Joe Zawinul

Austrian jazz and fusion keyboard player, pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger (born on 7 July 1932 in Vienna, Austria; died of skin cancer on 11 September 2007 in Vienna, Austria, aged 75).

Zawinul's introduction to music was playing the accordion with his family. As a jazz musician he began getting noticed in 1952, when he began working with Hans Koller. However, he is most recognized for his work as a musician and composer on the Miles Davis albums recorded between 1969 and 1972: "In A Silent Way" (1969), "Bitches Brew" (1970), "Live-Evil" (1971), and "Big Fun" (1974).

Zawinul is also recognized for co-founding Weather Report in 1970, one of the seminal jazz-fusion bands of the 1970s, along with Wayne Shorter – who was also an ex-Davis musician. Since the split of Weather Report in 1986, he did some solo tours and recordings and formed The Zawinul Syndicate and played in several other bands.

He was additionally a great composer, and known as one of the great pioneers of electronic keyboards in jazz music.