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FUSION killed jazz?

Fusion was a turn away from straight ahead just as Bebop was a turn away from Swing. The music is always changing. Serious Jazz musicians took up fusion for the new instrumentation and sounds that came from those instruments. There are lot of remarkable fusion albums and groups. In a Silent Way is one of my favorite fusion albums. Weather Report, and Hancock's Headhunters are groups that were truly popular at the time and their contributions are still standards today. The Jazz Crusaders made the jump from straight ahead Jazz. They applied their Jazz roots and morphed into the Crusaders playing fusion to a huge audiences based on rock and roll rhythms. Fusion expanded the Jazz base at the time when the baby boomers were experimenting with sound and other forms of sensory augmentation.

With the advent of Disco there just wasn't a lot to improvise upon. This led to Smooth. The musicians took to noodling on top of the dance rhythms. The music execs quickly comprehended how little overhead was required to produce Smooth. Drawn by the thirst for profits Smooth was pushed. Unlike fusion and the other Jazz forms before Smooth, the straight ahead improvised solos disappeared. The one thing that Smooth had going for it was it did not require the listener to focus or concentrate. Smooth was just static on the line.

There were and are a number of Jazz musicians that fought the good fight and survived the dark years of "Smooth." These musicians for the most part played to smaller and smaller audiences, because what they played required the listener's involvement. Smooth worked well for background noise and profits.

Fortunately, Smooth has died (is dying) off. A number of the sentinels of Jazz have survived and a great number of young Jazz musicians who didn't drink the Kool-Aid of the dark period have emerged. Jazz is still alive it just has to find new means of delivery. The challenge for Jazz is the evolution of the short attention span of perspective audiences. However, just as most basic human experiences are still cherished: sex, taste, and smell. Music and and particularly Jazz will endure to those that are willing to take the time and listen.

So far sythethizers and computer music have been just novelties and real performances by real human beings are still the baseline for music.

DaveT


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  • FUSION killed jazz? - DaveT 05:12:03 04/20/16 (0)

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