Who's afraid of Fusion?

[Blazer]

In response to what was being said in the Jeff Berlin thread that "Fusion has a very small following" and that the general consesus was that you could fall alseep to it. I decided to start a threat where we celebrate fusion because I'm sure that even that kind of music has some interrest on this forum. And that fusion can be fun and funky to listen to.


Chick Corea - "Got a match?"
Listen to Corea and Bassplayer John Pattitucci playing the main riff in unisone and having so much fun doing so.


Miles Davis - "Tutu"
In my opinion one of his finest moments of the later part of his career. Marcus Miller plays a starring role in this performance by just providing the low end an doing nothing more than that but being incredibly good it at. Note also Foley, playing a tenor bass (Tuned A-D-G-C)


Stanley Clarke and Jeff Beck - "Lopsy Lu"
Can't deny the fun in this performance.

[SKATE RAT]

 

[Dave W]

IMHO it's a load of goadawful self-masturbatory crap. I'm not "afraid" of it... I loathe it.

YMMV, of course. You may hate some music I like. You probably do. And that doesn't bother me. I like what I like, and I'll never like fusion in any form, shape or fashion.

Fusion has a small following. That doesn't make it good or bad. Still, it's a fact. You're not going to change that fact by posting a bunch of clips, and you're not going to convince anyone to like it by trying to explain it.

[SKATE RAT]

go listen to DEVO !

[hollowbody]

Man, I pressed pause on the Meters live recording I'm listening to for this? 

IMHO, Chick Cora is hands down the least "musical" musician on the planet.   

[Freuds_Cat]

Um, if SC is such a good bass player then why does he always play with a "Bass Player".

[n!k]

Well I listen to fusion! I should clarify that I am referring to Stanley Clarke, later Soft Machine, Chick Corea, later Zappa, etc. I don't personally care for Berlin, especially because he looks like some kind of mutation of Mario from Mario Brothers and Jimmy Buffet.

Some of these old guys who post here are still telling themselves hair metal was good though, so truly we are a varied lot.

[Barklessdog]

Fusion, to me was eye opening at the time, I loved it, but since has become a tired Genre to me , at least Jazz Rock fusion. Fusing genres  could go as far as Prog Rock Metal or any genre including Paul Simon.

Jazz Rock I believe is to what most people consider fusion to be. Jeff Beck really popularized it to the masses with Wired and then Jan Hammer ruined it with Miami Vice.

[Chris P.]

 

[Barklessdog]

This will wake you up Chris - get out your pink sports coat and dance



Live version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZvEJaCXC5s&feature=related

[gweimer]

Not much of a fusion fan, but that isn't surprising, since I don't care for jazz, either.  The really odd thing is that I love King Crimson, although a lot of their live improv leaves me scratching my head.  I actually auditioned for a band when I was 19 that turned out to be a fusion band.  It was a violinist and a drummer, with me.  I took a deep breath, pulled out my best John Wetton, and survived the hour-long ordeal.  I didn't get an offer, but they seemed a little surprised that a metalhead like me managed to keep up.

[patman]

I like it when it's music

I like Miles---even later Miles

[hieronymous]

I have always liked virtuosic music, be it metal, prog, classical, etc. Jazz is very harmonically sophisticated, I love hearing it wedded to rock. The first really electric Return to Forever album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, is spastic and insane, almost metal, but with latin elements as well. The early Mahavishnu Orchestra is also spastic, but with Indian rhythms. The mid-'70s Miles Davis stuff blows my mind - I love the late '60s stuff when Dave Holland was playing electric bass, the version of "Bitches Brew" on the Fillmore album is almost metal (can you tell I like metal?), and especially Agharta & Pangaea, which are deep African space-funk from the distant past/future.

I know this isn't going to convert anybody, I guess I'm a little surprised at the venom with which people are putting down "fusion". Actually, I don't care about labels, there is specific music I like and nobody else has to like it, I could care less about a label, which often gets in the way of music.

[Barklessdog]

I know this isn't going to convert anybody, I guess I'm a little surprised at the venom with which people are putting down "fusion". Actually, I don't care about labels, there is specific music I like and nobody else has to like it, I could care less about a label, which often gets in the way of music.

++++1000 but is so true of music, one music sounds so great to one person then is unlistenable to another. THEN YOU WONDER WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM!

Joe Satriani could be lumped into this as well. Joe & Steve Via stumbled on "dumbing it down" to a metal head banging audience to get more appeal and avoid the dreaded "fusion" label which became a dirty word in the music biz.

I think limiting your taste in music is the saddest offense and not being open minded, or growing as a musician and a person. That is what to me is horrible. You can find good & bad in any genre of music if you want.

Dumbing music down has been done for mass consumption / commercially viable, for all genre's

Jazz - Gorge Benson, Kenny G & Herb Albert

Blues - Robert Cray

Prog - Journey & Kansas

Fusion - Joe Satriani & Steve Vai

Punk - Hoobastank or any other "fake" punk band today

Guitar Hero & Rock Band - dumbing down the musical experience in general.

[patman]

George Benson can really play---sing too

Some of his stuff I may not care for....but the man is like Nat King Cole---he sings wonderfully and plays well also...

Wish I had a tenth of his innate ability