“Fusion music describes what happens when musical styles are combined together to make something new.
Fusion music usually combines two different styles.
Successful fusion music is often controversial as it tries to combine the traditional and the new, mixing things up.
When two styles of music are fused in this way, it can create a new scene of musicians, new record labels and events where musicians can meet up and exchange ideas.”(BBC Bitesize, n.d.)
Fusion is not only combining two different genres, it is experimentation. The easiest way of making it and looking at it is through the eyes of combing genres.
The most common kind of fusion is Jazz fusion. Jazz is a very experimental genre of music so it was the natural evolution to take it further and add different elements to it.
One of the earliest examples of Fusion Music is Miles Davis. He was a Jazz composer and trumpeter and one of the most well-recognised people in the scene with classic albums such as A Kind of Blue. Later in his career, he started experimenting, the first example of this was Bitches Brew, which can be seen as the start of the fusion genre. This is where Davis started moving away from the music he had made before, he had a completely different band with a lot more people to work with and he wasn’t making Jazz music anymore. It also wasn’t commercial music, as Davis’ fusion work and the majority of fusion records have very long track lengths so they wouldn’t get radio play, usually have strange rhythms so they aren’t songs you can dance to and usually don’t have lyrics. The music was purely made to discover new sounds, combine elements from different genres to make new sounds, and most importantly, to make a good song.
Many musicians who were part of Miles Davis’s bands over the years ended up creating their own popular fusion records in the 1970s. Chick Corea with his supergroup Return to Forever, incorporated jazz, rock, Brazilian, electronic, and Latin elements into their music. Their 1976 album Romantic Warrior was their biggest commercial success, and one I like and take inspiration from. (Chick Corea Artist Services, 2009) Herbie Hancock was part of Miles Davis’ quintet, and he went on to become one of the biggest names in Fusion. His style incorporated jazz funk and electronic elements into his music. He is most well known for his album Head Hunters and more specifically his song Chameleon. Weather Report also came from Miles Davis, as it was started by keyboardist and composer Joe Zawinul. Zawinul pioneered the use of the electric piano and the synthesizer, as it was new technology, his experimentation, whilst already being a great pianist, led to the creation of new sounds and a completely different way of playing these instruments. Jaco Pastorius, a great bass player, was the bassist in Weather Report for a time. This meant that bass was always a highlight in this band as Pastorius was always creative and innovative with his bass riffs—Weather Report combined world music, R&B, jazz, and funk. The track Birdland was their most successful and shows all of these elements. These are just three of the defining acts of jazz fusion, there are many more.(Gioia, 1997, 325–345) But from these three acts, you can see that fusion has a couple of defining traits, however, experimentation is the main thing with Fusion so every song is different from the last.(Masterclass, 2021)
I researched this for the first few weeks of this project until I decided to change the genre to EDM and pop. The reason for the change is it would have taken me more time than I had to create a good set. It was very challenging for me to learn about hybrid drumming and implement it whilst playing very complicated songs and using new techniques.
BBC Bitesize (n.d.). Fusion music – KS3 Music. [online] BBC Bitesize. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zr4fscw [Accessed 1 Oct. 2024].
MasterClass (2021). Jazz Fusion Guide: A Brief History of Jazz Fusion. [online] MasterClass. Available at: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/jazz-fusion-guide [Accessed 1 Oct. 2024].`
Chick Corea Artist Services. “Return to Forever: 1972-78 | Chick Corea.” Chick Corea, chickcorea.com/bio/1972-78/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.
Gioia, Ted. The History of Jazz. 1997. 2nd ed., New York, Oxford University Press, 30 June 2011, pp. 325–345.