Josef Erich Zawinul was born on July 7, 1932, in Vienna, Austria. After studying music at the Vienna Conservatory Zawinul's musical ambitions soon outgrew the limited opportunities for a jazz musician in Austria shortly after the war. But financial necessity meant that he spent the 50s almost exclusively involved in local session work. Playing piano in dance and radio orchestras, and working as the house pianist for Polydor Records, he played only briefly with the talented saxophonist Hans Koller in 1952. However, his fortunes improved suddenly in 1959, when he won a scholarship to Berklee College Of Music in Boston. Emigrating to the USA, he immediately received a huge amount of attention, and decided to spend the rest of 1959 touring with Maynard Ferguson. Two years with dinah Washington followed this, and then in 1961 he began a musical collaboration with Cannonball Adderley, (Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!, recorded 1966) which was to last nine years.

Although he recorded with other musicians during this period - most notably Miiles Davis In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew ) - it was his work with Adderley that spread his reputation as an inventive improviser and talented writer. His composition "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" won a Grammy Award for the group.

At the end of 1970 he joined Wayne Shorter to form the highly influential Weather Report, the band with which he will always be primarily associated. When the group disbanded in 1985, after 15 years of phenomenal success, Zawinul began touring Europe and the USA again as a soloist. More recently forming Weather Update and Zawinul Syndicate, his dark and ominous chord voicings and electric piano sound will remain a distinctive part of fusion for many years to come. Recorded in Germany in 1997, World Tour showcased a particularly stunning performance.