JOE ZAWINUL: A MUSICAL PORTRAIT (2007)

Profile of the late Joe Zawinul, one of the jazz world's most exciting and creative keyboard players and composers. He was a major influence on Miles Davis, for whom he wrote In a Silent Way, and co-founded the internationally feted fusion band Weather Report with Wayne Shorter. This portrait features live music from the Joe Zawinul Syndicate and conversations filmed at his home in Malibu and in Vienna where he was born.

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. (00:59:39)