Fusion Jazz

Electric instruments, funk and rock beats gave jazz improvisation a new chassis.

Related

ContemporaryExtended ChordElectric guitarMinimoog

Fusion brought electric instruments, funk and rock beats into jazz in the late 1960s, taking improvisation off the swing ride cymbal.

Origins and era

Miles Davis's In a Silent Way in 1969 and Bitches Brew in 1970 introduced electric piano, electric bass, distorted guitar and studio editing. In the 1970s Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters, Weather Report, Chick Corea's Return to Forever and John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra pulled fusion toward funk, world music, rock and odd metres.

What you hear

Hi-hat and snare often land on the rock or funk backbeat, and the bass plays short electric patterns instead of walking. Electric piano, synthesizer and distorted guitar colour long stretches of harmony. A tune may pivot on one riff or bass figure, with long solos and little need for constant resolution. Weather Report's Birdland and Hancock's Chameleon mark the melodic and the funk paths.

Key figures

Miles Davis is the starting point of the electric turn; Herbie Hancock joined funk beats to keyboard harmony; Chick Corea brought Latin rhythm and synthesizers into fusion; Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter made collective colour the band's language. John McLaughlin, Jaco Pastorius and Billy Cobham extended the guitar, bass and drums.

Lineage

Modal jazz, hard bop, rock and funk feed in; smooth jazz, jazz-funk, acid jazz and nu-jazz come out. Fusion places jazz improvisation inside electric and dance-music settings.

Common misunderstandings

Fusion is not smooth jazz: the former often has sharp timbres and complex rhythm, while the latter is a later radio format. Nor is it rock with solos, since jazz harmony and interaction remain central. Treating it as a brief 1970s fashion ignores its continuation in jazz-funk and contemporary jazz.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry Fusion（Oxford University Press），用于核对年代与人物
• Paul Tingen, Miles Beyond（Billboard Books, 2001），用于核对迈尔斯电声时期

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.