Weather Report, Fusion, Smooth Jazz - Young Lions & Hip Hop

Topics we will discuss and learn:

• Many of the musicians from Miles Davis’ groups started fusion bands
• Fusion was a general term for electronic music mixed with jazz
• Smooth Jazz is a term for instrumental popular music
• “The Young Lions” was a name given to the new generation of musicians that played “traditional jazz”
• Avante garde musicians
• Hip hop is another cultural art form from the African American tradition that has the same elements as jazz but expresses them in a poetic form

Many of the musicians from Miles Davis’ groups started fusion bands

The musicians from Miles’s bands that led their own bands were:

Joe Zawinul - keyboards

Wayne Shorter - saxophone

John McLaughlin - guitar

Chick Corea - keyboards

Herbie Hancock - keyboards

Tony Williams - drums

Fusion was a general term for electronic music mixed with jazz

Much of the fusion music differed from traditional jazz because it had a “backbeat” instead of the traditional jazz swing feel.  Fusion also employed the use of electronic instruments and the electric bass was used instead of the upright bass for more amplification.  Collective improvisation was also used in fusion in a way that was rhythmically and harmonically different from Dixieland jazz.  Some fusion musicians include:

Pat Metheny - guitar

John Scofield – guitar

Grover Washington Jr. – saxophone

George Benson – guitar

Gerald Albright - saxophone

Najee - saxophone

David Sanborn – saxophone

Marcus Miller - bass

Jaco Pastorius – bass

John Patittucci – bass

Dave Weckl - drums

Omar Hakim - drums

Smooth Jazz is a term for instrumental popular music

Much of the music played on radio stations today that call themselves jazz stations play smooth jazz.  This style of music uses traditional jazz instruments such as the saxophone, trumpet, piano, or guitar as solo instruments that play popular song melodies over synthesized, electronic tracks.  It differs from fusion only slightly.  The main difference is the predictability and simplicity of the music.  Fusion aims more at creativity whereas smooth jazz is aimed more at playing a catchy tune for people to sing.

Artists in the smooth jazz idiom are:

Kenny G - saxophone

Gerald Albright - saxophone

Najee - saxophone

David Sanborn - saxophone

Alex Bugnon – piano

Chris Boti- trumpet

Chuck Mangione - trumpet

“The Young Lions” was a name given to the new generation of musicians that played “traditional jazz”

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, there were many musicians playing the older styles of bebop, hardbop, and modal jazz as opposed to the electronic music of fusion jazz.  These musicians were touted as the next generation of jazz and were seen as resurrecting the music to a respectable place in the industry.  They were clean-cut, wore nice suits and presented themselves with an air of sophistication.  These musicians were known as “The Young Lions.”  They were:

Wynton Marsalis - trumpet

Branford Marsalis - saxophone

Terrence Blanchard - trumpet

Kenny Garrett - saxophone

Jacky Terrason - piano

Jeff “Tain” Watts - drums

Carl Allen - drums

Reginald Veal - bass

Marcus Roberts - piano

Roy Hargrove - trumpet

Antonio Hart - saxophone

Tim Warfield -saxophone

Joshua Redman - saxophone

Nicholas Payton – trumpet

Christian McBride – bass

 

Avant Garde musicians

Some musicians continued to create music that would be considered art music.  The most notable collective of musician is the group that played music known as Mbase (metrically based music or music based on numbers).  They compose and improvise over “odd” meters such as 9/8 or 7/8 time much like Dave Brubeck in his tune “Take Five” which was played in 5/4 time.   Some of the most notable musicians in the Mbase movement are:

Steve Coleman - saxophone

Geri Allen - piano

Greg Osby - saxophone

Andy Milne - piano

Hip hop is another cultural art form from the African American tradition that has the same elements as jazz but expresses them in a poetic form

Hip hop has the foundational elements of jazz:

Swing feeling

Improvisation

However it is a spoken word art form and except for the “hook” of the song has no recognizable melody or harmony.  Rhythm is the key element of hip hop and syncopation is frequently used to create rhythmic interest in a repetitious musical setting.

           

Terms and topics to know:

Fusion

Opus Akoben

John Coltrane and the Avant Garde

Topics we will discuss and learn:

• John Coltrane created new harmonic progressions that revolutionized the music
• Coltrane extended Miles Davis’ modal approach that took jazz to the next era
• Coltrane brought spirituality and world cultures to the forefront in jazz music
• Avant garde movement
• Key figures in the avant garde

John Coltrane created new harmonic progressions that revolutionized the music

Coltrane mastered the bebop language set forth by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and began to play the phrases and patterns with such speed and facility they were called, by the jazz critic Leonard Feather, “sheets of sound.”

In bebop Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie added more chord changes to familiar tunes to make them more challenging and interesting.  Coltrane took this approach a step further and added different chord changes based on mathematical principles.  His new chord progressions became known as “Coltrane changes.”  The changes move in intervals of a minor third and a fourth and can be substituted over the traditional bebop and swing era ii-V chord changes.

Coltrane extended Miles Davis’ modal approach that took jazz to the next era

Miles began writing tunes that had less chord changes as opposed to more of them.  He followed the same forms of songwriting such as the Blues form and the AABA song form but used less chords.  To improvise over these songs musicians such as Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, and John Coltrane used scales which are known as modes to create melodic solos, hence the term “modal jazz.” This freed up the musicians from having to navigate their way over restrictive bebop chord changes.  Instead they could make up their own changes over the music.  Coltrane took this idea of modal playing and suffused his new approach to chord changes.  This gave him many ideas which he took long solos to try and explore them.  Some of his solos lasted for 15 to 30 minutes long. 

Coltrane brought spirituality and world cultures to the forefront in jazz music

Coltrane studied many world cultures including those of India, Africa, Middle East and China in a quest to understand the religious and musical traditions of various peoples.  This impacted his music not only in the naming of various tunes such as “India” and “Africa,” but in the scales and patterns that he played which were based on certain five-note or pentatonic scales that existed in various regions. 

He also was very spiritual having been brought up in the Black church tradition and his album “A Love Supreme” is about the love of God.  He believed in all religions as a pathway to God and felt that music was a way for people to reach the spirit world.

Avant Garde movement

The avant garde movement created a huge division in the audience of jazz.  Many people felt that the new free jazz was not jazz at all, it wasn’t even music.  Free jazz sought to break through the boundaries of chord changes, structure, and rhythm and create a new music based solely on the interaction between the musicians and their feeling and mood at the time.  This demanded a lot from the improviser because there was nothing for him/her to fall back on and they had to come up with completely new ideas within their solos.

Key figures in the avant garde

Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone player who released an album called “Free Jazz”

which became the moniker of the avant garde movement.  He improvised without preset chord changes and chorus lengths to make a music “free” of the conventional jazz structure.

            Charles Mingus – bass player and composer who played with many of the jazz greats

including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie and is second only to Ellington in the breadth and scope of his compositions.  He wrote more than 150 pieces and blended many eras of jazz from Dixieland and Swing to Bebop and Free Jazz. 

Sun Ra – bandleader and composer who led an avant garde big band that played and

performed music that was based on world music and chants.  They also played eclectic instruments and used collective improvisation in a big band setting.

Cecil Taylor – pianist that had amazing technique and was a key figure in the avant

garde movement.  His improvisations were more about textures than creating melody.

Eric Dolphy – alto saxophone player, flute player, and bass clarinetist who played

with Coltrane and experimented with the range of sounds each instrument

could make by mimicking bird calls and other sounds.

            Art Ensemble of Chicago – an avant garde collective of musicians and performers who

were based out of Chicago and put on a full performance complete with poetry in their shows.

           

Terms and topics to know:

Avant garde

Coltrane changes

Miles Davis and His Groups

Topics we will discuss and learn:

• Miles Davis is credited with spawning several of the key jazz movements
• Miles’ sideman are the main figures in jazz after the Bebop era

Miles Davis is credited with spawning several of the key jazz movements

Miles first started with Charlie Parker and in the Bebop era and his career would span the rest of the other eras in jazz except the current era of Young Lions.  

·         He is credited with helping to start the Cool Jazz movement with his album “The Birth of the Cool.” 

·         He is also credited with starting the Modal Jazz movement with his album “Kind of Blue.” 

·         He played a free style of jazz with his group that included Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter. 

·         He is credited with starting the jazz rock-fusion era with his album “Bitches Brew.”

Miles’ sideman are the main figures in jazz after the Bebop era

Miles’ groups are a family lineage of jazz music.  Apart from Art Blakey no one else has the same caliber of membership.

Miles’ groups in the 1950’s – 1960’s:

Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone

John Coltrane – tenor saxophone

Cannonball Adderly – alto saxophone

Red Garland – piano

Bill Evans - piano

Wynton Kelly - piano

Paul Chambers – bass

Philly Jo Jones - drums

Jimmy Cobb – drums

Miles’ groups in the 1960’s:

Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophone

Herbie Hancock - piano

Ron Carter - bass

Tony Williams – drums

Miles’ groups in the 1970’s

Wayne Shorter - keyboards

Herbie Hancock - keyboards

Joe Zawinul - keyboards

Chick Corea – keyboards

Keith Jarrett - keyboards

John McLaughlin – guitar

Marcus Miller – bass

Mike Henderson - bass

Tony Williams – drums

Jack DeJohnette – drums

Terms and topics to know:

Fusion

Horace Silver, Art Blakey and Hard Bop

Topics we will discuss and learn:

• Hardbop was a mixture of bebop, gospel music, and blues
• Key figures in Hardbop

Hardbop was a mixture of bebop, gospel music, and the blues

Cool jazz was a response to bebop’s angularity and fire and hardbop was a response to cool jazz’s light evenness.  Hardbop was a funky, down-home version of bebop that used blues elements and gospel influences to reach out to its audience.  Many songs got regular play on the radio and in jukeboxes with titles like, “Cornbread,” ”Cookin,” and others.

Key figures in Hardbop

            Horace Silver – pianist and founder of the Jazz Messengers who left and went on

to create many jazz standards such as “Song For My Father.”

            Art Blakey – drummer and founder of the Jazz Messengers and took over its

leadership bringing in many notable jazz musicians such as Jackie

McLean, Clifford Brown, Johnny Griffin, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Wynton and Branford Marsalis

            Clifford Brown – phenomenal trumpet player who was “clean” (didn’t do drugs or

smoke) who died young in a car accident.

            Miles Davis – trumpeter who spanned many eras of jazz from bebop, cool jazz,

hardbop, modal, fusion and is credited with starting most of them

            Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophonist from the Caribbean who played in Miles early

groups and later changed his style after leaving jazz and playing on the

Willingsborough bridge in NYC only to come back harder and stronger

Cannonball Adderley – amazing alto saxophone player who played in Miles’ most

notable group of this period who played very fast and bouncy

            John Coltrane – phenomenal tenor saxophone player who played in Miles’ most

notable group of this period who had a distinct sound that seemed to be

searching for more

            Wayne Shorter – tenor saxophonist and composer who wrote many jazz standards

including “Fee Fi Fo Fum,” “Speak No Evil,” and “Peace”

            Jackie McClean – alto player who had a distinct tone that sounded out of tune

but was swinging and inventive

            Paul Chambers – bass player with Miles in his most notable group of this period

who had a thick sound and a strong sense of swing

Red Garland – piano player with Miles in his most notable group of this period

who is famous for playing block chords

Philly Joe Jones – drummer with Miles in his most notable group of this period

whose style of drum playing was considered “textbook” for many

musicians for small ensemble jazz playing.

           

Terms and topics to know:

funky

block chords