Fusion Jazz

[dontpanicbobby]

Did it start in the 1960's or was it always possible for Jazz musicians to produce popular music songs?

@Notes_Norton. You're our music historian. Please explain...

 

[Notes_Norton]

Did it start in the 1960's or was it always possible for Jazz musicians to produce popular music songs?

@Notes_Norton. You're our music historian. Please explain...

I think it has always been possible for jazz musicians to make popular songs, but jazz itself has evolved. Back in the 30s to 50s jazz had a huge audience, probably peaking in the 40s. From Glenn Miller to Benny Goodman, to Duke Ellington to Count Basie and a host of others.

When the 50s came around Rock took over the pop scene and jazz receded to the genre that the 'old folks' listened to. And in many cases the jazz was 'watered down' for mass consumption. But Stan Kenton made hits with various singers, Nat Cole went pop but still sneaked a few jazz things in and so on.

In the 60s Cool School Jazz and Bossa Nova hit the pop charts. Not in force but my favorite Jazz Saxophonist, Stan Getz had a bit hit with a pure, not-watered down "Desifinado". Vince Guaraldi, Ramsey Lewis, and a few others weren't considered fusion yet, but they certainly weren't traditional jazz, but somewhere between jazz, pop, and even rock. "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck was neither bossa nor rock, but also hit the pop charts.

Since then many jazz artists, fusion or not, have crossed over into the pop charts, Grover Washington Jr., George Benson, and so on.

The fact is, most musicians listen to jazz. Before Internet Nashville had two great jazz radio stations. I remember an article in the musicians union magazine where one of the country keyboard players said, "Don't let the 'suits' know you are secretly into jazz, as they actually believe in the country music stuff." I had a chance to meet Chet Atkins, who recorded a few light jazz albums at the end of his career. He told me that he always wanted to be a jazz guitarist but he knew where his bread and butter was. Boots Randolph was a find jazz saxophonist.

And it's not only country, Randy Bachman from BTO and Guess Who is an excellent jazz guitarist, Plas Johnson who played sax on thousands of pop rock records was a fine jazz saxophonist. Carol Kaye who played bass on as many rock records was also a fine jazz guitarist. The "Funk Brothers" of Motown fame were jazz musicians when they played in clubs (when I was working at Motown, they didn't call them "Funk Brothers").

And to musicians, it's hard to draw the line between jazz and pop, they have much in common. Listen to the Kingston Trio's "Scotch And Soda" - that isn't folk music. Or Guess Who's "Undun". LIsten to what Randy Bachman plays on the guitar behind the singer, that is definitely jazz.

Back in the "Smooth Jazz" radio days, they did the opposite and put artists like Sade, Swing Out Sister, and so many others in the jazz category when no jazz musician would think so. On the same station we got Boney James and a host of other musicians who would fall more into jazz than pop.

Fusion gets even harder to categorize. Many hard-core jazz musicians call that rock, and some hard-core rock musicians call it jazz. But most musicians see it as it's called, Fusion, neither rock nor jazz and at the same time both rock and jazz. Steely Dan hired some great jazz musicians of the day to play on their records. Is it jazz or Fusion? The chord progressions weren't rock, the musicians were jazzers, and it didn't get played on jazz radio.

We listened to jazz and expanded rock to include jazz chord changes and improvisational modes, and at the same time many rock musicians moved over to jazz and kept their rock roots.

And I could mention Blues and Latin American music, but it's a similar but another thread. They oozed into rock and jazz too.

Record companies and radio stations like to categorize music. As humans that's what we do. That Common Grackle and Boat Tailed Grackle are two different birds to the people who study birds. Categorizing helps us organize things in our minds, and it helps the record companies market artists. But categorizing is a human condition put on things, and some are harder to categorize.

The Rock Song "Undun" is Jazz, and on the cool-school jazz albums from the TV series (long ago) "Peter Gunn" is rock.

This probably doen't really answer your question, and might be TMI. If interested, I can go on.

Bob