Answer all the questions below, read the attachment files to help answer the questions. 1. Miles Davis’ “Bitches Brew” is one of jazz’s first fusion recordings. You have heard an excerpt of “Spanish
Fusion Jazz - an assimilation of culture While jazz has always been a cutting edge art form that is always searching for the “next” new thing, it has also used the current popular culture as its launching point. In the 1920s the blues became a national phenomenon. Jazz musicians embraced it and b uilt on it. In the 1930s swing music evolved out of “hot jazz” bands from Chicago and New York. Swing went on to become America’s most popular music for a decade. The Bebop musicians of the 1950s used popular tunes as the basis for their new inventions. Th e Hard Bop of the 1960s was firmly rooted in the popular Rhythm and Blues sounds of the time. In the mid 1950s Rock and Roll music appeared on the American popular culture scene. From that point on Rock and Roll virtually took over American popular cultur e. As Rock and Roll grew and developed it became defined by electric instruments, a rock solid basic beat , a counter culture attitude and a colorful new style of fashion. Fusion jazz is simply jazz doing what is has always done. The Fusion movement takes t he electric instruments, the basic rock and funk rhythms, and even the dress code from the popular culture of the time and applying it to jazz. Miles Davis gets the credit for being one of the first to bring electric instruments and rock beats to the jazz world. (There, most certainly, were others but Miles was the “big name” that set the trend and made it “OK”.) Other names and bands followed: Herbie Hancock, Weather Report, Chick Corea, Mahavishnu John McLaughlin to name a few. Miles Davis - In the last chapter we studied Miles Davis and read his biography. He is one of those characters in jazz history that seems to be around at many of the big developments in jazz style. The standard story of his entrance into rock and roll sounds has to do with his appearance at the 196 9 Newport Jazz Festival . That year the promoters, noting a large drop in attendance, brought in some rock acts to attract a younger crowd. Among them were Led Zepplin, James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. Miles and his quartet are booked too. Here is Miles with his traditional line -up, wearing their suits and ties playing what was actually pretty cutting edge music but with a look and instrumentation that was out of date. He was feeling ol d and left behind. Sly and the Family Stone came out with their Miles Before Sly and the Family Stone electric instruments, wild clothing, afro hairstyles and totally brought the house down. Miles had to have a piece of that! Within weeks Miles was bringing in electric instrum ents and sporting wild clothes, hair and platform shoes. (Of course, he also had a very young and hip girlfriend at the time that p robably helped push him in that direction. Other stories involve him hearing Muddy Waters playing a very simple and sparse b lues style that inspired him to get back to basics. But the Sly and the Family Stone story seems to have evolved into jazz legend and myth.) John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra - John McLaughlin is an English guitarist with a wide range of musical influences and skills. He was equally involved in rock and blues as he was in flamenco and Indian classical music. In the early 1970s the Mahavishnu Orchestra was formed. This group specialized in loud, fast, distorted, energetic instrumental music that w as more suited to rock concert venues than typical jazz clubs. The group included some of the best musicians of the fusion era; Billy Cobham on drums, Jan Hammer on electric keyboards and the electric violin of Jerry Goodman. Their arrangements featured in tricate and high speed unison lines often using uncommon meters based on the Indian Tala (classical Indian composition techniques). Their first two albums: The Inner Mounting Flame (1972) and Birds of Fire (1973) sold over 700,000 copies. One of the bi g things about John McLaughlin and his method of writing and performing fusion songs was that he provided a template (method) that other musicians could emulate when creating their own compositions. Miles Davis was very open and loose , so there wasn ’t much to latch on to when trying to do something like it. McLaughlin showed that you could write intricate , complicated, energe tic pieces of music that still had a format (like “head -solos -head ”) and a harmonic base to work off of. Chick Corea and Return to Forever - Chick Corea left Miles Davis in 1970 and played avant -garde free jazz with saxophonist Anthony Braxton and bassist Dave Holland. While free jazz was liberating at first it quickly became alienating to the audiences and, even, each other. Hearing John McLaughlin’s Ma havishnu Orchestra inspired him to want to write more arranged and dramatic music that connected with more people. The synthesizer use of Jan Hammer opened him up to the lyrical possibilities of the electronic keyboard and soon he had a whole rack of them. In 1972, in an attempt to reach that wider audience, Corea created the group “Return to Forever”. The mid 1970s lineup of Corea on keyboards, guitar virtuoso speedster Al DiMeola on guitar, extraordinary and young Stanley Clarke on Bass and equally youn g and Miles After Return to Forever extraordinary Lenny White on drums created some of the most fully realized fusion compositions of the era. Weather Report - One of the most commercially successful groups of the 1970s was Weather Report. Keyboardist Joe Zawi nul was a veteran of Cannonball Adderley’s very successful hard bop/soul jazz group. Sa xophonist Wayne Shorter is a ve teran of Miles Davis’ ground breaking “Second Quintet” and is known for his unique and advanced compositions. After a few albums that wer e somewhat “atmospheric” and avante -garde, the band really found its sound and gained public approval after enlisting the services of Jaco Pastorius on bass. Pastorious had stunning technique and a lyrical style. While his career lasted less than a decade, Pastorious became the most influential bass player of his time. Herbie Hancock - Herbie Hancock’s album “ Head Hunters ” was also a very influential album in the development of the fusion genre. Herbie Hancock (b. 1940) is one of those musicians who can adapt to, and perform effectively, in many musical genres. His music career began by playing a Mozart concerto as a pre -teenager. He has worked with best in classical, jazz, pop, and fusion music. He was one of the first to adopt a DJ “s cratcher” as a member of his band with his pop hit “Rockit” in 1983. He has worked with Sting, Christina Aguilera, Norah Jones, Josh Groban and many popular artists while also working with Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Coleman Hawkins, Dexter Gordan, Wynton Marsalis and countless other jazz greats. This album utilized simple funk grooves with electric instruments and synthesizers. Virtually every young jazz musician since has “jammed” along with the tune “Chameleon” and the rest of the album. Of all of the recordings Herbie Hancock has made (literally thousands), this was his most influential and lucrative.Some might accuse Hancock of “selling out” and even he is quoted as saying, “Some of the dance music I do is not done for art.” But , he also has made the observation that; “We, as jazz listeners, tend, 90% of the time, to like clever, complex treatments of simple ideas. ….But what Jaco Pastorious I have found is that there is a much more subtle kind of challenge in going towards the simple.”
