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Joe Zawinul SyndicateThursday, November 2 • 7:30pm"A hot contender for best world-jazz ensemble on the planet." — The Guardian (UK) By any measure, Joe Zawinul is one of modern jazz’s most significant icons. Best known for his work with the seminal fusion band Weather Report and as a key contributor to Miles Davis’ albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, Zawinul, along with Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, and Herbie Hancock, was essential in establishing the electronic keyboard as a jazz instrument.
Not bad for a kid who began his musical career with an accordion in Vienna, Austria. Trained at the prestigious Vienna Conservatoire, Zawinul cast off the heavy classical tradition of his homeland to accept a scholarship at Berklee College of Music. His formal education lasted a week, after which he took a gig with Maynard Ferguson, which led to work with Slide Hampton and Dinah Washington. His star-making role came as a gospel-tinged pianist in Cannonball Adderley’s Quintet throughout the ‘60s. He has won top honors as “Best Keyboardist” in the DownBeat Critics Poll 28 times. Yet another accomplishment in Zawinul’s impressive résumé is his compositional prowess. While with Cannonball Adderley, he wrote “Country Preacher,” “Walk Tall,” and the mammoth hit “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.” The title track of In a Silent Way was Zawinul’s tune and his song “Birdland” continues to be the quintessential Weather Report track, a song that has won Grammy awards in three successive decades. His Syndicate, performing tonight, is the continuation of Zawinul’s tireless, ebullient exploration of world rhythms, rock, and jazz.
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