Jazz Rock Fusion (1970s and 1980s)

Basic Characteristics: (From Martin and Waters: Jazz the first 100 years)
Timbre
Electronic
o Very Hard-edged, raucous
o Smooth, vague
Upper instrumental ranges emphasized
Use of blue note effects, especially in funky substyles
Many electronic instruments and effects
High volume
Phrasing
Highly irregular in improvisation, themes often in 2 or 4 bar units
Rhythm
8
th
notes emphasized
Highly energetic
Chick Corea and Return to Forever
In 1968 Chick Corea replaced Herbie Hancock in the Miles Davis quintet and played with Davis through the
recording of Bitches Brew.
In 1970, Corea left Davis behind to begin work on his own projects. These projects included solo piano
works, and serious experimentation with free jazz and the direct opposite: simple songs with lyrical
melodies.
At this same time, Corea was beginning and developing an important group in the jazz-rock fusion
movement: Return to Forever. R
Return to Forever focused on music that would appeal to a larger audience, music that was airy and heavily
influence by Brazilian music.
He put together a group that included bassist Stanley Clarke, flutist Joe Farrell, drummer Airto Moreira and
singer Flora Purim (Airtos wife).
The group made two recordings: Return to Forever and Light as a Feather.
The Brazilian influence cam through in compositions like Spain and La Fiesta which both quoted music
from South America and used beats from the region.
Corea immersed himself in these styles, helping to create a new wave of Brazilian influenced jazz.
The ensemble had a very light sound on Light as a Feather. Clarke played an acoustic bass and the rhythms
were not bass drum driven as they were in rock music, but more spacious and sporadic leading to the thin
texture of the album.
In 1973 Corea reorganized the group and went from this light sounding Brazilian group to a more classic
Jazz Rock band that included Clarke moving to electric bass, and changing drummers (from Airto to Lenny
White from Bitches Brew) and adding an electric guitarist in the John McLaughlin mold, Al DiMeola.
This incarnation of the ensemble moved toward rock music in a very strong way, almost creating what is
now called Art Rock. Corea focused on complex compositions with lightening fast melodies, virtuosic
improvisations, multiple meter and tempo changes and sophisticated harmonies with these musicians.
Corea continued to experiment with larger groups, including orchestral instruments, throughout the 1970s,
before creating two distinct bands in the 1980s: Chick Coreas Elektric Band and Chick Coreas Acoustic
Band. Both groups contained two important musicians: John Pattitucci and drummer Dave Weckl.
This shows the versatility of the jazz musicians of the 1980s and beyond. Players must be able to
negotiate music in an electric and acoustic environment and each is VERY different.
Corea is still very active, and recently released a few very important albums including a tribute to Bud
Powell (Bop pianist).
Listening
Spain*
Light as a Feather
On Green Dolphin Street
Time Warp
Others to know about from your reading: Weather Report, Mahivishnu Orchestra
Pat Metheny
Born in Missouri in 1954.
Child prodigy on the guitar, was teaching guitar at the University of Miami by the age of 17.
Asked by world renown vibraphonist, Gary Burton, to join the faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston
in 1973, and began playing with Burtons quartet.
Not interested in the athletic approach to guitar playing not into guitar pyrotechnics. Instead,
Metheny is into melodies and the lyric quality of the guitar.
Used many effects to alter the tone of his instrument but not the typical distortion that jazz-rock
guitarists used extensively in the 1970s. Metheny opted instead for chorus effects, reverb and delay effects
which didnt dirty his sound up, but fattened it and made it bright and almost organ-like.
In 1976, Metheny releases his first record under his own name, entitled Bright Size Life. On the record are
Jaco Pastorius and drummer Bob Moses. There is a very clear sense of Methenys individual sound on this
record. Open sounds, floating melodies and fierce improvisations.
Metheny put together his quartet following the release of the first album. That group consisted of Lyle
Mays, pianos and keyboards, Danny Gottlieb, drums and Mark Egan, electric bass.
The Metheny quartet gained significant success by touring the US relentlessly pulling one-nighters
throughout the country as many as 300 nights a year.
Mays and Metheny become very close musically and become a duo that is very comfortable with each other
on and off stage. To this day they still work together nightly.
Metheny began adding different musicians to the ensemble, including Nana Vasconcelos to play percussion
and sing. Unfortunately, some perceived this as a step toward muzak and away from the jazz/rock roots of
the group.
This world music influence, however, caught on with many of Methenys peers to the point where
contemporary jazz groups almost always include a percussionist today.
Metheny continues to make records that both sell quite well and push the envelop of jazz/rock fusion. He
recently said:
I made a commitment to focus on and bring into sound the ideas I heard in
my head that might not have existet until my time, to try to represent in
music the things that were particular to the spiritual, cultural and
technological potentials that seemed to be actively available to me in the
shaping of my own personal esthetic values.
Bright Size Life
Heartland
Duets
Who is Jaco Pastorius?
Bela Fleck
Comes from a bluegrass background and is the first performer to use the banjo in contemporary
jazz/rock/country/bluegrass fusion.
Players in his band include:
Victor Wooten on electric bass
Future Man on electronic drums
All three are true virtuosos and their style of music defies definition. Fleck is an excellent composer as well
and his pieces are quirky, interesting, complex and odd all at the same time.
Tales from the Acoustic Planet was a landmark album for Fleck as it compiled a group of his favorite
compositions and brought in an all star group of performers to record with his normal trio: Bela Fleck and
the Flecktones.
On the recording are:
Bruce Hornsby, piano
Branford Marsalis, saxes
Chick Corea, piano
Other luminaries from the world of bluegrass and classical music make appearances on the record this is a
VERY different record as far as the timber of the instruments goes, but the techniques are all associated with
the characteristics outlined above.
Complex harmonies, odd meters, strange phrase lengths, and masterful improvisations.
Up and Running.
1990s and Beyond
Two real schools of thought come to the fore in the 1990s:
Traditionalists and/or Mainstreamers vs. Crossover Artists
The traditionalists think of the 1960s (Miles and Coltrane) as the legacy that needs to be continued.
Bringing in aspects of the acoustic avant-garde (Mingus and Ornette Coleman) with the more traditional
elements of Davis and Coltrane.
Crossover artists, like Kenny G and others, are wildly popular on jazz radio and similarly boast huge
record sales, while giving up some, if not all, of the traditions of the music.
This struggle is still going on, and the split in the jazz community has, at times, been quite heated, including
an exchange between Kenny G and Pat Metheny in 1999.
Artists of note from the Traditionalist school are:
Joshua Redman
Michael Brecker
Wynton Marsalis