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