What's the state of fusion? (1 Viewer)

[KeithH]

Let me start off by saying that I am very new to jazz fusion. In the last two weeks I have bought the original CD, remastered CD, and SACD of Miles Davis In A Silent Way, and I absolutely love the groove of the album. Today, I listened to my original and remastered CDs of Bitches Brew twice each, which of course, is another classic Miles album. I love the sound of both albums. Is anyone turning out quality jazz fusion today? If so, which artists? Which albums? In addition to any newer material, what are some other classic fusion albums I should check out, given my liking for the two aforementioned Miles albums? Thanks in advance.

 

[John Watson]

Don't know if there is really a definition of fusion - I think it meant jazz absorbing or influencing rock. Lots of Fender Rhodes electric piano and stuff?

I kind of like a few Deodato CD's, and have one Gary Burton Cd that falls into that area.

Today, I'm not sure if there is any fusion unless you count sampling. I liked something by US3 a decade or so ago, which was rap and funk. But I found the lyrics far short of the sublime beats they affected.

Fusion. Fission.

Guess I could go fishin?

 

[Rachael B]

Keith, the 80's was the high point of the jazz-rock fusion era. Try albums by Brand X and absolutely get Bill Bruford's FEELS GOOD TO ME & ONE OF A KIND. Best wishes!

 

[KeithH]

Rachael and John,
Thanks for the comments.
Rachael,
I've never gotten into Bill Bruford. Perhaps I should.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Keith, the 80's was the high point of the jazz-rock fusion era.

Rachael, with all respect, it most certainly was NOT.
Sorry, but that's just how I feel.
Keith, as great as the Miles stuff is, I would caution that they do not represent the sounds most commonly associated with "fusion." Think of them more as the primordial sonic ooze from which fusion sprang. Also remember that it's such a general term that it can apply to lots of things.
Besides digging further into Miles Davis' own work (Live-Evil, various live recordings at the Fillmore East and West, On the Corner, Agharta, Pangea, Dark Magus, etc), your best bet for exploring the 70s (the good) fusion is by checking out the bands and projects of musicians who play on those Miles albums:
John McLaughlin / Mahavishnu Orchestra
McLaughlin is just a mother of a guitar player. It's frightening. On In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew, you hear him doing rhythm and some lead, but he's swamped under the thick layers of sound. With his Mahvishnu Orchestra, he is searing through impossible and beautiful guitar lines. Billy Cobham is a "monster" drummer, making as much noise as any John Bonhams or Keith Moons. I break down the MO into two eras:
1. Early stuff
This is the more famous, popular albums and, IMO, the better ones. These are the albums people think of when they refer to the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire are the best places to start. This music is truly "fusion," with the loud, heavy sound of hard rock, but with jazz being the primary musical influence. It's loud and fast and wonderful. The CDs have been remastered and can be identified by the clear spine like all Columbia releases, ie, In A Silent Way.
There is a live album called Between Nothingnes And Eternity. I love it, but not everyone does, maybe because there are only three songs and they're very long. Eh, it's better that way.
The Lost Trident Sessions is a studio album from that band that was only released a couple of years ago (boy, it must have really been lost). It's very good.
2. Later stuff
The last few MO albums found the lineup changing, the music calming down a bit, various strings adding to the sound including Jean Luc Ponty, and Narada Michael Walden replacing Billy Cobham on drums.
While there is a lot of great music here, I feel some of the fire was lost. Also, while the early stuff sounds timeless (you would swear it was recorded last week), this material sounds a little dated when you come across the odd vocal or string arrangement.
Visions of the Emerald Beyond is my favorite of these. The opening two tracks features riffs that are so perfect. It's what I would play if I had a convertible Mustang and was cruising for chicks. I like this album as much as the earlier stuff.
Apocolypse features an orchestra. Some of it is a bit ponderous, but it's a nice listen. There is some great music, but you'll be disappointed if you want another Birds of Fire.
Inner Worlds has some duds, IMO, but some great stuff as well, particularly the first and last tracks.
There is also a wonderful album from the period with McLaughlin and Carlos Santana. Santana plays remarkably well. They do a couple of Coltrane songs. Highly recommended.
McLaughlin also has a ton of solo stuff. I have The Promise and Heart of Things, which is recent. His recent stuff is a lot more subtle and toned down, but the music is still fusiony. Also, if you're feeling adventurous, check out Shakti, which is a fusion + Indian thing.
BIlly Cobham himself has some solo stuff, but a lot of it is 80s pop-fusion drivel. Spectrum, his first solo album, is wonderful. That is also available as a DVD-A.
Weather Report
Probably the most popular fusion band, it featured Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, both Miles alumni (Zawinul wrote half of In A Silent Way and Shorter played for Miles from around '63 - '70 and wrote a lot of that material). The rest of the band changed a lot.
I have only heard two of their albums:
Mysterious Traveler is a lot of fun. Nice long tunes that emphasise texture and groove. The last couple of tracks get a little boring, but the album is great overall.
Heavy Weather features the late great Jaco Pastorious on bass. The songs are shorter and catchier. They had a hit with Birdland. There is an SACD, but I don't have that yet.
Return to Forever
Chick Corea's fusion band also shifted its lineup, but Stanely Clarke on bass was a fixture. Their early material is light, melodic, and even has a woman singer on some tracks (which sounds nice but dated). Their sound got heavier and more interesting when Al DiMeola joined up with them. This band had everything people hate about fusion: long jams, lots of solos, and fantastic musicianship.
IMO, the band had one benefit that other fusions didn't: a remarkable composer. While other bands certainly wrote some great stuff, Corea's writing really pushed their sound over the top. Tunes like Captain Marvel, Vulcan Worlds, 500 Miles High, Captain Senor Mouse, and of course, Spain, are catchy and leave room for the musicians to do their thing.
The 2-disc anthology is a great place to start. It also has a few tracks not available anywhere else (which bugs me), most notably a blistering live version of Spain.
Tony Williams' Lifetime
The prodigy drummer who propelled and defined Miles Davis' second quintet led a unique, eclectic fusion band in the 70s. At its worst, it was viciously pretentious and silly. At its best, it was the best damn band around. At various points in its existence, it had Larry Young, Jack Bruce (from Cream), John McLaughlin, and Ron Carter. The stuff with Bruce and McLaughlin is the best. There is a 2-disc anthalogy that would serve you well.
After these bands' demises, fusion became diluted, homogenised, and bland, like what happends to pretty much any other style of music. Bands like the Crusaders and Spyro Gyra are the better of the bunch, but they couldn't even hold a candel to the ones I listed above.
I have not been keeping up with modern fusion at all. It is my understanding that it pretty much died a long time ago. Pat Metheny and Bela Fleck & the Flecktones are often credited with doing fusion, but I leave that up to the individual to decide that.[/i]

 

[Chris Madalena]

Just a quick remark or two if I may. Steve Smith, former druumer of Journey, has a few projects on cd that are pretty true to the roots of fusion. He has his own band, Vital Information, that's pretty good. The newest cd, "Show 'Em Where You Live" is great. There's some great playing on it. A bit on the "soulful" side, but it's great fusion. Also, the Vital Tech Tones cd's are outstanding. It's Steve on drums, Scott Henderson on guitar, and Victor Wooten on bass. VT2, the 2nd album, is the best modern fusion album I've heard in years. Scott Henderson does a mean Jeff Beck impression sound wise. I heard Steve Smith describe the disc as, "There's some sick shit on there."

 

[Rachael B]

Mike, I just meant in # of musicans performing jazz-rock fusion. Maybe I'm wrong on that too?

Keith, absolutely, positively gey Return To Forever's WHERE HAVE I KNOWN YOU BEFORE for Stanley Clarke's composition VULCAN WORLDS. Clarke's own album SCHOOL DAYS is awfully good. If you don't have Zappa's HOT RATS, get it for the original version of PEACHES EN REGALIA and more extra-spicy stuff. Any of the late day King Crimson stuff should qualify as jazz-rock fusion, as would the earlier RED. The original Dixie Dregs were country-rock-jazz fusion. Do not buy the comeback albums of the past five or so years! They're ho-hum. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DREGS would be a good start. Sea Level is intresting stuff with about half and half vocal & intrumental pieces. That's about all I can think of at the moment.

Mike's suggestions are great. I'm partial to Miles Davis' ON THE CORNER, BTW. I have pre Mahavishnu Orchestra albums like EXTRAPOLATION. If it's on CD I recommend it, maybe not...? Oh, I thought of one more good'un Howard Wales & Jerry Garcia's HOOTEROLL? . I think Mikes suggestions lean more to jazz musicans drifting into rocky waters and many of mine the opposite. Best wishes!

 

[Mike Broadman]

Any of the late day King Crimson stuff should qualify as jazz-rock fusion, as would the earlier RED.

Well, I don't know about that, but it has been debated before and since fusion is such broad term, I guess it can apply. However, modern Crimson is inspired more by the likes of free improv and 20th century composers. I really don't hear any jazz, unless it's buried in the harmony or something.

Interesting that you mention the Dixie Dregs. I suppose they count, as jazz is part of their sound, I just never thought of it that way.

Of course, regardless of musical labels, the Dregs are very cool (yes, I even like their reunion albums) and anyone who reads my ramblings knows that I very enthusiastically encourage all music listeners to hear Zappa and Crimson.

NP: Mozart, flute concertos, DVD-A, Tacet

 

[Rachael B]

Mike, I saw the Dixie Dregs in the early days, maybe about 1979...? It's stille one of the best concerts I've ever seen. I saw the half original foursome about 5 years ago and it was so lame that we left early. Maybe we caught them on a bad day, but it was nothing like their golden age. As far as King Crimson goes I've always been at a loss to categorize them and then they'd evolve even more. I really admire all musicans that are playing stuff outside the "box". Therefore, I like fusionistic music coming from any direction.
The encore to the Dregs old days concert was a discoesque sorta jam with the bass and guitar and fiddler up at the microphone chanting, "dregs, dregs, disco dregs...." It was a good time at the Music Hall of the U. of Tennessee. Best wishes!

 

[Zen Butler]

There is an underground movement here called Garage Jazz. It is basically 3 or 4 piece(guitar,bass,drums,keys).
The label is lame, but there are some very good bands here pulling off some great instrumental stuff. I don't see it taking off in a big way, some are getting on small labels. The bands I have seen and filled in for basically fuse the normal- rock and jazz, with newer elements of hip-hop/spoken word, Eastern music, very different. They have been the funnest jam sessions of late.

 

[Mike Broadman]

As far as King Crimson goes I've always been at a loss to categorize them and then they'd evolve even more.

Category: Pantheon of the Gods

Funny, allmusic.com or cdnow don't list them that way. They are wrong.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I like the Chick Corea Electric Band 80s albums for the most part. The first one, self titled, is by far the best, but the others are pretty good, too.
I also like just about anything from John Scofield, good fusion there.
Also, Marcus Miller has a few 90s fusion CDs on my shelf. I especially recommend "Live + More" as a great example of modern fusion.
I also really love 80s Studio band Flim & The BBs. Their stuff is often "soft" but I would not categorize it as "smooth jazz" at all.
Lastly, if you count high quality Jazz played on electric instruments as fusion, I can not recommend the work of former Police guitarrist Andy Summers highly enough. All of his albums are absolutely top notch, full of brilliant melodies, great musicianship, and perfect production. Most of the recent ones are HDCD also.

 

[KeithH]

Thanks for the information, everyone. I will be printing this thread for future reference. Much appreciated.

 

[Mike C F]

Okay....I'm going to get hammered for these suggestions as they aren't really "fusion", (although you'll have a darn tough time defining that sucker), and these suggestions will drift close to that "jam band/wanker" territory. These are more of a funk/rock/jazz hybrid that I really enjoy. If you love "the groove" then this is good stuff:

Galactic
Stanton Moore
Greyboy Allstars
Liquid Soul
Modeski, Martin and Wood
John Scofield (someone beat to this one, but Go Go is a must)
Charlie Hunter
Soulive
ulu

Let me know whatcha think.

Chuck

 

[Rachael B]

Mike, I'd buy that explanation for a dollar! Keith, you might want to try the James Taylor Quartet. It's a different James Taylor... Phil, I think all that old Marcus Miller stuff is out of print. His album from last year was pretty good and is stille in print. I've liked him ever since he played with the original David Sanborn Band back in the late 70's. Keith you might also like Paul Jackson Jr.'s THE POWER OF THE STRING. His old albums are good too but they're all out of print. You could look for I CAME TO PLAY on half.com or someplace like that. One more suggestion, guitarist John Tropea's NY CATS. It's on DMP CD and I got it on sale for $4.75. His old albums are good too but they're all out of print. I have several on vinyl. Best wishes guyz!

 

[Mike Broadman]

Keith, if you're interested in 80s fusion with a pop sensibility, ignore all the "experts" and check out Miles Davis' stuff from that era: Decoy, We Want Miles, Tutu.

 

[Chris Madalena]

Speaking of the Chick Corea Elektric Band, I just read that they are out on a reunion tour. And they have recorded a few shows for possible release on SACD. I will ask Dave Weckl about it (the drummer in that band) as I'll be spending some time with him tonight.

They are also thinking about recording a new album as well. I'll get the skinny and report back.

 

[KeithH]

All,
Thanks again for offering more suggestions.
Mike,
I plan on having everything Miles recorded on CD, so I will get his titles from the '80s. At this point, I only have 17 Miles albums on CD, so it will be awhile before I have everything.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Chris, tell Weckl that I think he's the Man.
Keith,
It's OK- I've been listening to and collecting Miles for a few years and I'm still buying stuff. 40 years worth of music is a lot to collect.
NP: Marillion, Anorak in the UK