Happy Birthday, Joe Zawinul

Jazz keyboardist and composer Joe Zawinul was born on July 7, 1932, in Vienna, Austria. As critic Richard S. Ginell notes, Zawinul's "curiosity and openness to all kinds of sounds made him one of the driving forces behind the electronic jazz-rock revolution of the late '60s and '70s — and later, he would be almost alone in exploring fusions between jazz-rock and ethnic music from all over the globe."

Zawinul first played with Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis before co-founding the groups Weather Report and the world fusion group Zawinul Syndicate. He was also a pioneer in the use of the electric piano and synthesizers in jazz and was named "Best Electric Keyboardist" 28 times by the readers of Down Beat magazine.

In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends the Weather Report album, 8:30 (Columbia), which is available from Amazon.com.

Weather Report plays "In a Silent Way," one of the more lyrical pieces from the 8:30 album, here:

Robert
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