If there is one album that connects the dots between fusion, progressive rock and avant-garde classical more completely than any other, Henry Cow's debut, 1973's Leg End, just might be it. This is one dazzling, daring and demanding record. Performing a tenuous balancing act between free improv and compositional complexity, the group unleashes some truly amazing acrobatics when it comes to rhythm and melody. In a lot of ways Henry Cow is the sonic equivalent of a pointillism painter. Each and every instrument is all about sharp pinpricks of sound rather than sinewy sustain and release.
Where Miles, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report approached fusion from the perspective of the jazzbo, Jeff Beck approached it from the perspective of the hard-rock guitarist. Released in 1975, Blow by Blow was a radical departure for the former Yardbird. It's a record whose influence cannot be overestimated. Though its artistic merits have always been debated, Blow by Blow singlehandedly exposed an entire generation of rockers to progressive-flavored jazz grooves, chords, melodies, etc.
This is the album that found Miles losing some of his older jazz audience while gaining a new rock fan following. Considered by some at the time to be a sell-out, this is daring music that still challenges and inspires. Wayne Shorter remains on soprano sax, though new musicians John McLaughlin, Chick Corea and Larry Young all shine in the spotlight. This 40th anniversary edition includes an array of bonus material, much of which reveals the diligent editing of producer Teo Macero, plus a different lineup featuring keyboardist Keith Jarrett.
In the mid-1970s, Phil Collins played the drums constantly. In addition to his innovative work in Genesis, he lent his skills to the likes of Brian Eno, as well as several other like-minded art-rockers. He also served time in Brand X, a skillful fusion ensemble that fell somewhere between Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra. The group's debut album, 1976's Unorthodox Behaviour, is their best by far. One of its highlights is the rhythmic interplay between Collins and bassist Percy Jones, who goes fretless. The pair's ability to steer melody and groove simultaneously is a joy to soak up.
Between his work with Miles Davis and forming The Mahavishnu Orchestra, John McLaughlin released this muscular foray into the fusion of Jimi Hendrix-inspired acid rock and post-bop. Though the guitarist's background is in jazz tradition, he unloads serious riffage; Larry Young's organ grind is equally heavy. "Dragon Song & Devotion" possesses all the power and bombast of Vanilla Fudge and early Black Sabbath. Overall, Devotion is a fantastic record: raw, unbridled and wildly prescient. There are stretches, in fact, that even look to the post-hardcore experiments of In My Head-era Black Flag.
Chicano rock enthusiasts and ardent fans of Santana's Welcome-era jazz odysseys will admit that something magical happens every time you let Lotus play in its entirety. Recorded live in Japan in 1973, the band's chemistry (whether spiritually or literally chemical) is an otherworldly storm captured on tape.
Early Gong records are totally weird. We're talking, like, Syd Barrett and Skip Spence levels of weirdness. That said, once you grow comfortable with the incessant onslaught of brain-rupturing time changes, cosmic goo, jazzy interludes and gnome-inspired poetics, the band's profound genius really begins to sink in. Originally released in 1973, Flying Teapot contains several of their most impressive long-form pieces. Both the title track and "Zero the Hero and the Witch's Spell" unfold with all the exotic splendor of a rare tropical flower coming to blossom underneath an eerie morning sun.
John McLaughlin and co.'s volcanic effect on fusion (and rock) began with their first record, conceived and released right after they got out of the studio with Miles Davis recording Bitches Brew. There's nobody that plays guitar like McLaughlin, except for maybe Mike Tyson (if he ever tried). The rest of the band attempts to keep up. Try "Noonward Race."
Released in 1970, Third marks a major turning point in the Soft Machine sound. Gone for the most part are the collage-like art pop compositions, playful surrealism and intricate vocal passages marking their first two full-lengths. The band is now messing around with fusion, atonality, electronic music, musique concrete, minimal drone and repetition. On top of all this, the grooves are heavier and way more severe. By the seven-minute mark of the first piece, "Facelift," you know you're in for one hell of a ride; Mike Ratledge's searing organ and Elton Dean's sax-skronk are just going at it.
Weather Report is one of the groups blamed for turning fusion into vapid pop jazz. This is true. However, their early output, particularly this stunning live set recorded in January 1972, is anything but pop. The group really, truly smokes, and for extended stretches. Not a single piece falls short of 10 minutes. The longest, the 26-minute "Medley: Vertical Invader / Seventh Arrow / T.H. / Doctor Honoris Causa," is a juggernaut in harsh textures, fractured grooves and fearless exploration. Folks who are familiar only with the band's later albums will surely be blown away by this one.
Miles acknowledged that On the Corner was his attempt to reconnect with the Black American youth of the '70s who abandoned jazz in favor of funk and rock. Ironic, then, that it's one of his most impenetrable albums. Fueled by nonstop polyrhythmic percussion, the record harbors only the merest shred of melody as it spools into marathon jams, one hardly distinct from the next. But that relentless focus on rhythm is what made On the Corner such a heavy influence on hip-hop in later years.
Much like Weather Report, Chick Corea's Return to Forever started the 1970s exploring some fairly heady sounds, yet turned more and more towards accessible pop as the decade progressed. Though this 20-track collection covers the '73 to '76 period only, it contains some of the most adventurous music in the ensemble's discography. Many of the early tracks, "After the Cosmic Rain" and the hyper-kinetic "Captain Senor Mouse" among them, feel significantly more influenced by progressive and Latin rock (that is Yes and Santana) than Corea's former bandleader, fusion innovator No. 1, Miles Davis.
By this point in Jean-Luc Ponty's career he had already worked with Frank Zappa, The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Stephane Grappelli. The French musician knew the sound he wanted and how to attain it. Significantly more melodic than the anarchic funk-fusion Miles Davis was then dealing in, 1975's Upon the Wings of Music possesses real kick. Electric pianist Patrice Rushen lays down punchy lines that perfectly underpin Ponty's lyrical, ever-mutating violin. One of the best tracks is "Echoes of the Future," which sounds influenced by Tangerine Dream and other Kosmische musik practitioners.
Miles helps define jazz/rock Fusion and even influenced electronica and new age with the help of Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and others. Even at one song per side, this jam session is actually more straight-ahead than Miles In the Sky or Bitches Brew.
Another hit crossover Mann album. The flutist gets funky with Acid Jazz pioneer Roy Ayers for this 1969 southern soul session. Today's club kids embrace this album as their own and it deserves the praise.
Jaco Pastorius tore across the fusion scene the way a tornado tears across a cornfield in Iowa. There existed electric bass in jazz long before the release of his debut album, but Pastorius utterly revolutionized the instrument's role. No matter what track you're listening to, be it the funkified "Come On, Come Over" or the sentimental "Forgotten Love," his fretless-based melodies and dizzying runs are front and center. In other words, Pastorius isn't standing towards the rear of the ensemble merely providing an anchor, rather he's directing traffic and making thing happens at all times.
Long before Paul Simon, David Byrne and Peter Gabriel began exploring world music, there was Ginger Baker, the dude from Cream. African Force picks up where Air Force, the drummer's genre-melting project from the early '70s, left off. The album is an exquisite fusion of Afrobeat and modern jazz, along with a dash of Graceland-like adult contemporary. That said, Baker hasn't slowed down at all. Anyone into pan-cultural percussion and modern tribal grooves: African Force will blow your mind.
Miles helps define jazz/rock Fusion and even influenced electronica and new age with the help of Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock and others. Even at one song per side, this jam session is actually more straight-ahead than Miles In the Sky or Bitches Brew.
While Nation Time can be tagged fusion, its intense blend of jazz, funk and rock differs significantly from what Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock were cooking up in the early 1970s. This music isn't spacey or hypnotic; it's raw hard-bop whose flesh has been torn apart by sharp avant-garde sensibilities. The tag "free funk" is often applied to this record, and it makes a lot of sense. Squealing, screaming and howling, saxophonist Joe McPhee introduces elemental themes that he then pounds into the ground. Meanwhile, pianist Mike Kull and guitar player Dave Jones bash away with ecstatic abandon.
When it comes to the development of fusion, Emergency!, released in 1969, ranks right up there with Miles Davis' Bitches Brew in terms of sheer brilliant innovation. The ensemble, featuring fellow pioneers Larry Young (organ) and John McLaughlin (guitar), swings hard while harnessing a dirty, grungy sound full of squall, feedback and distortion. Moments emerge when its playing is so intense and so furious that whiplash feels like the only possible result. Fusion eventually evolved into cool pop jazz, but at its birth, as Emergency! clearly demonstrates, it was pure hellish fire.
Mwandishi is awesome, the perfect soundtrack for a night of meteor showers filling the sky with ephemeral patterns, ghostly streaks and shimmering stains. Stylistically, the record picked up where Miles Davis' In a Silent Way left off. The electric ensemble Herbie Hancock assembled for these pivotal recordings incorporates elements of rock and funk while exploring a kind of proto-ambient sonic hypnotism. Though this is Hancock's initial journey into the cosmic sublime as a band leader, his ability to fuse acoustic instrumentation with synthesizer-based sounds is already highly evolved.
Germany's Embryo has garnered more than a few comparisons to Can through the years. They aren't inaccurate, yet they do tend to overlook Embryo's love of jazz-informed rhythms. Released in 1972, Father Sons & Holy Ghosts swings with a nervous, up-on-the-beat energy, something Can rarely, if ever, explored. Setting up the rest of the album in fine fashion, the opener "The Special Trip" is edgy and tight. On "Marimbaroos" and "The Sun Song" (the latter of which contains some great horn work by Edgar Hoffman), Embryo embeds their wonderful rhythms in a proto-world fusion sensibility.
