Joe Zawinul

The quality of keyboardist/composer/bandleader Joe Zawinul's music remained unparalleled to the very end. This titan of the jazz world – whose innovative and genre-bending sensibilities gave rise to such visionary musical entities as Weather Report and the Zawinul Syndicate – took his final bow on September 11, 2007, at age 75 after a battle with cancer. Recorded in concert at a festival date in Lugano, Switzerland, on July 7, 2007, this aptly titled concert video is unwavering proof that Zawinul, like so many great artists, clearly saved some of his best work for last. This is a perfect companion piece to the 75 audio CD, which garnered a GRAMMY in 2010 for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

Film about Joe Zawinul's earth time, a film about friendships and a great love. A film about his life with the greatest jazz artists; he was undoubtedly one of them. The film accompanies Joe Zawinul during the work on his last unpublished album with Kristjan Järvi and the Absolute Ensemble. It visits Zawinul in his house in Malibu and shows him together with Wayne Shorter during their final sensational performance. Cannonball Adderley, Weather Report, Zawinul's Syndicate and above all Miles Davis. In 1991 they played one more time together in Paris, In a silent way, the number Joe Zawinul composed for his friend Miles Davis.

This film by director Mark Kidel about one of the world's leading makers of music programs features an illuminating documentary profile on one of the world's foremost jazz keyboard players and composers, along with an electric performance by the Zawinul Syndicate at the Point in Cardiff, Wales, 2004. Shot in an unusually intimate manner, the film communicates powerfully the immediate excitement of jazz as a no-holds-barred, risk-embracing adventure: the shooting and editing highlight the exceptional collective improvisation and musical dialog which characterize Zawinul's work. From a childhood in Vienna, to a move to the United States in 1958, Zawinul found success with the band Weather Report.

A comprehensive history of European Jazz, exploring the origins of the US-influenced Jazz clubs after the Second World War, the first steps independent of American jazz and the various changes of direction that have repeatedly occurred in European jazz in the search for that "own voice" that European jazz musicians have helped to form. Featuring the great masters of European jazz such as Chris Barber, Jan Garbarek, Juliette Gréco, Stefano Bollani and Till Brönner, to name but a few.

2005 release. Joe Zawinul & the Zawinul Syndicate featuring Scott Henderson on guitar, recorded live at the Munich Philharmonie in Munich Germany in 1989. The bands performance is drawn on the power and theatricality of rock and R&B, while maintaining allegiance to jazz and the pure spirit of improvisation, they tapped into the so-called “jazzfusion”. The entire show performing material by Joe Zawinul, Duke Ellington and Thelononius Monk. Guitarist extraordinaire Scott Henderson performance displayed amazing melodic phrasing. Exact match for Joe's type of fusion. Flawless, screaming loud phrasing with lots of jazz fusion improvisation. There are portions that Scott's tone must have overpowered Joe's synthesizer but Joe Zawinul loves it! Scott's absolute control is an expression of jazz harmony. Very intense, precise, intricate, and abundant of tuneful compositions.

Join Joe Zawinul and his musician friends from Weather Update for an evening of experimental jazz fusion. A leader in his field, Zawinul has a unique style that infuses jazz with African, South American, rock, R&B, and gospel flavors. In a special performance with Weather Update members Victor Bailey, Peter Erskine, Robert Thomas Jr., and Steve Khan, Zawinul proves that the years have only strengthened his musical abilities. Total Running Time 90 Minutes

Zawinul is onstage with the WDR Big Band from Germany and a special international rhythm section. The music is a tribute to the pioneering 1970s fusion collective Weather Report, originally with Wayne Shorter on sax, Zawinul on keys, and later Jaco Pastorius on bass (among other personnel). Zawinul and the WDR play "Brown Street" and "Carnavalito." Arranger Vince Mendoza re-imagines this colorful, small-group music for Europe's longest-lived jazz orchestra. And they can play!

No plot available for this movie.

Weather Report recorded live in Tokyo, Japan on September 27, 1984 - Joe Zawinul (keyboards) / Wayne Shorter (sax, tenor sax) / Victor Bailey (bass) / Mino Cinelu (percussion) / Omar Hakim (drums)

Weather Report's landmark concert in Offenbach, Germany on September 28, 1978.