Larry Coryell (b. 1943), a father of jazz-rock fusion, has recorded more than 70 albums over the past 35 years. Born in Galveston, Texas, Coryell tried his hand at a number of instruments before settling on the guitar. Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry and Wes Montgomery were major influences. As a child Coryell studied piano, switching to ...
in the late 1960s. Some of the musicians expanded the boundaries of both jazz and rock, while others focused on producing sophisticated, but shallow, ‘background’ music. Although fusion records have never sold in huge quantities, the style has remained popular within the musical community during the past 30 years. The term ‘musician’s musician’ is often used to ...
The conga, or tumbadora (25–30 cm/10–15 in diameter, 50–60 cm/20–24 in long), is a single-headed Latin-American barrel drum used throughout South America, and in pop and jazz fusion music. The conga is the largest hand drum used in Latin America, and may be descended from Congolese makuta drums. In modern congas and bongos, the body is ...
Bass Guitar In 1951, guitar maker Leo Fender launched the first commercially available electric bass guitar, the Fender Precision. Compared to the cumbersome and often difficult-to-hear acoustic double bass, Fender offered an instrument that had many advantages. Not only was it louder because it was amplified – and more portable – it allowed for more precise intonation because ...
technology, using rhythmical speaking over drum loops and samples. As the influence of pop music has spread across the globe, countless new ensembles have been created from the fusion of world-music styles and rock influences, including Bhangra (Punjabi and Jamaican influences) and Salsa (Cuban and Puerto Rican influences). Small Jazz Groups Jazz groups, like pop groups, ...
By the 1970s, Brian Eno had produced the first ambient music, and Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis were writing epic compositions for synthesizers. Kraftwerk explored sampling, and their fusion of synthesized melodies and rigid electronic beats laid the foundation for techno and electro, while Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass’s minimalist works were precursors for ambient ...
the fuse had been lit and nothing was ever quite the same again. Musical boundaries shattered as the folk revival splintered. Electric folk bands emerged from all corners, leftfield fusion artists mixed’n’matched the music with other forms, and some artists hit the mainstream. A new sub-genre emerged with a forceful upsurge of Celtic musicians in the 1970s. The climax ...
fundamentally about improvising and the art of playing without premeditation – or, in the parlance of Louis Armstrong, ‘taking a scale and making it wail’. Cool jazz or fusion, swing-era big bands or bebop quintets, Dixieland or the avant-garde: the music thrives on a collective spirit of interplay and the daring chances taken by the participants individually ...
consciousness: there are few of us, adults or kids, who cannot hum the theme tune to The Muppet Show. The first entry focuses on contemporary Christian music: a fusion of the sacred and the secular, led by stars such as Larry Norman and Amy Grant, that seeks to enlighten its listeners as much as entertain them. Secondly ...
music of Afro-American origin. By 1954, the visionary and eclectic Charles, with his arrangement for bluesman Guitar Slim’s ‘The Things That I Used To Do’ and the irresistible fusion of jazz, blues and gospel on his own ‘I Got A Woman’ (later covered by Elvis Presley), had invented soul music – rock’s spiritual, sensual Afro-American twin. Soul ...
which Holdsworth was already developing many of what would become his signature phrasing and improvisational tools. He then spent time in the Cream-inspired project Tempest, before returning to the fusion of Soft Machine, Tony Williams’ Lifetime, Jean-Luc Ponty and the progressive-rock supergroup UK. By the late Seventies, Holdsworth decided to pursue a solo career and released his ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1978–present) This dreadlocked crew – Dr. Know (guitar), Darryl Jenifer (bass) and Earl Hudson (drums) – ditched jazz-fusion for thrash-punk. They wowed New York’s hip CBGB club, and released the excellent Rock The Light (1983). The volatile H.R. (‘throat’, not vocals) left and rejoined, as they incorporated reggae and funk on the likes of I ...
(Vocal/instrumental duo, 1930s–50s) Raised near Louisville, Kentucky, Cliff Carlisle (1904–83) was attracted as a boy to blues and Hawaiian music. His fusion of the two would make him one of the most distinctive musicians of his time. Playing the dobro resonator guitar with a slide, he transmuted the blue yodels of Jimmie Rodgers, becoming a popular ...
(Guitar, b. 1966) A French gypsy, Lagrene was hailed as Django Reinhardt’s heir upon the release of his first album at the age of 13. He has performed gypsy jazz in the company of swing veterans Benny Carter, Benny Goodman and Stéphane Grappelli, but has also developed a personal, fusion-oriented style and mixes both approaches in ...
prodigy Neal Schon gave the band a harder-edged dual-guitar sound for Santana (1971), also known as Santana III to avoid confusion with the first album. Caravanserai (1972) veered into jazz-rock fusion territory, and Santana’s commercial fortunes started to decline. Next came Amigos (1976). By returning to the Latin feel and adding a dose of funk, Carlos Santana arrived at ...
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