Pitchfork: Miles Davis Colleague Joe Zawinul Dies

Keyboardist, songwriter, and jazz fusion pioneer Joe Zawinul passed away today, September 11, in his native Vienna, according to a Reuters report. The report cites local news agency APA as saying that Zawinul succumbed to a rare form of skin cancer at age 75.

The Berklee College of Music alum originally rose to prominence in the late 1950s and 60s by playing with the likes of Dinah Washington and Cannonball Adderley (for whom he composed Pitchfork's #191 song of the 1960s, "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy"). Later, he joined Miles Davis' band, penning the title track from Davis' seminal In a Silent Way and playing on Bitches Brew.

Zawinul started his most longstanding project, Weather Report, with saxophonist Wayne Shorter in 1970. Through various incarnations, the band came to include drummer Peter Erskine and bass legend Jaco Pastorius, among others.

Weather Report combined elements of more traditional jazz with rock, funk, and world music influences to help define jazz fusion and become one of its most popular acts. The band is best known for the song "Birdland" from 1977's Heavy Weather.