"Birdland" is a jazz-fusion instrumental composition written by keyboardist Joe Zawinul of Weather Report. The song made its debut on Weather Report’s 1977 studio album, Heavy Weather. With Birdland at the helm of the album, the song gained a tremendous amount of media success, receiving a number of awards, as well as ranking high on various Billboard charts. It soon became known as a jazz standard, and entered the set lists of other artists including Buddy Rich, Maynard Ferguson’s big band, The Manhattan Transfer, Quincy Jones, and The String Cheese Incident.