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Joe Zawinul, Austria's finest jazz
export, actually started out as a classic musician. Highly
talented and with perfect pitch, he was awarded a stipend
for an excellent music training. But he soon found out that
classic music was not what he wanted to play and turned to
jazz. In the 1950s he emigrated to the States, first only
planning to stay for a couple of months but then moving to
New York City for good. One of the major decisive factors
was the legendary jazz club 'Birdland' where he completed
his musical education by listening to Duke Ellington, Miles
Davis, Ella Fitzgerald and many others. He adapted his style
and changed from a jazz-inspired musician with classic training
into a 'black' musician who was able to swing and funk as
if he was born in Harlem and not in a Viennese suburb.
He then collaborated with Dina Washington, Cannonball Adderley
and Miles Davis. His compositions have won him several Grammies
and range from soulful hit tunes to more complex forms of
compositions. Joe Zawinul is also an enthusiastic improviser.
Zawinul did not stop at what he had achieved either. His curiosity
and openness resulted in a unique style, a fusion of jazz,
rock, blues and world music. By exploring the instrument to
its capacities he also helped establish the electric piano
as a jazz standard.
His hit single 'Birdland' is a reference to his early influences.
Joe Zawinul is now living in Los Angeles and successfully
tours the world with his group 'The Zawinul Syndicate'. He
has now fulfilled one of his dreams and has opened a high-profile
jazz club in Vienna: 'Joe Zawinul's Birdland'.
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