Interview with Joe Zawinul

1997

Back in ‘97, the year I started my blog Bird Lives, I was running Jazz Central Station, the first major Jazz website. And, I had just purchased my first camcorder and was starting to do interviews. What an amazing decade.

In the eighties, I had twenty seven different jobs. Those were dark days. Then the internet came along and rescued me.

Joe Zawinul stopped by the office one day. He was in town with his group, the Zawinul Syndicate. They were playing at the Blue Note and sounded great. No surprise.

Joe was a really fascinating guy. He told me that back home in Austria, just after World War II, they ate peas all the time. Joe believed the Austrians were being punished because of their close ties to Germany.

Present at the birth of jazz fusion, he wrote "In A Silent Way" and played on some key recordings with Miles before co-founding Weather Report with Wayne Shorter. What an era: Miles, Weather Report, Return to Forever, the Headhunters, the Mahavishnu Orchestra—man, I miss those days. There was magic in the air.

Joe was into technology. At the Blue Note, his setup included at least ten different keyboards and synths. His music stands the test of time, no doubt about that.

It was a different world half a century ago. I could have never imagined today’s creative wizardry, or that modern medical tech would save my life. As I mentioned last week, I’m in the midst of an AI video class running through the month. It’s challenging and fascinating, so I won’t be doing much writing until August, just posting video from the archive. Hope you dig it.