RIP - Joe Zawinul

[rlindsey0]

Nobody sounded like him, nobody wrote like him, nobody's bands sounded like his. He was one of the rare people who create their own distinct musical worlds. I didn't love every single thing he did, but there was no denying that he was a true original. And he didn't let up or start phoning it in when he got older, either. He kept pushing it as hard as he could as long as he could.

I recommend that everybody--right now, if you haven't already--go listen to "Brown Street" (the new double CD with Zawinul and the WDR Big Band, with arrangements by Vince Mendoza).

[Cry Logic]

Wow.... I got a huge pang of remorse and sadness reading this...
Weather Report's "I Sing The Body Electric" was a seminal album
for me in the early 70's....

Thanks for everything Joe.

"No one solos, everyone solos."
--Joe Zawinul

[Hard Truth]

DJ Dore Stein, of the great Tangents radio show, sent this to his e-mail list of listeners:

 

Here's a short excerpt about Miles from a 1997 Anil Prasad interview

: (innerviews.org/inner/zawinul.html)

 

Anil: How did Miles influence your life?

 

Joe: I wouldn't say that he influenced my life.

 

Anil: Many point to the work you did with Miles in the late '60s as

the music that most significantly impacted your musical evolution.

 

Joe: It is the other way around, frankly speaking. I think he got more

from me than I got from him in that respect.

 

 

Joe also revolutionized the use of electronics in jazz. No one could

make a synthesizer or keyboard sound warm and organic like Joe. Listen

to "Peace" from his 1986 "Dialects" solo cd. It is solo synth that is

emotive and moving.

 

Here's another excerpt from the aforementioned interview:

 

"...we had some funny backlash from people who said we were selling

out because we were using electronic instruments. It's such idiocy.

It's ridiculous that someone could place that much importance on the

instrument to be that great. An instrument is not important. It is the

way one plays that is important. Instruments don't play by themselves.

A piano is certainly not a better instrument than a synthesizer, but

if a synthesizer is played like a piano, it becomes a very bad

instrument. It doesn't work. You can't play a trumpet like a violin