OT: R.I.P. Josef Zawinul

[AlienC]

I have the distinction of having met met Weather Report, and Josef, in Japan while I was on tour with another group in 1978.
We were staying at The New Otani, (it was really NEW back then} it was our first real day there , and as several of us were going into the hotel restaurant for breakfast, we noticed several other Westerners sitting there. On closer examination, we all recognized Josef, Jaco Pastorius, Peter Erskin and Wayne Shorter.
We asked to be seated near them and we all spent the next hour talking, eating and generally shootin' the shit. They were happy to have some English speakers (other than themselves) to talk to, since they had been touring the Far East for several weeks already.
Since we weren't scheduled for live performance that day, they invited us to their gig at the Nakano Sun Plaza that evening. Backstage passes, Special seating, after show party, it was this 21 year old jazz snob & rookie roadie's dream come true. They played practically all of "Heavy Weather", which suited me just fine, as I had played that LP flat already at home, in addition to some MD material (I don't remember what, the 70's were too good to me).
I remember him being very soft spoken and cerebral. Peter and Wayne were more "typical"American musicians, although all of them couldn't have been more gracious or just plain "cool".
Afterwards, Jaco insisted on dragging us to a Karaoke bar that he had found around the corner from the hotel, and we all proceeded to drink like crazy, sing cheezy pop songs badly and generally amuse the salary men present with our inebriated antics. In particular, I remember Jaco cornering me and the keyboard player from our band in the WC, trying to tell some joke about a Rabbi and a Priest for 20 minutes and screwing it up REPEATEDLY , he was so out of it.
Later, his behavior made more sense after the circumstances surrounding his subsequent fall from grace and untimely death came to light.
But I digress.....

Suffice it to say that I was saddened to hear of Josef's passing today.
The world has lost a rare talent.
No one's writing them like that anymore, to paraphrase Gregg Kihn.

[Saint John]

Sorry to hear that bit of bad news.

[Gordon from Edinburgh]

Sorry to hear that bit of bad news.

Me too - those guys were musicians of the highest order...........remember the days when you actually had to have talent to sell records? Or i am just getting old?

[fredinator]

I vaguely remember Weather Report; googled them and found this on YouTube--very different but catchy, to me superb... Sad story about the bassist--I could hardly believe what happened there--what a waste of incredible talent!! The ancient question: why?? Anyway, see what you think and thanks ever so much, Alien:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqashW66D7o&eurl=

[larryfromnextdoor]

Afterwards, Jaco insisted on dragging us to a Karaoke bar
Suffice it to say that I was saddened to hear of Josef's passing today.

The world has lost a rare talent.
No one's writing them like that anymore, to paraphrase Gregg Kihn.

thats sad news for sure man, .. btw.. are you sure it was a karaoke bar in 1978??

[AlienC]

Afterwards, Jaco insisted on dragging us to a Karaoke bar
Suffice it to say that I was saddened to hear of Josef's passing today.

The world has lost a rare talent.
No one's writing them like that anymore, to paraphrase Gregg Kihn.

thats sad news for sure man, .. btw.. are you sure it was a karaoke bar in 1978??

Oh yeah. It was big over there long before crossing the Pacific.

[CatEyes]

There is a very nice tribute to Zawinul on Jaco's website http://www.jacopastorius.com/

I have a lot of Jaco memories ..... some very funny and some very sad. Such a talent.

Cat

[Pstburp]

ZL(rip in jewish)....He was an excellent jazzfusion musician...sad notice