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Jazz and Jazz Fusion


Farin

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And when it comes to Fusion: what are the best genres?

For starters, one of my favorite Jazz Fusion groups is Return to Forever.

One of the few jazz supergroups with Chick Corea on keyboards, Lenny White on drums and percussion, Stanley Clarke on bass and Al Di Meola on guitar. Each one went on to a successful solo career after Return to Forever disbanded.

Here's Romantic Warrior off their 1976 album of the same name.

:cool:

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Thanks for the suggestions so far, I've listened to "Romantic Warrior" and "Blue Train" by Coltrane... good stuff :)

But I admit, I'm more of a fan of the dynamics of playing together - as opposed to different instruments taking turns for their 5 minute solos ;)

What about Miles Davis or Herbie Hancock?

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But I admit, I'm more of a fan of the dynamics of playing together - as opposed to different instruments taking turns for their 5 minute solos ;)

Jazz is everyone plays together, then they take their turns at solos, then they come back and play together to close the song.

:P

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'Return to Forever' is good. If you're more into the guitar, 'Al Di Meola' is pretty good too. His first four albums would be my only recommendation. Oh, but yet I like his "Soaring Through a Dream" album from '85 but a bit of a different beast from his earlier material.

As for 'Herbie Hancock', I prefer "Empyrean Isles" from '64 but its hard bop and not fusion like the other bands mentioned in thread.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned 'Mahavishnu Orchestra'. That was John McLaughlin's vehicle which also included Jan Hammer and Narada Michael Walden among others. "The Inner Mounting Flame" and "Between Nothingness & Eternity" would be my suggestions. Many prefer "Birds of Fire" but its all a matter of preference.

'Weather Report' - "Black Market" from '76. However, its not like their earlier works and also noted (though I don't think was every substantiated aka just hearsay) that jazz purists digressed.

Then there's 'Soft Machine' - Holdsworth was in the band for a bit (the 70s). "Bundles" from '75 is pretty good but more of jazz-rock.

Anyway, others have already been suggested and I'm having a big brain fart at moment lol. Oh, for Jeff Back, go with "Wired."

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George Benson is a really good jazz fusion guitarist. He's nto really jazz/rock fusion though, he's jazz/pop fusion, which is usually pretty bad but Benson does it really well. Check out my two favorite songs by him (the 2nd one was a hit in 70's I think)

"Affirmation"

"Breezin"

I also used to be really into the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I don't listen to them much anymore but not for any reason besides the fact that there's a lot to listen to and not a lot of time! John McGlaughlin is great.

"Meeting of the Spirits"

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Leon Thomas is best known for his work with Pharoah Sanders (who I saw back at Mandeville Auditorium USD San Diego back in '72).

I remember him best for a 1971 album with saxophonist Oliver Nelson titled Live in Berlin with Oliver Nelson.

Thomas was widely known for his yodeling as our ancestral fathers might have done.

Says Perfect Sound Forever...

"The 1960’s saw the rise of the incredible jazz-scat yodeler, Leon Thomas (“Creator Has a Master Planâ€). Saxophonist Pharoah Sanders described Thomas’s yodeling as “the moaning of spirits known and unknown.†Indeed, if any throat ever served as the stage for spirits - be they indigenous or alien - it was Thomas’s with his extended anthropo-logical “verbal energy.†Thomas once noted, “It surprises me, it does everything of its own volition. I call it Soularfone. The pygmies call it Umbo Weti… This voice is not me, my voice is ancient. This person you see before you is controlled by ego but my voice is egoless.â€

Thomas grew up in East St. Louis, studied music at Tennessee State University, and moved to New York in 1958. Thomas’s early career can be characterized as straight blues-jazz vocals, working with Mary Lou Williams and touring with Art Blakey. In January 1961, Thomas joined Count Basie and sang at the inaugural balls of both President Kennedy and President Johnson. However, he soon turned to more avant-garde stylings. His most famous work is with Pharoah Sanders on Karma (1969) and Jewels of Thought (1970). In 1969, on “Creator Has a Master Plan,†he sang a scat-yodel with wild fluctuations between glottal and mellifluous vocables that instantly affected me. This was a man in search of soul."

source

Here's an excellent example of Oliver Nelson's dynamite alto sax along with Leon's unique delivery in a favorite song of mine...

Pharoah's Tune ( The Journey) / Echoes part 1

Pharoah's Tune ( The Journey) / Echoes part 2

:cool:

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