Jazz musicians also like to listen to rock, pop or classical music. If these styles inspire some musicians is obvious. They had another reason to go the way of fusion, namely to make jazz more accessible to a wider audience and possibly achieve commercial success. Fusion and smooth jazz blend seamlessly. The examples in this episode show that making music that is easy on the ear and at the same time maintaining the melodic and harmonic principles of jazz is feasible. With smooth jazz, the emphasis is a bit more on the first premise.
The best-known fusion artist is Miles Davis. Others include Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, vibraphonist Gary Burton, drummer Tony Williams, violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, guitarists Larry Coryell, also called the godfather of fusion, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassists Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke.
Here you can listen to Miles Davis playing the pop song ‘Time After Time’ (1985).
In his album Bitches Brew (1969), Davis largely abandons swing beat and uses rock and roll idiom. The album mixes free jazz horns with an ensemble featuring electronic keyboards, guitar and percussion. He sold 400,000 albums, four times his annual average. In the same year, he released his album In a Silent Way (1969), which is considered his first fusion album.[12] Almost all of the aforementioned musicians collaborated on it.
Jazz and rock
The most used form of fusion is a ‘crossover’ between jazz and rock. Bridges between these genres have been built from both sides. An older example is the Charles Lloyd Quartet with Keith Jarrett, among others, which went down this route from the late 1960s. You can see here a recent recording by the quartet (now without Keith Jarrett) of the composition ‘Dream Weaver’.
Yet initially, it was mostly rock groups that mixed jazz and rock. Examples include: Colosseum (Take Me Back to Doomsday, 1970), Chicago (Tanglewood, 1970), Blood, Sweat & Tears (God Bless This Child, 1973), Soft Machine (Switzerland, 1974), Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention, Gratefull Death (October, Winterland, 1974), The Allman Brothers, In Memory of Elisabeth Reed, 1970). Santana (Evil Woman, 1969), Jimi Hendrix (Voodo Child, 1970), King Krimson (Larks’ Tongues in Aspic, 1972) and most recently Ozric Tentacles (Epiphilioy, 2016) Every song is worth listening to! From Emerson, Lake & Palmer, hear now: Mussorgsky – Pictures At An Exhibition,1970)
Emerson Lake & Palmer have been called the most pretentious ‘progressive rock’ group ever, because of their ever more overwhelming stage presence. At their peak, they took 40 tons of equipment and sometimes a 50-piece choir.
These were rock bands with above-average artistic pretensions and often referred to as progressive rock, which were inspired by jazz. Progressive rock already some characteristics of jazz, such as an affinity for long solos, divergent time signatures and complex rhythms and melodies.
While the days of ‘progressive rock’ were long gone, fusion between jazz and rock remained popular, with musicians such as Pat Metheny (Jaco, 1977), John Abercrombie (Timeless, 2021), John Scofield (Live, Leverkusener Jazztage, 2023), the Swedish group e.s.t. (Behind The Yashmak, here with Pat Metheny, 2003), Brad Mehldau (Live in Montreal, 2023) and The Bad Plus (Live Moers festival, 2017). The latter two have explored contemporary rock music within the possibilities of the traditional acoustic jazz piano trio, recording instrumental jazz versions of rock songs. Here, The Bad Plus plays Confortable Numb by Pinkfloyd with vocals by Wendy Lewis. You can watch the Brad Mehldau trio perform Hello Joe by Jimmie Hendrix here:
By the way, Brad Mehldau is considered one of the best jazz pianists of the 21ste century. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award every year since 2013, one of which he finally won in 2020 for his album “Finding Gabriel”.
Jazz and soul
Soul jazz is an outgrowth of hard bob with influences from soul, blues and rhythm & blues. The Hammond organ plays an important role. Compared to hard bop, soul jazz has a more ‘earthy and bluesy’ character that invited dancing. Soul jazz quickly moved towards smooth jazz.
Some prominent names include: Cannonball Adderly (‘Work song’, 1963), Lee Morgan (‘The sidewinder’, 1963), Frank Foster (‘Samba blues’, 1963), Horace Silver (‘Song for my father’ ( 1964), Ramsey Lewis (‘The ‘in’crowd (1965, recording 1973), which became a hit and artists like Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and later the ‘Norwegian’ style of Bugge Wesseltoft. But here, too, fusion and smooth jazz are close to each others.
Finally, worth mentioning is the Cinematic Orchestra, which combines (classical) jazz, soul and the use of electronics, including turntables, in tuneful productions.
You can watch and listen to two songs of various kinds “To build a home” (sung by Patrick Watson) and “Breath” (sung by Fontella Bass), both live from the Barbican in London in 2007. You can listen to the latter track here.
The Cinematic Orchestra’s music has found its way to audiences through albums and performances but especially because of its frequent use in documentaries and (feature) films.
Jazz and funk
Fusion was not limited to jazz, rock or soul. Herbie Hancock sought a crossover between jazz and funk. An example is his album Head Hunters (1973). It was already his 12de album, mar with it he broke through artistically and commercially.
Hancock had already begun to push the boundaries of hard bop. His first album, for instance, contained the song ‘Watermelon Man’(1962) featuring his tight funky piano playing. Miles Davis also made a foray into jazz funk, notably his album ‘On the Corner'(1972. This was an attempt on his part to narrow the gap with young African-Americans.
Characteristic of jazz funk is the strong backbeat (fourth beat). And the already early introduction of electronic synthesizers.
As in the case of jazz rock, jazz’s hardliners reacted with aversion and talked about jazz for the dance halls. Nevertheless, the album Head Hunters was a significant moment in the development of jazz. It inspired jazz musicians, as well as funk, soul and hip-hop artists. It also stimulated the further use of synthesizers as a tool in the fusion genre.
Smooth jazz
Many jazz musicians who chose fusion also wanted to increase the acceptance of their music, hence the transition between fusion and smooth jazz is gradual.
Features:
– Most songs are ‘downtempo’ (90-105 counts per minute)
– The melody is usually played by just one instrument. This is usually a saxophone or an electric guitar.
– Smooth jazz often shuns improvisation and emphasizes a melodic whole. This is why commercially oriented ‘would be’ jazz is often referred to disparagingly.
Guitarist Wes (Leslie) Montgomery laid the foundations for smooth jazz in the last years of his still young life (he died in 1968 at the age of 45), making music that appealed to both jazz and pop lovers. Before that, he mainly played (hard) bop. Examples include ‘Here Is That Rainy Day‘ (1965). ‘Full House‘ and ‘Round Midnight’, which you can watch and listen to below.
By the early 1980s, much of the original fusion genre had been subsumed into other branches of jazz and rock, especially smooth jazz, which included a rapidly growing number of artists. These include Gerge Benson Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan and Sade, as well as saxophonists such as Grover Washington Jr, Kenny G, Kirk Whalum, Boney James and David Sanborn.
Pluralism
Since the 1990s, jazz has been characterized by a pluralism, with a wide range of styles, genres and blends, each with its own fans. Fusion occupies an important place here. The style has brought together a multitude of genres, bringing back the jazz audience, mainly thanks to the combination of melody and rhythm.
From the beginning of the 21ste century, jazz has become a distinct and popular type of music more than before. A number a young musicians are making themselves heard, including pianists Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer, guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeters Roy Hargrove and Terence Blanchard in the US.
In the UK, these were Sons of Kemet, Shabaka Hutchings, Ezra Collective and Moses Boyd.
Established jazz musicians like Wayne Shorter, John Scofield, Jan Garbarek, Pat Metheny, Brad Mehldau, Olga Konkova, Christian McBride, Per Mathisen and supergroup Snarky Puppy integrating conventional instruments and electronics. You can watch and listen to the latter here.
Music: Listen, Look and Enjoy 