A music giant has left us. Josef Erich “Joe” Zawinul—who established a new school of music with Miles Davis and led the seminal Weather Report with Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, et al.—passed away Tuesday in his beloved Austria, appropriately in Vienna, the “city of musicians.” He visited this planet for 75 short years and, had I my druthers, would have had 75 more productive seasons before his exit.

“Joe Zawinul belongs in a category unto himself — a European from the heartland of the classical music tradition who learned to swing as freely as any American jazzer, and whose appetite for growth and change remains insatiable,” wrote Richard Ginell, in a thoughtful career overview. Continue reading →