Keyboardist Joe Zawinul, a pioneer of jazz fusion who recorded with the likes of Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley, has died at age 75.

A spokesman for the Wilhelmina Clinic in Zawinul's hometown of Vienna confirmed the musician passed away early Tuesday and had been at the clinic for a month. Zawinul's manager, Risa Zincke, said he had been suffering from a rare form of skin cancer.

Austrian jazz musician Joe Zawinul, shown at his Birdland bar in Vienna in 2004, both performed and recorded with Miles Davis and ushered in the Electric Jazz movement.
(Ronald Zak/ Associated Press)

"As a person and through his music, Joe Zawinul will remain unforgettable for us," said Austrian President Heinz Fischer.

Zawinul burst upon the jazz scene with the electric piano, spearheading what would become the Electric Jazz movement and furthering his influence by fusing jazz with other types of music.

He played and composed for Davis's landmark Bitches Brew album, which became Davis's best-selling record. In 2003, the album was ranked No. 94 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Born July 1932 in a poor neighbourhood of Vienna, Zawinul would win a free place in the Vienna Conservatory at age seven by showing his talent on the accordion. In 1959, he won a  piano scholarship to Boston's Berklee College of Music.

Zawinul would go on to join the bands of Dinah Washington and Maynard Ferguson before joining up with Cannonball Adderley for nine years.

In 1966, the keyboardist wrote one of Adderley's biggest hits, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, a gospel-influenced tune.

Around that time Zawinul started taking lessons with Raymond Leventhal, a highly regarded pianist. It was with Leventhal that Zawinul decided he would get serious about his art.

"I said, 'I'm gonna totally concentrate on myself, to become what I'm supposed to be. I had all the gifts … so I've got to pay back," Zawinul once told the Unknown Public music journal.

In his early days, he played regularly at New York's legendary Birdland jazz club, where Davis approached him to ask whether Zawinul would like to collaborate. The keyboardist said he turned Davis down, but promised that when the time was right, the two of them would make history.

True to his word, Zawinul would write the title song, In a Silent Way, for Davis's 1969 album, considered revolutionary in its time as Davis waded into rock and R&B.

Zawinul then collaborated on Davis's landmark Bitches Brew album one year later.

New band experimented with jazz fusion

At the same time, Zawinul created the band Weather Report with saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Before breaking up in 1985, the band released 17 albums and is largely credited with bringing jazz fusion into the mainstream.

Weather Report melded the electric piano with synthesizers as well as African and Middle Eastern rhythms.

Its most famous song, Birdland, won three Grammy awards in separate decades — for the original version in 1977 and as covers by Quincy Jones and Manhattan Transfer.

In 1987, Zawinul founded the Zawinul Syndicate. This past spring, he toured Europe to mark the 20th anniversary of the band.

Zawinul married in 1963 and had three children.

Vienna Mayor Michael Haeupl said the musician would be honoured with a grave in the capital.

With files from the Associated Press