I love finding jems like this. This came in on a Vintage Synth thread on The Weather Report and Zawinul's use of the Quadra. Apparently he was the first to ever use one (probably not counting ARP of course).
"Speaking of the Quadra, did you know that Zawinul was the first artist to ever use
a Quadra? well, now you know it.
Quote from an article on Zawinul & the Quadra appearing in the June '79 issue of the Arpeggio newsletter:
"With the help of Alan Howarth* (Joe's keyboard tech between 1977-1979), then working as sales manager for Arp, Joe got his first look at the Quadra in 'August of 1978 when the original prototype was bought to L.A. for his evaluation. A few months later, Joe received the 1st test-run Quadra for use in a Weather Report concert in Havanna, Cuba"
Zawinul (commenting on the Quadra):
"It's got such a big and full sound" ...
"an excellent bass sound"
* the same Alan Howarth who a year or so later would find himself working with composer/director John Carpenter on soundtracks like "Escape From New Yourk" (late '80) Halloween II ('81) Halloween III ('82) etc."
"More Quadra info:
The original idea to build the Quadra came from a friend of mine, the owner of Pi Keyboards in Cleveland, Dave Yost. Sometime late 1976, Dave devised a circuit that allowed him to control an Arp 2600 from an Omni keyboard. The Arp factory rep came by the store and saw the keyboards, and was blown away by what Dave had done. A week later, we got a call from Phil Dodds, in product development at Arp, who wanted to know more about what Dave had done. (The same Phil Dodds who played the 2500 in Close Encounters). Dave sent a copy of the schematic to Phil, and the Quadra was born. Months later, at the July '77 NAMM in Atlanta, Dave was introduced as the "father of the Quadra", when the Quadra was introduced at the show.
I bought one of the first Quadras about that time and it was heavily modified by myself with the guidance of Dave when I worked at his store. It was lost in a fire in the 80's, (along with a Prophet 5), and I sure wish I still had that today.
Dave also did work with Wendy Carlos on her Moog Modular, including a just intonation module which was custom built at Pi in Cleveland."
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