How are you?
Following the last week, I am going to
start my 55th lecture.
I had conducted music lectures at Art
Collage JANG in Seoul, South Korea every Saturday from March 2015 to December
2017. I am going to introduce the lecture by
the lecture’s order every Saturday.
The 11th and last theme of “The history
of Jazz” I will introduce this week is “Fusion Jazz.”
It is a summary of the
contents of “55th ACJ Music Academy, The history of Jazz: 11. Fusion Jazz”,
which was introduced on July 16, 2016.
Fusion Jazz or Jazz Fusion is one
of the music genres in the late 1960s when musicians tried to combine jazz's harmony
and improvisation with funk, rock, rhythm & blues and Latin jazz style.
During this period, many jazz musicians performed various musical experiments,
such as using electronic musical instruments or amplifying sound using electronic
effectors and synthesizers. For jazz fusion, brass instruments such as trumpets
and saxophones are usually used for melody and solo performances, and electric
bass, electric guitar, synthesizer and drums are used for the rhythm section.
Afro-Cuban Jazz, one of the first
forms of Latin jazz, is a jazz fusion with an Afro-Cuban musical rhythm that
includes jazz harmony and improvisation. Afro-Cuban Jazz first appeared in New
York City in the early 1940s with Cuban musicians such as Mario Bauza and Machito.
Mario Bauza
Machito
Jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton released an album "Duster" in 1967 collaborated
with an electric guitarist and a pioneer of electric jazz Larry Coryell, which is
considered one of the first Fusion Jazz records.
Gary Burton
A trumpet player and composer Miles
Davis' album "In a Silent Way" which was released in 1969 is
considered his first fusion album.
Miles Davis
‘The Free Spirits’ is often
considered as the first band in jazz rock, sometimes used as a synonym for the
term "jazz fusion.”
The Free Spirits
Herbie Hancock, one of the first jazz musicians to use
synthesizer, became an important pioneer in Jazz-funk with the album “Head
Hunters” in 1973 and the album “Thrust” in 1974.
Herbie Hancock
Formed by Chick Corea in 1971, ‘Return
to Forever’ began with Latin-inspired music, but in 1973 they transformed into
a jazz rock group influenced by psychedelic and progressive rocks.
Chick Corea
In addition,
electric guitarist Pat Metheny, who also influenced in the 1970s, formed ‘The
Pat Metheny Group' in 1977 and entered both jazz and pop charts with his second
album, "American Garage (1979)."
Pat Metheny
Until the early 1980s, many
original fusion genres were included in genres other than jazz rock, especially,
Smooth Jazz is an example in a comfortable listening style, a subgenre of jazz fusion
influenced by the style of R&B, funk and Pop.
The collaboration between
jazz and pop/rock flowed into a more commercial direction in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, and Al Jarreau and Kenny G were pioneers of this pop-oriented
fusion.
One of the jazz fusion genres,
Acid Jazz, also known as Club Jazz, was created in clubs in London, England in
the mid-1980s and is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, soul, funk
and disco.
Another fusion jazz genre, Nu jazz, also known as Jazztronica, was
created in the late 1990s to refer to music that mixes jazz elements with other
musical styles such as funk, soul, and electronic music.
Progressive rock, with its long
solo performance and complex musical characteristics, has also very similar
musical characteristics to jazz fusion, and examples of progressive rock with
fusion elements include the songs of Ozric Tentacles and Emerson, Lake &
Palmer.
Ozric Tentacles
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
The early jazz fusion moved
around a single frame called “jazz rock,” but the subsequent fusions became
more diverse through continuous experiments. Jazz fusion is another face of
jazz in the flow of time and history, and it is still ongoing.
You can also review this lecture from
following media.
Next week, I will begin a new genre,
"History of Pop Music", which is scheduled for six weeks.
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment