Jazz rock was the premise of the term "fusion." The Mahavishnu Orchestra was one of the first bands to bring a rock & roll audience to jazz-fusion.
Tony Williams first gained fame in the band of trumpeter Miles Davis and pioneered jazz fusion. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1986.

Bunny Brunel CAB: Four Sold Out Shows at the World Famous Baked Potato

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Concert Reviews

Bunny Brunel CAB performed four shows at the Baked Potato on June 1st-2nd, 2021. Jazz-fusion fans were in attendance, following strict protocol – A negative test or vaccinated. Covid restrictions hadn’t been lifted yet, and people were happy to get out again to socialize and social distance.  This was evidenced by the limited seating inside the club and out back inside the Baked Potato’s new addition, a covered patio fully equipped with TV screens and speakers. The club is known for its lineup of top musicians that range from jazz to blues. Keep Reading

Herbie Handcock’s Head Hunters (1973): Funk Meets Jazz-Fusion

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Album Reviews

Introducing funk to jazz-fusion (much like Mahavishnu Orchestra did with rock), Herbie Hancock wet our palate with the 15:44-minute track “Chameleon,” tricking us into believing this is an esoteric funk album . . . but it’s not. The composition “Chameleon” became (with 9 minutes shaved off of the original composition) a jazz standard composed by Herbie Hancock in collaboration with Bennie Maupin, Paul Jackson, and Harvey Mason, featuring solos by Hancock and Maupin. The composition has a bass line and is set to a funk beat and mostly built entirely on a two-chord vamp. And this 12-note bass line was played by Hancock on an ARP Odyssey, as well as was one of the keyboard solos. The other keyboard solo was played on a Fender Rhodes. Keep Reading

The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) – Attracting the Rock Crowd

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Album Reviews

The Inner Mounting Flame was the first album to have the power of hard rock and the improvisational aspects of jazz. It was the debut studio album by American jazz-rock fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra, recorded in August 1971, and released in November of the same year by Columbia Records. The album featured all original material written by guitarist John McLaughlin.

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In A Silent Way (1969) – Pure Genius With a Collaborative Musical Brilliance

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Album Reviews

Largely improvisational with strokes of a brush painting a musical picture is how one could describe Miles Davis In a Silent Way. Known for his more structured compositions, Davis’s methodology is incorporated in this pioneering fusion album. Side one of the LP gives us electric instruments (except for Miles’s trumpet) with John McLaughlin’s bent notes as he shines on guitar. With minimal improvisation, Miles plays more textural on his composition “Peaceful.” This is a subtle taste of what’s to emerge in the 1970s.

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