Joe Zawinul Unofficial Italian Fans Website

Messages from Zawinul supporters after his passing on September 11, 2007

Hi.my name is Dime ignjatov from skopje , Capitol of Macedonia.I used to have 4 unique days (back in 1994 and 1996) to be host of Mr.Zawinul on Skopje Jazz Festival , and i was with him 2 days , back in '94 and another 2 days , back in '96...I used to have secret drive with Mr.Zawinul around Skopje , he wants to see a lot of things in the city....what a brilliant man...I still can't believe that he actually's gone...He was the only one who pronouced my name right.As a BIG fan of Weather Report , early works with Cannonbol , Miles and Zawinul Sydicate, i fell a great lost.My greatest,deepest sympathy to mr. Ivan and Martha Zawinual , and the rest of the family and friends...He's not gone...he is in the sky...propably making a super group with Jaco , Miles,Cannonball...Long Live Mr.Zawinul...We all gona miss your sence of humor , your knowledge about Skopje and Macedonia , your kindness , your interwies private or tv , made by myself...Rest in Peace...I've spend 2 days of listenning all 37 cd's with your name on it...See you in Heaven ,Mr.Wizzard...

Dime (Macedonia)

I too would like to say how much this has affected me. It's like losing a close relative or friend and I find it hard to write this without a tear in my eye. I had the honour and pleasure of seeing Joe perform every time he was in the UK from Black Market onwards and also to meet him back stage after the Weather Update gig at Hammersmith Odeon. What charisma. I could never get over the enthusiasm he had and the drive that he gave to his fellow musicians. I left his gigs feeling inspired and elated.
I am just happy to be one of a group of people who think the same and who can relate to this wonderful man.

He will always be with us and be an inspiration to all.

Keep grooving Joe, 'cause you were the master.

Chris

Hello all,

I can't stop the tears from my eyes as the sad news of our hero's
departure still sinks in. I think of all the great gigs I witnessed
over the years from the first Syndicate show I saw at The Jazz Cafe in
London in '93, to the final one at The Jazz Cafe in London earlier this
year.

Joe Zawinul will continue to inspire me, not just musically but in all
walks of life, as I think of him with his arms raised like a victorious
prize fighter presenting his music with a passion, a joy, and a groove
that I've never known the like of before or since.

Above all else, I'll remember Joe for his music. Those tunes with their
mighty themes touching hearts and moving feet with a voice that was all
his own.

I'll miss you Joe.

Mark.

I had a very similar experience with the news of Josef's passing. But first a story.....

When I was 17 I attended my very first jazz concert....The Cannonball Adderley Quintet with Josef Zawinul. That night would change the way I would view music for the rest of my life. Zawinul was already pushing the music forward and Cannon's band that night performed "Directions" which would later become a Weather Report staple. Z was pushing Cannon into another area at that time...and of course Cannon was up for the challenge. One of the great concerts of my life.

Sometimes I feel that with all of Josef's incredable music since that time that his period with Cannonball sometimes gets somewhat neglected. For me Josef will always be my favorite acoustic pianist. His touch was different from anyone I've ever heard.

If you can I invite you all to listen to a track from the Cannonball LP "Live". Zawinul's 4 min. solo on the Charles Lloyd composition "The Song My Lady Sings" is one of the great acoustic piano statements that I've ever heard. Unfortunately it has not been issued on cd as of yet. Of course there are many more examples to chose from.

Josef Zawinul...as great a musician as any over the last 40 years. One of the true originals who like Duke, Coltrane and Miles can never be duplicated or imitated. Let us celebrate his life and music and be grateful that we were here on the planet to enjoy his artistry.

Mike

Hi everyone,

At this moment when we're surely all much emotionally affected by Joe's departure, I would like to invite you to share your feelings about something I experienced a few minutes ago. Following a long row of listening back to Joe's music, I came to play Dialects - a long time fave of mine and to me the very birth of the Syndicate before it officially became such - and as the last track "Peace" was playing, I was hardly restraining tears and received it TODAY full front as a strong goodbye message, trist and optimistic at the same time. This can hardly be the case as the tune was written back in 1986 but I would like you to listen to it and tell me how you in turn perceive this tune today, as one of our big spiritual mentor has just gone. It was a hard emotional and hallucinatory listening for me (I was bombed by all kind of pictures ending in the man waving with a big smile) .... and a tremendously beautiful tune .... much of Joe's musical ideas, harmonic twists and more lies in this tune!

Take care,

(still much affected) Pierre

Forecast: Heaven

Gerard

"Adios", Joe, my dear old friend... the soundtrack of my life!

Fabio Di Biagio

Like many of you, I'm totallly crushed by this news.

As a music journalist, many people often ask me "Who's your favorite musician?" I always avoided the question because I thought it was an impossible thing to answer. However, when I consider that I've seen Joe perform more than 30 times, that I've even quit a day job and lost my American health insurance because I knew my boss wouldn't let me leave early enough to go to a week long run of his shows in Oakland, CA, that I've gone to epic lengths to collect as much music as
I possibly can by him in every configuration and collaboration I could find, the fact that I traveled to Vienna to visit his club, the fact that almost every album he put out was listened to endlessly, and the fact that I actually slammed back a shot of Slivovitz at his recommendation and nearly passed out

, the inescapable conclusion emerged: Joe is without question the musician I admire the most.

That Joe played to the very end really says something about the man. His dedication and commitment to the music in my opinion was unmatched. The vast majority of Joe's recordings will stand the test of time. I believe many future generations of people will discover his music. I think each of us can also play a role in helping ensure people hear his work.

This is a tremendously sad day, but it's also one in which we can collectively celebrate the great life and music of a phenomenal, unmatched talent. We'll never, ever see the likes of Joe again.

Anil Prasad

Dear Friends,

It is a very sad day indeed. I saw Joe many times over the years and
had the privilege to meet him as well. A true genius is gone but his
music and spirit lives on forever!!
Condolecences to Joe's family and especially Luniwaz.

Bertrand

This is indeed such sad news.

Especially sad for his family to have lost both parents within months of each other.

My thoughts go out to his family and to all of you, who, if you feel like I do, feel a great emptiness and loss today.

There is a simple and touching memorial at his website.

http://www.zawinulmusic.com/

Andy Forward

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!!!

Four deaths have caused grief in my life (in my 54 years very few friends and family have passed, none close enough to draw many tears, so I have been very lucky!). Wes Montgomery was the first death that had real impact on me. Jimmy Hendrix was second. Miles Davis was third. Now Joe Zawinul. All we can do is keep listening and keep enjoying, and give thanks that these giants changed music forever, and gave us immeasurable joy. Of those four great musicians, Joe is the one who lived longest, and was able to give us the greatest amount of his precious time. He is my musical hero. His ever evolving music has influenced many current forms of music - and even the musicians who compose and perform the music often do not know the source of those influences, but we hard-core Zawinul fans can hear Joe's influence in many forms of modern music just as easily as we can hear the influence of Miles Davis and Jimmy Hendrix. As long as the technology for sound recording and playback of music remains available to us earthlings (even if it is only in the memory of musicians passing down the songs from generation to generation) , it is my belief that Joe's soul will remain among us in a real and discrete way. His body no longer moves, but his soul sings out as loudly as ever. We are a lucky generation, because we can pop a CD or DVD of Joe into the machine and HE LIVES ON. We grieve for Joe's family, and we grieve for our own loss of a hero, but our grief is mitigated by the sound of Joe Zawinul, because his SOUL lives on!

John Hill

Joe's Passing

There has been an immense sadness in me since hearing the news of Joe's passing.
He was such a talented and wonderful person who led such an incredible life. To have been able to spend some time with him over the past few years is something that I will always treasure. My heart goes out to Joe's sons.

Like all of you, my music player has been stuck on Zawinul non-stop. What an incredible range of music we are left with. It's hard to pick a favorite, isn't it? There are so many that I love.

I'm glad Joe's work with Cannonball was mentioned here. Yesterday I went back to Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and Cannonball Plays Zawinul. I certainly would encourage newer fans to seek out Joe's work with Cannonball, and Cannnball Plays Zawinul might be a good place
to start for no other reason than it leads off with "74 Miles Away," a favorite of mine, a tune that to me was a precursor to much of Joe's later work with its groove and momentum. The entire band is great, and Joe plays a wonderful solo on "prepared piano,"where he duct taped little tambourines onto the piano soundboard. "I already started
synthesizing my shit with my acoustic instruments!", Joe once told me in
reference to that tune.

Regarding the song "Peace" on Dialects, I have an interview in which Joe states that he was inspired to compose it after hearing the flutist James Galway. I read (maybe on the liner notes) that the song "I'll Never Forget You" on Weather Report's This Is This was written in
honor of Joe's parents.

Ah, "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" is on the CD player... "You know, sometimes we're not prepared for adversity," says Cannon. "When it happens, sometimes we're caught short. We don't know exactly how to handle it, when it comes up. Sometimes we don't know just what to
do when adversity takes over. And I have advice for all of us. I got it from my pianist Joe Zawinul, who wrote this tune, and it sounds like what you're supposed to say when you have that kind of problem. It's called 'Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.'"Kind of hard not to get choked up hearing that.

Curt Bianchi
http://www.zawinulonline.org

Hello everybody,

by now you know that less than 14 hours ago Jo died in Vienna
surviving his Maxine only by a short time. So my sympathy goes to the
whole Zawinul family in these hard times.

I have to admit that it is a good thing to have the "public" Austria
praising "our" Mastermusician, The federal president, the major of
Vienna, the all of the parliamentary party leaders (except for the
far right, what a surprise!).

At amazon.de "the brown street" currently is back up at #314 in All Music.
At the office this was talk of the day (at least for some)...
It is a big story here.

One thought that held my eyes dry when I drove home from office on
the Autobahn listening to some bootleg recorded in Japan 26 years ago:
Joe had a good life.

And his music made a lot of people extremely happy. I dragged a few
people to his concerts over the years, people who would never have
thought to go to "jazz" concert. And each and every one enjoyed it
immensely.

So a BIG Thank You! to Joe.

And I think he will be playing some crazy grooves for the "Master
Planful above" (as he once called "him") for the rest of eternity.

"The music lives on" never felt so true before!

Gerhard Hauer

Joe Rest in Peace

I will miss Joe greatly. After only seeing him perform a few times in
a couple of decades, I had the privilege of spending a weekend
hearing/seeing him (five sets) at Blues Alley, Georgetown, Washington,
DC in the fall of '06, with the Zawinul Syndicate. Despite a lot of
previous pr that he was a rough and "gruff" character, he was
incredibly friendly and gracious, treating me like an old pal after
the first night. The music and musicians were incredible, really top-
notch, moving, and energetic. It was a very, very, very special
weekend for me. I will miss him!!

I hope to share something nice, musically speaking, with the list in
the near future. A little busy now, and heading to Durham, North
Carolina tomorrow for the opening gig of John McLaughlin's new tour.

My heart and thoughts are with the Zawinul family.

~Mark C.

This man was a true genius and a revolutionary, the first true world
musician.I had the privelege to spend some hopurs with him with my
great friend Brian Glasser, as we researched for Brians book on Joe.
Joe was a superman, a gregarious, entertaining and larger than life
human being. We will miss him but most importantly at this time
condolences to his family. I am going home to play Black Market at top
volume to celebrate his life and energy and spirit.

"sdevwev"

Hi all,

That's some of the worst news I heard since monthes and a bad day to die
.... but as Joe's son said in the death communiqué, his father will still
live long long time yet! The physical part is gone but the spiritual body
will keep burning in us as long as we remember; it's up to us to keep it
alive for ever. My most sincere condoleances go to his family and beloved
ones! Joe, R.I.P. !

Pierre

I only knew him as a fan, like most of us did, but I hope that you, Marco, can ideally convey our tribute to his next of kin.

So long, Joe!

"SNAFU"

It is with an immensely heavy heart that I have just learnt the news of Joe's death.

I have no doubt there is huge backlog of material in the vaults and we'll be hearing more of Joe for a long time to come, but for me I now have a huge hole in my life.

If any of you guys out there are in touch with Joe's family, please pass on my condolences to them and let them know my thoughts are there with them.

For confirmation check out the link www.reuters.com/article/entert ... ws/iduSL1126091220070911.

Brighton Dave

This is extremely bad news. I feel extremely sad,
although I'm convinced Joe is currently flying to
heaven.

JEAN WILLIQUET

Salve,
ho appreso solo ora della notizia che Joe Zawinul non è più con noi. Sono costernato e molto triste. Joe, insieme ai Wather Report, rappresenta una delle cose più belle che porterò sempre con me nella mia vita. I suoi dischi, la sua grande creatività e la sua intelligenza musicale hanno fatto crescere non solo quelli della mia generazione (sono del '56) ma anche i più giovani. Condoglianze da parte mia, di mio fratello Marco, mio figlio Mauro e Daniela, la mia compagna.
Joe Zawinul per sempre dentro di noi!
Ciao.
Fabio.

Vorrei esprimere le piu' sentite condoglianze alla grande famiglia degli amici di Joe. E' possibile avere un indirizzo di Vienna dove mandare un telegramma da parte del Jazz at Lincoln Center?
saluti
Antonio

Thanks Marco for all the years of dedication to Joe Zawinul. I tear for him as I listen to perhaps his best works (in my opinion) "Faces & Places."

Regards,
Joe

Ciao,
stamane ho saputo della grave perdita del Caro Joe Zawinul.
Sapete cortesemente dirmi quando e dove i funerali ?!?
Avrei intenzione di partecipare, è nel mio cuore da 30 anni.

Ciao,
David

dear marco and jeroen
our icon has passed away
i was able to tell something about JZ on the dutch news on tv
his music, soul and spirit will remain, for ever.
good luck

Michiel Borstlap

Please, let me now all that will do for the death of our unforgettable MAESTRO.
It's unbilivable

Danilo

many years ago i saw weather update at catalina's in los angeles it was
a sublime show and then in 2005 in detroit during the labor day weekend
festival i saw him again with the group renamed the zawinul
syndicate....WHAT A SHOW....it reverberated through my soul for weeks
it was volcanic spewing forth sounds it i still hear...hearing his
death was crushing i had to go to my office at home shut the door and
play his music non stop...tears flowed....great memories of hipping
people to him that never heard his music and genius.....a giant redwood
has fallen in the vast musical forest...but energy does not die it only
goes to another form.....

forever zawinul

kevin from detroit

huge huge loss :(
i'm listening now to "a remark you made" -for me, his life masterpiece.

Tom

Sad news. I pray for you. Your music lives on.

RIP Joe. The dutch news honored him with a nice section showing him with Jaco in Montreux, at North Sea etc Michiel Borstlap was interviewed, called him the best jazz composer together with Duke and Shorter.

How was the news of Joe's passing received in your country?

JJ

rom Herbie's website, if I may repost......

“Joe Zawinul is one of my oldest friends in the music business. He was a force as a composer and an amazing conceptualizer. He opened up a doorway between jazz and rock n’ roll and was a major influence on Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter and me. The world has never been the same since he made his contribution to our society.”

Jay Walker

One of the greatest and most important musicians in the history of music has left us.
What a loss.
What we still have is his music and that will never die.

Now he is up there jamming with Jaco, Miles, Louis, Duke, Bird, Trane and all the other great ones.

Thank you for everything.
You will never be forgotten

Arne Petter Ugelvik

I'm 44, played drums since I was 3, but I'll never have as much rhythm running thro' me as Joe Zawinul had in his body. Even at 75 he showed the World how music could move the soul. I was fortunate enough to see Weather Report in '83, and the Zawinul Syndicate in 2002 and 2004. Genius is an understated word for this man, he should be held on a par with Mozart and the like, and I shall be visiting Vienna shortly to pay tribute. This is such a very, very sad day, and the thought of not being able to see Joe compose, conduct, arrange and orchestrate from behind his keyboards is hard to come to terms with.

They said Elvis was the King, and he only ever sang other people's songs......in that case, would word would you use for Joe Zawinul?

Thanks for the memories, Joe!

Aw

Ciao, mi chiamo Fernando
vorrei lasciare anch'io un messaggio per ricordare il grande Joe.
"Il treno per Badia si allontana all'orizzonte, su quel treno sei salito per il viaggio che ti ha portato nel mondo dove i colori sono più veri, la gente più bella... dove c'è la Tua Musica.
Sarai sempre nel mio cuore!

Fernando - Terni

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