Jazz keyboard great Zawinul hospitalised in Vienna

VIENNA (Reuters) - Keyboardist Joe Zawinul, who played with Miles Davis and helped create the sound of jazz fusion, has been hospitalised in Vienna with an unspecified illness, officials said on Tuesday.

Zawinul, 75, was admitted to the Wilhelmina Clinic in his native city on Sunday, the Vienna Hospital Association said.

It had no comment on a report by state broadcaster ORF that he was seriously ill, saying Zawinul had asked that his rights as a patient and private citizen be respected.

Zawinul went to the United States in his 20s and found fame as keyboardist and a composer in trumpet legend Davis's first electric band, playing on the "In a Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew" albums that pioneered jazz fusion in the late 1960s.

In 1970 he founded Weather Report, a band that did much to bring electric piano, synthesisers and African and Middle Eastern rhythms to mainstream audiences in a jazz setting.

Zawinul has fronted the "Zawinul Syndicate" for the past 20 years and he sought medical attention after the end of his latest European tour, the hospital association said.

It was not known if he would be able to proceed with concerts planned in September.