Results for "Joe Zawinul"

Joe Zawinul

It may be a word overused but there isn't truly a more appropriate way to describe keyboardist/composer Joe Zawinul.

Austrian born, Joe Zawinul emigrated to the US in 1959 where he played with Maynard Ferguson and the great Dinah Washington before joining alto saxophonist great Cannonball Adderley in 1961 for nine years. With Adderley, Zawinul wrote several important songs, primarily the slow and funky hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" which reached the top on the Billboard magazine Pop Charts in 1967.

Zawinul then moved on to a brief but fateful encounter and collaboration with Miles Davis, just at the time Miles was moving into the electric arena. It was Zawinul’s tune "In a Silent Way", in fact, which served as the title track of Miles’ first electric foray, and Zawinul had a potent impact on Bitches Brew, as well.

Riverside Records: An Alternative Top Ten

By CHRIS MAY

From 1953, when it was set up, to 1964, when it was acquired by ABC, Riverside Records rivalled Blue Note and Prestige as one of the leading independent jazz labels based in New York City. The founders of all three labels were jazz fans who operated on slim margins and became producers partly because they enjoyed ...

Drummers as Bandleaders: An Alternative Top Ten Albums

By CHRIS MAY

Drummers have been key members of every band which has changed the course of jazz history, from Max Roach with Charlie Parker to Elvin Jones with John Coltrane and onwards. Yet drummers have been the leaders of a surprisingly small proportion of landmark bands themselves. Chick Webb in the 1920s was the first of the few. ...

Frank Tiberi: The Thundering is Still Heard

By JIM WORSLEY

The term “ninety-two years young" is a bit cliché, but if the shoe fits (oops, another cliché). Saxophonist Frank Tiberi (pictured above playing with saxophonist and long time friend George Garzone to the left) spoke with the verve and energy of a much younger man. He got excited, as if being back in the moment, when ...

Vince Mendoza: Streams of Influence Flowing into a River of Sound

By VICTOR L. SCHERMER

Vince Mendoza is a jazz composer, arranger, and conductor of consummate originality, skill, and adaptability, so much so that he has for several decades received frequent invitations and commissions from the whole gamut of ensembles and performers like the WDR Big Band, the Metropole Orkest in the Netherlands, the Los Angeles and Berlin Philharmonic, and the ...

Weather Report - Zawinul, Shorter, Pastorius (1971 - 1976)

By RUSSELL PERRY

By 1970, Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul were recognized as two of the finest hard bop composers and players having contributed the full range of their talents to The Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis Quintet (in Shorter's case) and the Cannonball Adderley Quintet (in Zawinul's). Both contributed to Davis' Bitches Brew sessions and in 1971 formed ...

The Road to Fusion - Lloyd, Burton, Williams, Zawinul and Miles (1967 - 1972)

By RUSSELL PERRY

Jazz-rock fusion or, often, simply “fusion" emerged in the late '60s as the child of many mothers. Characterized by electric instruments and rock rhythms, it could be loud and fast, but just as likely, could be melodic or lyrical or funky. The Charles Lloyd Quartet, the Gary Burton Quartet, Tony Williams Lifetime and the Joe Zawinul ...

Roberto Fonseca: Viaggio oltre gli schemi e le barriere

By PAOLO MARRA

Figura di spicco del Latin jazz del nuovo millennio Roberto Fonseca racchiude in sé le eterogenee influenze europee ed africane che hanno caratterizzato l'evoluzione della musica popolare cubana, sua terra di origine. L'energia espressa con sorprendente tecnica pianistica affonda le radici nello spirito piu profondo delle tradizioni dell'isola caraibica tradotte, lontano da inutili stereotipi, in ponti ...

Jimmy Haslip/Scott Kinsey/Gergo Borlai: ARC Trio

By JIM WORSLEY

A distant relative of Jimmy Haslip's first record as a leader, Arc (GRP, 1993), Arc Trio is a breath of fresh air. The core trio of Haslip, Scott Kinsey, and Gergo Borlai intelligently reimagine the fusion genre. While embracing essential elements of fusion past, they bring an enlightened vision to the epicenter as well as a ...

Jimmy Haslip: Amperes Beyond the BASSics, Part 2

By JIM WORSLEY

In case you missed it, Part One of my conversation with Jimmy Haslip covered a lot of ground and had a few good laughs along the way. Although we talked about the Yellowjackets, we delved more deeply into why and how he parted ways with the band some eight years ago. Haslip has been producing records ...