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FACT FILES
GENRES
HISTORY
THEORY
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Genre:
Jazz-Rock Fusion
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Jazz fusion (sometimes referred to simply as fusion) is a musical genre
that loosely encompasses the merging of jazz with other styles,
particularly rock, funk, R&B, and world music. It basically involved jazz
musicians mixing the forms and techniques of jazz with the electric
instruments of rock, and rhythmic structure from African-American popular
music, both "soul" and "rhythm and blues".
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History |
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Fusion had its roots in the late 1960s work of
Miles Davis and then
Tony Williams Lifetime.
Later developments in the 1970s established jazz artists such as
Cannonball Adderley,
Larry Coryell,
Weather Report,
Jean-Luc Ponty and
Jeremy Steig
as a viable commercial influence. Bands using instruments such as
electric guitar, bass guitar, and electric piano. Shortly, others
began incorporating synthesizers such as the minimoog joining forces
with more avant garde players who had also begun incorporating electronic
sound in the wake of the "classical" avant garde.
At the same time, rock and African-American popular musicians had begun
moving beyond the short "radio single" song format and incorporating
elements of jazz-like extended instrumental improvisation.
Michael Bloomfield and
Paul Butterfield,
both young white blues musicians, recorded extended versions of
Adderly's "Work Song" and a modal improvisation,
"East/West" as early as 1966-67; other groups, particlarly those based
in San Francisco (Santana, Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane) and in
the U.K. (Cream, King Crimson, Pink Floyd) also performed, and eventually
recorded, both extended improvisations on short song forms, and longer,
multipart compositions.
Jazz artists, in the wake of developments in pop music, also began
using the recording studio, with improved editing, multitrack recording, and
electronic effects capability, as a adjunct to actual composition
and improvisation. Davis' Bitches' Brew, (a cornerstone recording of the
genre) for instance, features two "extended" (more than 20 minutes
each) compositions which were never actually "played" straight through
by the musicians in the studio; instead, musical motifs of various
lengths were selected from recorded extended improvisations, and edited together
into a musical whole which only exists in the recorded version.
Newer artists, such as
Stanley Clarke,
Chick Corea,
Joe Zawinul and the
Pat Metheny Group
also became involved in the developing scene. Musical barriers broke
down further (to the continued horror of jazz purists) as musicians
who had first established themselves as rock artists such as
Jeff Beck
began to experiment with the fusion form.
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While jazz fusion is sometimes lampooned as being pretentious and
overcomplicated - not unlike its cousin, progressive rock (rock meets
classical music) - it has helped to break down boundaries between
different genres and led to developments such as acid jazz. For the
most part the genre has been subsumed into other branches of jazz and
rock, but some traces of the form remain.
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Other Notable Jazz-Rock Fusion Artists and Albums |
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Carla Bley: Escalator ,Over The Hill
Chick Corea: Return to Forever
The Mahavishnu Orchestra: Birds of Fire, Inner Mounting Flame
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew, In A Silent Way, Live At Filmore, Pangea, Tribute to Jack Johnson
Herbie Hancock: Crossings, Head Hunters
Allan Holdsworth: Secrets
Soft Machine: Third
Pat Metheny Group: First Circle, Still Life (Talking), We Live Here, Imaginary Day
Santana: Caravanserai, Welcome, Amigos
The Shuffle Demons: Streetniks
Spyro Gyra: Morning Dance
Jeremy Steig: Something Else
Miroslav Vitous: Mountain in The Cloud also released as Infinite Search
Tony Williams: Lifetime, Emergency!
Uzeb: Noisy Nights
Weather Report: Heavy Weather, I Sing The Body Electric
Frank Zappa: Sleep Dirt
Joe Zawinul: Zawinul
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