz anthem ''Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,'' his first important recording on electric piano, which climbed the pop charts and won a Grammy for Adderley.

In the late '60s, Zawinul recorded with Davis' studio band, His tune ''In a Silent Way'' served as the title track for the trumpeter's first foray into the electric arena. Zawinul's composition ''Pharoah's Dance'' was featured on Davis' groundbreaking 1970 jazz-rock fusion album ''Bitches Brew,'' which won Davis a 1970 Grammy for best jazz performance, large group or soloist with large group.

Weather Report enjoyed its biggest commercial success with the 1977 album ''Heavy Weather'' which featured Zawinul's catchy tune ''Birdland,'' which became one of the most recognizable jazz hits of the '70s after it was also recorded by Maynard Ferguson and the vocal group Manhattan Transfer.

After Weather Report broke up in 1986, Zawinul went on to form The Zawinul Syndicate, which brought together a global village of musicians who recorded such albums as the Grammy-nominated ''My People'' (1996) and ''World Tour'' (1998).

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Associated Press Writer Charles J. Gans in New York contributed to this report.

Helped Miles with Bitches Brew and did many other things.

RIP Joe

Zawinul is "The Best of The Best". And thank you fdrennin, for the contribution.

RIP Joe.

Thanks for the music!