Today is the birthday of the great jazz pianist/bandleader/composer Joe Zawinul. He played with Maynard Ferguson, Dinah Washington, Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis before starting Weather Report with saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Later he formed the world music/jazz band The Zawinul Syndicate. Joe was named the top jazz keyboardist in the world an astonishing 28 times by Downbeat Magazine.
Joe died, much too soon, on September 11, 2007 of a rare form of skin cancer. To his dying days, he was still composing and performing. I guess the reason for my posting this is to remind everyone that life goes in a heartbeat, and to go for it, with all of the gusto and force that you can. Life is precious and fleeting.
The clips below show a gaunt and frail Zawinul performing "In A Silent Way" for the last time with his longtime collaborator Shorter just a month before he died. The second clip shows a young Zawinul's classical piano skills in full flower in 1975, again playing "In A Silent Way".
