jazz fusion – Page 4

Chick Corea + Gary Burton | Crystal Silence

Longtime collaborators Chick Corea and Gary Burton, pianist and vibraphonist respectively, released their jazz duo album Crystal Silence in 1972. (A follow-up album, New Crystal Silence, was released in 2008.) Allmusic called the record “a sublime indication of what two master improvisers can do given quality raw material… Improvised music is rarely this coherent and melodic.”

Corea, a titanic pianist in the history of jazz music, is known for helping introduce the jazz fusion genre as a member of Miles Davis’s band in the 1960s. A 60-time Grammy nominated performer and 23-time winner, the 79 year old Corea passed away on February 11, 2021 from a rare form of cancer.

While this performance by Corea and Burton doesn’t directly modulate, the interplay and improvisation between the two push at the boundaries of the A minor tonality throughout, reflecting the innovative spirit Corea championed throughout his career.

Tigran Hamasyan (feat. Berklee Middle Eastern Fusion Ensemble) | Drip

“With pianist/composer Tigran Hamasyan,” reports the artist’s own website, “potent jazz improvisation fuses with the rich folkloric music of his native Armenia … he’s one of the most remarkable and distinctive jazz-meets-rock pianists of his generation … Tigran’s career has included an impressive number of accolades, including top piano award at the 2013 Montreux Jazz Festival and the grand prize at the prestigious 2006 Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition … he was applauded by NPR Music: ‘With startling combinations of jazz, minimalist, electronic, folk and songwriterly elements … Hamasyan and his collaborators travel musical expanses marked with heavy grooves, ethereal voices, pristine piano playing and ancient melodies.'”

Our regular contributor Carlo Migliaccio has submitted Tigran’s tune “Drip,” performed here in 2018 with the Berklee College of Music Middle Eastern Fusion Ensemble. The tune combines elements of Middle Eastern music with metal — just for starters. Carlo hasn’t taken on the huge task of charting the tune out, but sends his initial findings: “The tune starts in B minor. The first modulation is at 5:03, which seems to ascend up a major third to D#, but it quickly drops down a half step in a modal shift. The tonal center definitely moves to D on a G harmonic minor scale … so is that D harmonic minor mixolydian(?) The second modulation is at 7:08 and travels briefly down a major third to Bb minor, a half step below the starting key. A few bars later, the final modulation takes it down another half step for an ending in A minor, a whole step below the starting key … I think. My ears are playing tricks on me with this one, but I’m now on a Tigran Hamasyan kick as a result of this tune.”

Maxime Cholley, a French drummer and Berklee alum now based in New York City, has long been a proponent of Tigran’s work. Maxime performed on this track and recounts the session: “Working with Tigran Hamasyan was an incredible experience. He was very humble, patient, and thrilled to play with us and try new ideas on his own songs. At the end of a rehearsal, Tigran was working on a part and I joined him while the rest of the band packed up. As we played together, I clearly felt something that could be described as his ‘musical aura.’ His playing enhanced mine and both our sounds merged in the most satisfying way — as if each of his notes had some kind of sonic glue on it. His presence was absolutely mind blowing!”

Elaine Elias | Through the Fire

In advance of striking out on her own, Brazilian jazz pianist Elaine Elias studied at Juilliard before joining Steps Ahead, “a jazz supergroup featuring Michael Brecker, Peter Erskine, Mike Manieri, and Eddie Gomez. She recorded one album with the group, Steps Ahead, in 1983,” reports AllMusic. Elias has garnered praise as a “versatile pianist and singer who has played straight-ahead jazz, fusion, and Brazilian jazz with equal skill.”

“Through the Fire,” a tune co-written by pop writer/producer David Foster, is best known for its 1984 rendition by R&B singer Chaka Khan, which reached #60 on the US Billboard pop chart, #15 on the Hot R&B/Hiphop chart, and also received substantial Adult Contemporary airplay. Elias covered the tune only a few years later, collaborating with former Return to Forever bandmates Stanley Clarke (bass) and Lenny White (drums) for her cover on her 1986 debut as a leader, Illusions.

Though the tune is primarily in Ab major, Elias provides an interlude in A major between the chorus and the return to the verse (first heard at 1:46 – 2:04). This harmonic shift is emphasized all the more by the suddenly gentler groove, which drops away almost completely at times. At 4:54, the interlude returns again, morphing into an extended outro featuring a solo by Clarke in his distinctively guitaristic electric bass style, shifting to C major along the way.

The Dregs | Bloodsucking Leeches

“One of the top jazz-rock fusion ensembles ever, the Dixie Dregs combined virtuoso technique with eclecticism and a sense of humor and spirit too frequently lacking in similar project,” reports AllMusic. From Music Aficionado’s profile on the band: “During the Georgia-based Dregs’ heyday in the late 70s and early 80s, their output consisted of longish instrumental workouts that mixed elements of southern rock, bluegrass, prog, metal, classical, jazz and fusion, among other styles, all of it shot through with ridiculously complex technical acrobatics,” The band’s name was initially The Dixie Dregs, but the group dropped “Dixie” from the name towards the end of its run. The group was led by guitarist Steve Morse (also known for his work with Deep Purple).

Founding bassist Andy West says of “Bloodsucking Leeches” (1982), via Music Aficionado: “This song is our statement on the music industry at the time, which is where the title comes from. The feel of this one, to me, it’s not quite metal, but it’s definitely rock. If you trace it back, it’s like a Led Zeppelin kind of thing, if Led Zeppelin had kept on going.” Maybe — if Zeppelin had “kept on going” right off the edge of the planet and into its own unique universe of southern-fried funk/rock!

Starting in E major, 0:38 shifts to a focus on the closely-related key of A major, a much bigger jump to G major at 1:25, back to A at 1:53, and a return to E at 2:13. The shifts continue until the tune settles back into E major in its final seconds (3:54).

Reign of Kindo | Dust

Reign of Kindo‘s music, according to AllMusic, features “the introspective Brit-pop influences of bands like Coldplay and Keane, but placing the piano front and center and mixing complex jazz harmonies and dissonances with the pop sensibilities of a Ben Folds.” The band has toured with a small central core of musicians, but makes its main impression with the sprawling instrumentation featured in this live recording session. Recording live in the studio, with no overdubs, is a feat on its own — but the band has also added the challenge of capturing the process on video.

The ensemble doesn’t fit neatly into a genre, sitting somewhere between the prog rock, pop, and jazz worlds. The band’s website explains: “It is piano-driven Alt-Jazz…Latin and R&B close by …since the debut EP hit #5 on the Billboard Middle Atlantic Heatseekers chart in 2007, this band has only just begun to emerge from their decade-long journey from rags to… better rags with resumes.”

Starting in C minor, an extended multi-key middle section runs from 1:40 through 3:19. At 3:19, there’s a clear return to C minor.

Lee Ritenour | Turn the Heat Up

Co-written by Kelly McNulty, guitarist/composer Lee Ritenour, and Eric Tagg, “Turn the Heat Up,” is an album track from Ritenour’s 1987 album, Portrait. The sound came from the most pop-centric corner of jazz fusion. One of the few tracks on the album to feature vocals, it caught the crest of the smooth jazz wave.

Starting with an intro in F minor, the emphasis shifts to the relative Ab major as the verse begins at 0:23. At 1:03, the pre-chorus leads us back to F minor as the chorus starts at 1:12. The pattern holds until 2:35, where there’s a whole-step modulation up to G minor/Bb major.

Ronnie Laws | Always There

Saxophonist Ronnie Laws, the younger brother of flutist Hubert Laws, started his career in the band of trumpeter Hugh Masekela. In 1972, Laws joined R+B/funk legends Earth, Wind + Fire and played on their album Last Days and Time before moving on to his solo career.

During 1975, Laws teamed up with jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd, known as one of the only jazz musicians from the Bebop era who also explored funk and soul while remaining primarily in the jazz genre. According to AllAboutJazz.com, with Byrd’s assistance, Laws “soon signed his first recording contract with Blue Note records, resulting in the impressive debut album Pressure Sensitive (1975)…The release rapidly emerged to become the longest-selling album,” to date, in the 42-year history of the storied record label, reaching #25 on the Billboard Soul chart and gaining extraordinarily broad rotation across R&B, Soul, Jazz, and Rock radio stations.

The track is built around slightly off-kilter tuning, but it’s closest to F# minor. What’s definitely clear is the bridge’s departure from the regular key, as well as from the otherwise all-pervasive groove, from 3:01 – 3:28.

Lyle Mays | Long Life

We’re very saddened to hear of the death, at age 66, of keyboardist, composer, and arranger Lyle Mays yesterday. From the archive at University of North Texas, whose conservatory Mays attended: Starting in the 1970s, as part of the Pat Metheny Group, Mays “provided arrangements, orchestration, and the harmonic and metric backbone of the group’s musical signature.” Jazz Times reports: “While the band bore the guitarist’s name, Mays was a crucial factor in their success. He and Metheny co-wrote most of the music, including the 1985 score for the film The Falcon and the Snowman. Mays … was responsible for the synthesizer sound that gave their music its distinctive contemporary fusion aesthetic.”

The Metheny Group’s site features a tribute from Metheny: “Lyle was one of the greatest musicians I have ever known…From the first notes we played together, we had an immediate bond. His broad intelligence and musical wisdom informed every aspect of who he was in every way. I will miss him with all my heart.”

Mays’ solo albums Lyle Mays (1986) and Street Dreams (1988) branched out from the Metheny Group’s trademark sound; Fictionary (1993), a more traditional jazz trio recording, featured Marc Johnson on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The enigmatic “Long Life,” from Mays’ final release Solo (Improvisations for Expanded Piano) (2000), features near-constant harmonic pivots. Starting in Eb major, the track goes on a profound yet meandering trip, returning back to its Eb “home” at 2:56 and 5:44.

Steely Dan | West of Hollywood

The unique rock/jazz fusion sound of Steely Dan is well known to most. But their 2000 album, Two Against Nature, featured a more experimental focus than most of the band’s other releases. The tune “West of Hollywood” has a multi-minute outro which kicks the modulations into high gear starting at about 4:30.

A poster on the website Music in Practice and Theory sought insight on the complex outro: “Many, many modulations–this song must surely have set some kind of record with the sheer number of tonal-center changes during the outtro. Often, the tonal center is established only for a few measures, and the transitions happen so quickly that the listener barely notices.”

Mike Stern | Slow Change

Guitarist Mike Stern is described by AllMusic as “one of the finest electric guitarists of his generation, well-versed in the jazz tradition fusion, hard rock, and blues. His style combines phrasing normally attributed to saxophonists, innovative chord voicings pioneered by Jim Hall, and the sonic approach of a rock musician and the soulful, emotive expression of a bluesman.”

On 2001’s “Slow Change,” the A section (0:48) is in E minor; the B section jumps to G minor (1:41); we’re back to the A section at 2:16. The two sections continue to alternate throughout.