Introduction to Jazz Fusion

Introduction to Jazz

• Familiarity with the instruments played by the listed individuals aids comprehension.

Fusion

• Bitches Brew's significance: Miles Davis, led and Teo Macero produced it.
• The album popularized jazz fusion and introduced tape slicing/studio editing.
• "Alumni bands" are bands led by former Miles Davis band members.
• The Lifetime Trio members: Tony Williams (drums), John McLaughlin (guitar), Larry Young (organ).
• Mahavishnu Orchestra leader: John McLaughlin.
• Mahavishnu Orchestra's musical traits include virtuosity, complex meters, fast tempos, along with synthesizers/electronic keyboards with a broad timbral palette.
• Headhunters leader: Herbie Hancock.
• Headhunters style mixes jazz and funk, geared toward commercial success through funk grooves, simple chord changes, and synthesizers
• Headhunters' influences: James Brown and Sly Stone.
• Return to Forever leader is Chick Corea.
• Return to Forever's traits: "500 Miles High" alternates samba feel and braking.
• "500 Miles High" is in binary form AB and switches between samba/double time while braking (slowing down).
• Return to Forever has Brazilian fusion and notable members: Flora Purim and Airto Moreira.
• The band features binary AB form, beginning with a rubato electric piano solo, switching between samba/double time and original tempo and virtuosic bass solo by Stanley Clark, also notable Corea/Farrell interactions.
• Weather Report founders: Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, bassist Jaco Pastorius.
• Weather Report is known for virtuosic bass playing, harmonics, and lead-style lines.
• Birdland is fusion by Weather Report (Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter) utilizing additive process.
• Birdland built by additive form via progressive section addition.
• Birdland's form includes a synthesizer bass line, bluesy riff in Fender bass harmonics, tenor sax syncopated melody, vamp, blues riff, synthesizer/piano, fanfare (tenor sax), vamp and soulful improvisations, clapping backbeats, synthesizer countermelody, hand claps on every 8th note, fade ending.
• Michael Brecker known for his stylistic attributes and membership in Brecker Brothers/Steps
• Brecker has an aggressive, virtuosic sound with inventive, Trane-influenced improvisation.
• Steps Ahead stylistic characteristics: "contemporary bebop" / "new acoustic fusion".
• Steps Ahead is between post-bop and fusion using acoustic instruments but fusion-like rhythm, textures, and forms.
• EWI means Electronic Wind Instrument.

Smooth Jazz

• CTI Records: Creed Taylor Incorporated led by producer Creed Taylor.
• CTI known for commercial jazz records.
• Kenny G: Representive of commercially successful smooth jazz saxophonist.

ECM

• ECM Records founder: Manfred Eicher.
• ECM Records blends jazz, classical, and world music with long compositions, classical techniques, straight 8th notes, non-US artists.
• ECM Records was founded in 1969 by Manfred Eicher in Cologne, Germany and is known as "Editions of Contemporary Music."
• Keith Jarrett: Solo piano, recorded for ECM, blending classical and jazz.
• Jarrett is noted for his improvisational solo concerts.
• Jarrett began recording for ECM in 1971, noted for solo piano/small group recordings; "Spiral Dance" features syncopated ostinato/melody with chord changes on unexpected beats, and switches between solos and head statements.
• Oregon instrumentation/genre: sitar, tabla, English horn, and flugelhorn blending ethnic/world music tones.
• Oregon formed in 1970 and includes Paul McCandless, Collin Walcott, Glen Moore, and Ralph Towner.
• Oregon known for longer compositions and free works rooted in tonal areas, influenced by ethnic music.
• Pat Metheny's influences: Beatles, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Gary Burton.
• Metheny's guitar style: melodic, consonant, singable, virtuosic.
• Metheny partnered with Lyle Mays.
• First Circle changes meter with a Brazilian samba influence.
• Instruments in First Circle: Guitar (Metheny), Piano (Mays).
• First Circle features changing meter between 12/8 and 10/8 in unequal groupings (3+2+3+2+2+3+3+2+2), adaptation of Brazilian samba, increasing dynamics, accumulating textures, several climaxes, hand claps on offbeats, vocalise melody, sustained synthesizer chords.
• Dave Holland is from London and recorded with Miles Davis.
• Holland is known for tight, metrically advanced, contrapuntal arrangements without piano or guitar.

Traditionalists

• Norman Granz produced/promoted many artists signed to Pablo Record deals.
• Vocalese defined: Adding lyrics to existing jazz melodies/solos, giving instrumental solos vocal text.
• The VSOP Quintet is a former Miles Davis sidemen group that performed once and gained popularity.
• The VSOP Quintet featured Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, and Freddie Hubbard.
• V.S.O.P. Quintet performed classic Miles Davis Quintet repertoire and new works.
• Wynton Marsalis is central to the traditionalist movement and known for classical and jazz proficiency.
• Wynton Marsalis' father is Ellis Marsalis and his brothers are Branford, Delfeayo, and Jason.
• Wynton Marsalis features New Orleans jazz and classical music background and CBS record deal for jazz/classical music with Grammy awards for both genres.
• Black Codes album by Wynton Marsalis, reflects traditional jazz values with modern execution.
• Black Codes references 19th-century slave laws, complex rhythms, fast/wild playing, and is a modernist/forward-looking album.
• The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is run by Wynton Marsalis.
• Jazz at Lincoln Center is a big band dedicated to preserving/performing traditional jazz.
• Blood on the Fields' significance: Composed by Wynton Marsalis won the Pulitzer Prize and explored the Black American experience.

Big Bands in the Modern Era

• The Four Brothers Band known for saxophone section of the Woody Herman band (Second Herd) with Stan Getz.
• "Four Brothers Band" refers to Woody Herman's Second Herd (1946-1949) saxophone section, featuring Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Herbie Steward, and Serge Chaloff.
• Stan Kenton style is brassy, grand, symphonic sound, called "progressive jazz".
• Star soloists in Stan Kenton's band included Art Pepper, Frank Rosolino, Maynard Ferguson, and Lee Konitz.
• Joe Williams was a blues/gospel influenced vocalist with Count Basie.
• Williams is known for "Every Day I Have the Blues," with a resonant, blues-influenced style.
• Sinatra's influences: Opera, Billie Holiday (phrasing), arranged by Nelson Riddle.
• Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra composers: Thad Jones and Bob Brookmeyer and renamed the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
• The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra was comprised of charts by Thad Jones and Bob Brookmeyer; a 1965 rehearsal group became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra after Jones left in 1979.
• Thad Jones' writing style is marked by dense harmonies (“everything” chords), intricate voicings, hard swinging rhythms, inventive use of ensemble, unexpected chord substitutions, and thick textures.
• Three in One was written by Thad Jones.
• Three in One's stylistic attributes include complex harmonies, prominent use of bass section, and showcasing Jones's signature arranging style.
• Maynard Ferguson's style: high note trumpet playing, flashy, loud, and fast.
• Maynard Ferguson known for "higher, faster, louder" trumpet playing, flashy/virtuosic brass, formed band in 1966.
• Toshiko Akiyoshi: pianist/arranger influenced by swing, blues, and Japanese music.
• Akiyoshi's band includes saxophonists doubling on flutes, co-leader Lew Tabackin.
• Maria Schneider studied with Bob Brookmeyer and worked for Gil Evans.
• Schneider uses ArtistShare (crowd-funded site) for producing her records with her Orchestral big band, tone colors, woodwinds, flamenco/world music, accordion, through-composed forms.
• Hang Gliding composed by Maria Schneider.
• Hang Gliding has orchestral and Brazilian influences with a flamenco feel.
• ArtistShare is a crowdfunding platform for releasing jazz records (used by Maria Schneider).

Jazz and Hip Hop

• "Rockit," composed by Herbie Hancock, uses turntables innovatively and features a music video.
• Us3 used jazz samples (Blue Note catalog), first Blue Note act to go platinum.
• A Tribe Called Quest uses a minimalist sound, upright bass, drum breaks, jazz samples on Low End Theory.
• Ron Carter played bass on "Verses from the Abstract".
• Roy Hargrove's styles mix Afro-Cuban, straight-ahead jazz, and hip hop.
• Roy Hargrove formed RH Factor and collaborated with D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Common, and Method Man.
• Hargrove is a master trumpeter, lyricism reminiscent of Clifford Brown, "Poetry" (The RH Factor with Q-Tip and Erykah Badu), "Strasbourg/St. Denis."
• Afro Blue performed by Robert Glasper combines a jazz standard with a hip hop groove and gospel reharmonization and features Bilal on vocals.

Postmodernists

• Sun Ra claimed he was from Saturn and was a pianist influenced by Fletcher Henderson.
• Sun Ra blended electronics, Asian, and African sounds and the Chicago free jazz movement.
• AACM - Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (Chicago).
• AACM - Founded in 1965 by Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Anthony Braxton, and Lester Bowie.
• AACM focused on qualities of sound over traditional harmony/melody/rhythm.
• Art Ensemble Chicago's motto: "Great Black Music - Ancient to the Future".
• Art Ensemble Chicago exhibits diverse instrumentation, genres, and performance art influences, shed common instrument "roles," blended R&B, bebop, blues, performance art, minimalist and aleatoric tendencies, pan-African/world sensibility, found success in Paris in the 1960s.
• Anthony Braxton: AACM member, multi-instrumental virtuoso, composed across free, classical, and avant-garde styles
• Braxton composed free, mainstream, 12-tone, and "For Alto" (1969), plus art music and AACM membership.
• World Saxophone Quartet plays avant-garde and R&B blend with David Murray as leader.
• John Zorn's style is eclectic, including jazz, punk, klezmer, and film.
• Zorn composed "game pieces" with rules for improvisers, inspired by AACM and Black Artists' Group; developed "game pieces" with rules for players to follow in Masada project, worked with Dave Douglas.
• M-Base's leader is Steve Coleman which stands for Macro Basic Array of Structured Extemporization.
• The style is Funk, polyrhythms, world music, plus electronic instruments.
• Medeski, Martin, and Wood described their music: Avant-garde instrumental hip hop trance funk.
• Medeski, Martin, and Wood borrowed elements from 60s soul jazz, 70s jazz-rock, funk, hip hop, and free jazz.
• Take Me Nowhere's attributes: Heavy vibrato synthesizer, bass melody (repeated motif), and heavy groove.
• The Bad Plus covers popular and classical art songs.

Jazz in the New Millennium

• Joshua Redman's style: motivic development, odd meters, funk, chamber jazz, straight-ahead.
• Redman uses Summer Time techniques: altissimo, motivic development, 7/8 time.
• Redman reconfigures songs by the Beatles, Paul Simon, and Radiohead, balanced hands technique.
• Bobby McFerrin performed duets with Yo-Yo Ma and Chick Corea.
• Esperanza Spalding plays bass and sings and with Brazilian, funk, and jazz fusion influences.
• Cuerpo Y Alma is in 5/4 time with Spanish lyrics, performed as bass/vocal solo by Esperanza.
• Jacob Collier: reharmonization, microtones, genre fusion (classical, jazz, R&B, world, pop).
• Moon River performed by Jacob Collier; intricate harmonies, multi-genre fusion, dense vocal layering.
• Snarky Puppy features Michael League, Larnell Lewis, and Cory Henry.
• Lingus is performed by Snarky Puppy; features Michael League, Larnell Lewis, and Cory Henry.

The Globalization of Jazz

• Tito Puente plays timbales in Latin American jazz.
• Hiromi Uehara is a virtuosic pianist from Japan, influenced by Oscar Peterson.
• Melissa Aldana plays tenor saxophone from Chile.
• Avishai Cohen, influenced by Jaco Pastorius, merges jazz, salsa, and Israeli folk.
• Avishai Cohen is a bassist, known for Israeli melodies, minor harmonies, and layered ostinati.
• Esbjörn Svensson Trio blends ECM-style jazz with rock and pop.
• From Gagarin's Point of View exhibits a minimalist aesthetic with a clear AABA form.
• Ibrahim Maalouf plays the trumpet and blends jazz, Arabic maqamat, classical, baroque, and pop.
• Tigran Hamasyan merges jazz with Armenian folk and metal rhythms, polyrhythms, and grace notes.
• Hamasyan composition represents the Armenian metal jazz genre.