[Chunga]

I couldn't let this thread pass without responding...this man's music was imaginative, brilliant, intellectual, funky, and he had an amazing yet understated piano technique. He was the first guy who really mastered the analog synthesizer as an instrument of jazz orchestration. Improvisationally, he always sacrificed his chops for musicality. As a composer of electric jazz his only real peer was his bandmate Wayne Shorter.

He was a visionary. Some of the earliest (if not the earliest) jazz/world fusion hybrid music was his.

I love his quote about his band Weather Report: "We always solo, we never solo." If you've never heard them, this won't make any sense...if you have, you know exactly what he meant!

I didn't even know he was ill. Rest In Peace Joe...Thank you for all the incredible music.

[whitedog57]

I agree. I paticilarly liked his middle period with WR (Tale Spinnin’ and Black Market), but I loved most of his stuff.

I even liked WR’s last album (This is This) although no one else did.