Anyone here who will remember...and miss the jazz maestro Joe Zawinul?

I will truly miss Joe Zawinul, my last time seeing him in Philly my home town was in 1998 at the Philadelphia Clef Club 736-38 south Broad Street. Admission that evening was only twenty dollars. The band members that evening was Joe, Gary Paulson, guitar, M. Badero, percussion, Victor Bailey, Bass electric, Paco Sey, Drums, from the Ivory Coast. The date was February 7, 1998. I have a live recording of that show that I recorded with my Sony Professional recorder model WMD6C. I also got a chance to speak to Mr. Zawinul a great gentlemen what a loss, I was praying that he would recover and I would have been able to see him perform one more time. Oh Victor Bailey is a home town brother.

I remember Joe, great jazz pianist who played with Miles Davis' quintet, he was brilliant on Bitches Brew. Also stepped out on his own and formed Weather Report, which was great Jazz fusion band and also had the late great Jaco Pastorious on bass.

RIP Joe

The musical seeds that Joe brought to the Miles Davis 'Silent Way' and 'Bitches Brew' sessions have blossomed in ways we could have hardly dreamt possible.

In my heart I feel that Joe's contribution to music and especially fusion, [while generally accepted as monumental among musicians], has been clearly misunderstood and vastly under appreciated by fans and critics as a whole.

Personally, I feel that while Miles gave fusion the official 'stamp of approval', and Mahavishnu turned the earth on it's axis, it was Joe that gave the fusion movement it's groove, accessability, creativeness, and kept the 'jazz' improvisational aspects intact, for those that followed.

Joe Zawinul
July 7, 1932 to September 11, 2007 (It seemed this day would never come, but now that it's here, I'm stunned and paralyzed by it's reality).

Now, the music of Joe's we have always treasured, has shifted to 'priceless'.

My deepest condolences to the Zawinul family and all music professionals and fans around the world.

His stuff with Miles and WR were fun and helped repopularize jazz in the 1970s. He had a flamboyant style I didn't particularly care for, but I did and do appreciate his contributions to jazz music.

RIP, Herr Zawinul.

Probably the most important thing Zawinul did was bring the synthesizer into live performance. Back in the early days of the analog synths like the Moogs, ARPs and Oberheims, they did not travel well and often fell dreadfully out of tune by performance time. Somehow, Joe managed to travel with these and keep them up, running and in tune. I guess some credit also goes to his keyboard techs and programmers also. The live recordings by Weather Report are nothing short of phenominal. To this day, 8:30 is probably my favorite live album of all time.

Joe brought the music to the masses and revolutionized how we listen to live performances today.

Of course...

Haven't got much of his stuff, and I'm not a huge Weather Report fan, but I think In a Silent Way is one of the best recordings ever made, and he certainly had Jazz's finest moustache.

I've been trying to get hold of the early 70s "Zawinul" album for yonks.