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Cold Fusion: The Search for the Jazz/Rock Unicorn, Part 1
Part 1: A Brief Stylistic History
The fusion of different styles of music has been an explicit goal of many musicians in the 20th century. In the early part of the 20C, many classical composers like Bela Bartok, Aaron Copland, Maurice Ravel, and Claude Debussy were interested in incorporating early jazz and ethnic folk music into their works. By the middle of the 20C, composer
Gunther Schuller
composer / conductor1925 - 2015
Miles Davis
trumpet1926 - 1991
Steve Reich
composer / conductorb.1936
Jimi Hendrix
guitar, electric1942 - 1970
This is not, however, limited to cross-pollination between only jazz and classical music. Popular music has also been similarly enriched by successfully and overtly importing elements from other styles—Queen's "Night at the Opera," for example, makes the connection explicit, while others, like The Nice,
Genesis
band / ensemble / orchestra
Yes
band / ensemble / orchestra
Pink Floyd
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1964
Gil Evans
composer / conductor1912 - 1988
Dave Brubeck
piano1920 - 2012
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
band / ensemble / orchestra
"
data-original-title="" title="">Jethro Tull actually arranged the music of classical composers like J.S. Bach, Alberto Ginastera, Aaron Copland, and Modest Mussorgsky, for their rock groups. Clearly, musical innovation and development occur when new elements are brought into extant genres. However, in most cases, the resultant music fails to achieve a fusion that is true to both (or all) of its progenitors. Inevitably, most fusions rely largely on one of the styles and are adorned with superficial elements of the other style(s). Consider a few examples:
This piece by Gunther Schuller juxtaposes a jazz quartet and a classical orchestra. It's a fine piece overall, but in terms of how the classical and jazz elements are handled, it is not convincing as a fusion of any kind. The orchestral sections feature textures and dissonances that are found in the early part of the 20C classical repertoire (0:00-0:45). After this ends, the jazz quartet takes over but the music is largely derivative and unoriginal, sounding perilously close to lounge music, except for the obligatory harsh dissonances that purposelessly pepper the landscape to signify its modernity and its alliance with fellow travelers from the realm of atonal music. (Again, this is not a critique of the piece, I am focusing on the way in which the genres are blended, and how successful that is in maintaining the aesthetics of both.) In short, this doesn't seem like the fusion of two genres into one new genre, it's really more of a pastiche or musical quilt.
Not surprisingly, given the electric guitar's prominence in rock and roll, guitarists were at the vanguard of combining jazz and rock from early on. Guitarists
Larry Coryell
guitar1943 - 2017
John McLaughlin
guitarb.1942
Coryell's first recording, with his band The Free Spirits (1967), is an exuberant offering (with some delightful avant-garde,
Albert Ayler
saxophone, tenor1936 - 1970
Jim Pepper
saxophone, tenor1941 - 1992
Weather Report
band / ensemble / orchestra
Spyro Gyra
band / ensemble / orchestra
Steps Ahead
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1979
Others, like John McLaughlin and the
Mahavishnu Orchestra
band / ensemble / orchestrab.1971
As the style developed, others simplified it, rounding out the rougher, more unpredictable jazz edges in favor of a more pop-oriented approach. As the jazz elements faded, the music morphed into "smooth jazz" with artists like
Chuck Mangione
flugelhorn1940 - 2025
Kenny G
saxophone, sopranob.1956
Art Blakey
drums1919 - 1990
Wynton Marsalis
trumpetb.1961
Wayne Shorter
saxophone1933 - 2023
Not all of the early fusion, however, was as easy for the average listener to come to terms with as the previous examples were. Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, released in 1970, is considered the first serious foray into jazz fusion, but I suspect that is because it was the first exploration of fusion by a major jazz artist. This recording bristles and roars from the first notes as it marries the most abrasive gestures of avant-garde jazz with the electronics and effects of rock and roll. It is free improvisation over rock and funk grooves, dissonant and caustic throughout (even the name of the album is provocative). It is unfiltered and unapologetic, with a nascent, snarling punk posture at its core. It's hard jazz in every sense of the word, but it sold over a million copies, something astonishing for a jazz album of any kind, much less one that is as dissonant as this music is. As monumental as the album is, it is clearly avant-garde jazz improvised with electronic instruments and effects, and performed within a rock framework. It is so far removed from rock and pop music that I find it difficult to see a deep fusion of the two styles here. As with the others previously discussed, the elements fused are found at the surface level, which certainly creates a new sound, but it does not alter the essential aesthetic foundation of the music, which is, in my opinion, overwhelmingly rooted in jazz, not rock or pop.
As with the others, Davis' rock-tinged jazz mellowed over time, but he never surrendered or compromised his probing, experimental, and iconoclastic personality, even when tackling such innocuous "white key*" tunes like Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time." The accompaniment in Davis' version stays true to the original—there is no reharmonization and no extended jazz harmony whatsoever, and yet, Davis is able to transform this simple '80s pop tune into a poignant ballad, full of the imperfections that flip the classical music aesthetic on its head, the same things that, at the same time, combine to make jazz so effective and expressive. Here then, we find one of the very few examples of fusion that maintains the integrity of both pop and jazz, and it does so without a singer, which is truly remarkable. It does, however, have a powerful ally, an ally that so much of jazz from the '40s, '50s, and '60s relied heavily upon— namely, an expectation that the listener knows the tune and the lyrics and can thus appreciate the jazz variation in its proper context. So, in a sense, it does have lyrics, they're just being "sung" by Miles Davis on the trumpet.
My point in exploring this topic is not to try to change the definition of "fusion" or the music that is classified under that label. As a descriptive term, it works well because it generalizes broadly, allowing it to subsume a great deal of music under its umbrella. My exploration of the topic is motivated by a question that has plagued me for many years—why is there so little music that genuinely fuses two styles together and does so in a way that maintains the integrity of all of the stylistic contributors? This is not just a jazz/rock/pop issue, it's also true in classical music. Gershwin's music is "jazzy" but it's not jazz, Aaron Copland's El Salon Mexico incorporates elements of Spanish folk music, but it's not Spanish folk music, it's classical music.
It is extremely difficult to authentically fuse two or more different styles, largely because, I think, the aesthetic values that define each style must necessarily clash with each other to some degree. Composers must, therefore, consciously or not, decide on how much of each style to incorporate into their music fusion. As one might expect, the resultant mixture usually leans heavily on the genre in which the composer is most comfortable. This is why I think that a true fusion of jazz and rock/pop, defined more stringently as I have outlined here, is difficult to find, but not impossible. In Part II, I will discuss two recordings (one quite well known, the other not) that I think have succeeded in fusing jazz and rock/pop in an authentic and convincing manner.
*The chords in "Time After Time" simply move back and forth in lockstep (for the most part) using adjacent white key chords. It can be learned by anyone in a matter of minutes.
Tags
Journey into Jazz
Fusion
jazz fusion
Bitches Brew
Miles Davis
History of Jazz
Larry Coryell
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Chuck Mangione
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