Most fans will remember Joe Zawinul as a visionary keyboardist who played with Miles Davis and who helped Jaco Pastorius shape jazz/fusion with the groundbreaking band Weather Report. The renowned keyboardist died Sept. 11 in his native city of Vienna. He was 75 years old.

Zawinul got his start in music on an unlikely instrument—the accordion. But his accordion chops earned him a scholarship to the Vienna Conservatory. Later in 1959 he won a piano scholarship to the Berklee School of Music and was soon tickling the keys for the likes of Dinah Washington and Cannonball Adderly. The story goes that when Miles Davis heard the budding pianist play at New York City’s Birdland jazz club, he tried to hire him, but Zawinul turned him down, saying that the time wasn’t right. Then ten years later, Zawinul wrote “In a Silent Way,” which became the title cut for the 1969 album that saw Davis move into jazz fusion. Zawinul also played on and composed songs for Davis’s Bitches Brew album, released in 1970. That year also marked the birth of Weather Report, which Zawinul started with saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Before its breakup 15 years later, Weather Report released 17 albums. Its most famous song, “Birdland” won Grammys in three separate decades.