He died in the same city where he was born: Vienna. In between birth and death was an amazing amount of life. As a child, Josef Zawinul was a prodigy at the piano. And his remarkable talent was instantly recognized by elements of Hitler’s Third Reich shortly after Germany had invaded Austria. The Nazis decided that young Zawinul’s contribution to the Third Reich would be that he would become the greatest pianist in the world, and they procured the best staff to bring that about-- among his teachers was a student of Franz Liszt. In between his lessons, there was everyday living in Nazi occupied Vienna, with many harsh realities to witness and experience... among them, seeing Wehrmacht soldiers drinking gasoline as a desperate substitute for alcohol.
After coming to America in the fifties, he played with Dinah Washington, Maynard Ferguson and Cannonball Adderley for whom he wrote one of the most soulful songs ever: “Mercy, Mercy Mercy”. By playing Wurlitzer electric piano on that recording he helped to propel jazz into a movement called ‘fusion’.
Fast forward into the seventies. Zawinul’s ground-breaking band Weather Report had just released their second album entitled Sweetnighter. After a concert in Indianapolis, Zawinul attended a party with some locals. Between passed wine bottles, someone asked Zawinul what it was like to have played on Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew. He said (after a pull on the bottle) “It was arright”.
Wow. THE seminal recording of the entire jazz-rock-fusion era, made by one of the most important musicians in all of history, and Zawinul says it was “arright”.
How I love that answer.
When asked what he had been listening to lately he said “Art Tatum...Jan Hammer..Herbie Hancock...Oscar Peterson..and a whole lotta rock and roll!”
I was that person at the party who asked him both of those questions and hung on his every word while accepting the wine bottle from him.
The reason he said “arright” goes to the same reason Miles asked him to play on Bitches Brew in the first place. Zawinul has always been a courageous, forward-looking innovator. Just like Miles. The night before a recording session, Davis told Zawinul to “bring some music”. He did. One of the pieces he brought was “In a Silent Way”, written on the occasion of his grandfather’s death. It became the title song of the album, (although Miles’ version is very much different than Zawinul’s).
“In a Silent Way” was recorded before Bitches Brew, and it is not a stretch to say that Zawinul was every bit as important to the birth of jazz-fusion as was Miles Davis. One needs only to scan the personnel on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew to understand why those sessions were the launch pad for jazz-fusion. Every important band of the movement was formed from those sessions: Weather Report. Mahavishnu Orchestra. Return to Forever. Bitches Brew did not feature Tony Williams or Herbie Hancock, but they went on to form Lifetime (with Larry Young) and Headhunters (with Bennie Maupin) respectively.
Too bad the fusion genre never fully realized its potential and has now been hijacked by a few fake musicians that don’t deserve to have their names mentioned in the same breath as Josef Zawinul. (Hint: one of them plays soprano sax hideously).
Back to the after-party in Indy.
As the evening winded down, the host asked if Zawinul might play some music. He walked up to the Hammond organ and asked if he could remove the various playing cards and folded pieces of paper that had been placed between some of the organ’s keys (the host was apparently a big fan of long sustained notes). He then proceeded to play some incredibly haunting chords and passages unlike I had ever heard.
Zawinul’s technique was overwhelming. He could quite literally play anything in either hand. And he was always challenging himself as every true innovator does: He had one of his synthesizer keyboards altered so that middle C sounded C, but if he played UP from C, the pitches went DOWN and if he played DOWN from C the pitches went UP (!) Think about that. He actually wrote the song called Black Market on that inverted keyboard.
I volunteered to give Mr. Zawinul a ride back to his hotel after the party, and on the way we chatted casually. I was trying very hard not to ask him a million questions.
On reaching the hotel he got out of the car, came to the window and shook my hand warmly and said “thanks very much for the ride”.
Thank YOU Mr. Zawinul.
Rest in Peace.
