I was never really introduced to fusion style music until I came to GMC where I found it very intriguing. I was wondering if you could turn me on to some good fusion music. A long list isn't necessary just two or three of your favorite artists would greatly be appreciated. Thank you and keep up the good music.

Hello Swingline!

Certainly, no problem. However i will warn you-you may get hooked! I did!

Here goes:

-Scott Henderson ('Tribal tech' stuff or any other album)

-ROBBEN FORD-Nuff said, especially his early stuff 'Inside story'. But check out his Diminishes ideas in a blues context too.

-Frank Gambale-His stuff with MVP

-John Scofield

-Brett Garsed

-Mike Stern

-Guthrie Govan

-Miles Davis-Not guitar obviously, but started the whole 'jazz-rock' movement with 'Bitches Brew'.

-Herbie Hancock

These guys are at the top of the list for 'fusion' for me. Fusion can mean any two or more genre's blended together, but it has become synonymnous with jazz rock, jazz funk etc.

Hope this helps,

-Ben

Im abit drunk right now but I just spotted this thread and I thought it would be a good place to ask about this kind of thing....

I was just wondering Ben if you know good jazz/metal bands... im sorta after anything related to those 2 genres really... just like some nice heavy jazz or some crankin metal with sweet jazz elements eh..

Sorry if this is the wrong place or I dont really make too much sense but I am fairly wasted at the moment and im just really keen at the moment...

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Just kidding Hungus! I would like to hear a jazz metal band too.

Hello Hungus!

In response to your intoxicated question ( ), none as far as i am aware of.

See, jazz is based on 'swing' 8th notes as melody, and metal is based heavily on straight 8th notes chug for rythm, and for lead (mainly).

That combined with the dynamics of jazz (soft attack for the most part), Jazz and heavy metal dont really mix in a traditional sense ofcourse.

At this point, the closest your going to get is fusion based jazz, like scott henderson or guthrie govan.

However, If anyone has heard of a band though, id love to hear it...

-Ben

Well man actually Opeth mixes elements of jazz in with their mainly death metal sound (also blues, folk and what not) but I am looking for some more jazz sounding stuff thats just heavy.

Cheers for the suggestions Ben but right now I am getting trashed with my mates so I cant really have a good suss but I deffinitly will in the morning when im more sober (provided I remember)... anyway I was kinda going somewhere with this but then my mate fell off his chair and I was pretty distracted by that so I have forgotten what I was on about and now im just rambling so im just gonna end it....

sorry dude.... I will try to go about this in a more coherently manner when I am sober tomorrow but if I didnt now I would not think of it again till about a month later when I was wasted again..... I just seem to think about music alot more when im wasted.

I just seem to think about music alot more when im wasted.
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At some point in life you will get bored of wasted time and think/play even more music

well thats good if you are drunk and thinking about music, just pick up your guitar and play! That's what i am dooing

And Larry Carlton!

How could i forget

Heres a link ive literally found to him on the net, check it out, his note choice and phrasing is exquisite!

http://www.mr335.tv/

-Ben

If I may respond to this,I would say that difficulty to mix metal and jazz is in fact that jazz keeps running on lower borders of power,high-output energy...it's more like being a smooth all the time,tho I'm not talking of smooth jazz now
On the other side,metal is what it is,hard kicking,bursting etc...which I love of course
But putting chromatic stuff into metal is not really mixing metal and jazz,cause jazz is also about feeling,ambience,atmosphere along with scales and theory

well said

Though if we widened the fusion to jazz/rock (rather than jazz rock) then there are arguably a lot of cross overs although perhaps it really depends on where you see the border (if indeed you see a border). Just where would we put some of the Mahavishnu Orchestra stuff, a lot of Zappa, even Miles dabbled (arguably) in the late 80s when Scofield was on guitar? Mike Stern (great player) can rock out as can Holdsworth. Medeski, Martin and Wood can switch genres. Carlton (great player and spot on Ben ) sessions in fusion and rock. Pat Metheny - normally very melodic Jazz (not including the wonderful free jazz he does with Ornette here - though that is melodic but in a very different way) recorded the very different 'Zero tolerance' album and that is as close to sonic feedback as most of us are ever likely to get - rock, metal or jazz.

Nonetheless jazz/metal errr could be a marriage made in hell.

Cheers,
Tony

Great as always Tony!!!

hey ben, im a huge frank gambale fan, but who is MVP? mabe im not as big of a fan as i think. i checked itunes, and i cant find MVP, or at least not anything that frank gambale was involved with, (unless he was a part of that latin rap album).

Very wise words Tony. Im not really a believer of categorisation either, but hey, when you have students you have to be able to roughly define stuff

I need to check out the Zero Tolerance album soon!

-Ben

Maybe I should preface Metheny's 'Zero tolerance' album with a government health warning (well it sort of does as it comes with a thumbs up from Thurston Moore - whom I hasten to add I like both solo and with Sonic Youth). It involves an awful lot of discordant guitar feedback and some people have described it as unlistenable. My wife and I each have some cds that the other really can't take (despite us both having eclectic taste) and we agree to play them only if the other is out of the house - she can't listen to it (our cats don't like it either). But hey she also can't abide Diamanda de Galas, Controlled Bleeding, Sonic Youth, Matmos, Autrechre and a lot of very experimental stuff- me, I hate her Bulgerian bagpipers and the ambient stuff her sister keeps giving her for birthdays and XMas - each to their own.

Anyway anyone interested in Zero might want to check out some audio clips first as it is not like any Metheny you have heard before. It pretty much polarises opinion in to love and extreme hate. Have a look at the listener's opinions on Amazon for an example of that - some are really quite profound and some profoundly stupid.

Cheers,
Tony