Beginner's Guide to Jazz Fusion | Off Beat

An exploration of the birth and aesthetics of jazz fusion.
#Music #OffBeat #VideoEssay #JazzFusion
Support the Channel: ko-fi.com/offbeat
For any enquiries: [e-mail]
Music Used:
"Cold Funk" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Title: carioca sea
Author: Angus
Source: www.jamendo.com/track/1171561
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Royalty Free Music found @ starfrosch.com/hot-100/royalt...
Title: about me
Author: Angus
Source: www.jamendo.com/track/1171560
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Royalty Free Music found @ starfrosch.com/hot-100/royalt...

[@ak-ox3jf]

one video in and this channel is great. keep it up

[@jameswright4732]

John Smith two videos in and it's getting better

[@brannonevans3685]

I have been into Jazz/fusion for years now. People ask me what I like, and I tell them, Im really into jazz/fusion, and they look at me like I have lobsters crawling out of my ears or something.

[@bustamante-music]

who are your favorites?

[@jasoncampbell3955]

You neglected to mention Tony Williams Lifetime's 1969 album, "Emergency!" It was a seminal aspect of fusion.

[@IamTAYOW]

Would also like to add that Betty Davis was a huge influence on Miles Davis as well. She helped usher him into his new style, swag and spiritualism. Great video!

[@NINT3ND0master]

Wynton be like “embrace amateur musicianship” 🤣

[@TheNavalAviator]

7:40 Ah yes, I myself am a virtuoso on the beer bottles!

[@valleysofneptune]

Miles’ electric period can be directly associated with his meeting and spending time with Jimi Hendrix , which he said Hendrix’s Machine Gun blew his mind. Hendrix had a recording session set up with Miles Davis before Jimi’s untimely death, but it didn’t happen as Miles demanded $50k just before the session.

[@_jeronimobraga]

Nice!

[@AlmostEthical]

Also Larry Coryell, "the godfather of fusion". On the other side of the Atlantic, there was Soft Machine, Gong and the bands of the Canterbury Scene. Also Klaus Doldinger's Passport and Brand X.

[@yanncarduner4516]

yes!

[@niklasvonwerne5837]

I'm so glad to have discovered a great channel at less than 200 subs

[@vang5982]

Gary burton quartet - Duster in 1967 was birthplace of jazz fusion with larry coryell

[@IsmaelMulti]

This video is pure gold!

[@vincentbwang]

really exciting video essays!! can't wait to see more

[@kevlee57]

Poor Wynton, watching "amateur musicianship" produce essential jazz music while he's stuck in the 1950s.

[@willemschuurman2760]

Condescending narcisist jazz fundamentalist😂 and nerdy chamber scholar. New Orleans eat your heart out😜

[@2can2do]

:(

[@yuribillones5094]

Who's Wynton? 😂

[@Get_Yo_Life]

Nothing wrong with keeping the original sound around.

[@leakdeo]

@@yuribillones5094im assuming OP is referring to wynton marsalis, who shamed jazz fusion when it started and didnt consider it to be real jazz.

[@joshuajames1291]

Really great video, learned quite a lot from this vid. Maybe you could go further or make a part 2? 🤔 It'd be nice to see a video on some of the old jazz fusion bands still playing today and/or what has changed since the 70's - 80's to now. (Think of fourplay, casiopea, t - square, yellow jackets, etc).

[@johnhguitar]

What a nice piece. Short and sweet right to the points. Being a little younger than everyone I always looked up to these musicians. My dream was always to play in one of those bands at one time or another. The electric jazz guitar became more popular in the hands of George Benson, Larry Carlton and Lee Ritenour but it was Robben Ford who got to play with Miles.

[@earldrum]

Nice work! Thanks!

[@wynton921]

Good stuff!

[@charlessmith263]

The main thing that drives jazz fusion can be divided into 2 main subgenres - 1.Jazz Funk - You will see jazz combos do classic songs where they add the "funk" style seen often by non-jazz musicians. Mainly this started with such groups as Herbie Hancock's "Headhunters" and even Chick Corea's ensembles. These jazz musicians would do funk tunes like "Sassy Strut" or even jazz standards from the pop-rock repertory that had the funk style, such as "Pick up the Pieces". "Superstition" of Stevie Wonder, for instance, had been used by jazz musicians so many times to create the real "funky" style in jazz fusion, as well as other similar funky standards like this. 2. Latin fusion - jazz-funk with some Afro-Cuban stylings from Latin-American music (you will see this from songs like "Cueros" of Sheila E., and even "On Broadway" of George Benson), and sometimes, you will hear this Latin Fusion even in songs like Ramsey Lewis's "In Crowd". Overall, "funk" plays probably 60 to 75 percent of the jazz-fusion style. Progressive rock also adds a little bit to this, and maybe even disco-funk completes this jazz fusion. (Listen to the 1979 recording of "We All Remember Wes" by the George Benson combo, where the up-tempo disco-funk style of that number creates jazz fusion pretty good.)

[@laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah]

excellent video - very informative. Cheers

[@ZKBruhman]

Beautifully explained. Love the style of presentation. Sub'd.

[@michaeltingle444]

excellent, more video's please!

[@jos7294]

thanks for this off beat!

[@yanncarduner4516]

Well crafted video ,many fusion bands of high quality beyond the USA in the 70's .SBB (polish),Energit (czech ),Michal Urbaniak (polish),Edition Spéciale (french),Transit Express(same),Troc(same),Arti e Mestieri (Italy),If (UK),Snakes Alive (australian),Mc Kenzie s Theory (same) and many others

[@saedt]

Awesome channel! Subbed!

[@santossantana]

great channel please make more

[@Lotisaims]

Fantastic, keep it up and I promise you will get where you want to be

[@OffBeatChannel]

marc123098 Thank you!

[@TweedSuit]

I would consider Cream to be a precursor to this movement. Their long jams were very free jazz inspired.

[@hldr4345]

I think you should make some recommendations of both modern and older albums of the genre, I think it would help illustrate your thoughts and explanations better. Other than that, it's an awesome video, best of luck.

[@gareginasatryan6761]

I think early fusion was self conscious that it wasn’t jazz anymore. Like in early prog rock, they were just trying to push the boundaries to the extreme. So much that it became something else. After all, how rock-y does Careful with that Axe Eugene sound? They were trying to be everything at once, including free improv, classical, Indian music and funk. So in short, fusion is a branch of avant- guard jazz.

[@ThalassicMeasure]

Great video essay. As you point out, fusion is a much larger and diverse genre than you can cover here. But I would have mentioned Tony Williams Lifetime as the first fusion group from the Miles Davis tree. Williams played with Miles between 1963-1969, including on Miles in the Sky, Filles de Kilimanjaro, and In a Silent Way. Lifetime included Bitches Brew alumni John McLaughlin, Don Alias, and Larry Young. Longtime Davis bassist Ron Carter also appeared on the debut album, which came out in 1969, before Weather Report's debut the following year.

[@charondolls]

can you make a video on UK Acid Jazz? thanks!

[@goodlookingcorpse]

7:13 The part you've labelled as 'saxophone solo' has trumpet but no saxophone listed, and similar for the part labelled as 'trumpet solo'.

[@Throwenshapes]

A Kool point for G Rap 4,5,6

[@faiqlatif3122]

Nice video! Do progressive rock next.

[@redlady935]

Yes I am suprised he didn't mention prog

[@tylerelizondo6028]

What about the young drummer who actually drove that whole concept?!?!?! Tony Williams continues to be ignored. Miles Davis made me want to play a trumpet, but you have to know that Miles Davis grabbing younger musicians that he deemed talented enough to do what he wanted, he hired Tony Williams. He made an interesting album in 1969 called “Emergency” with John McLaughlin and organist Larry Young. His influence on Miles Davis is paramount and everyone ignores this.

[@tylerelizondo6028]

The honest fact is that people ignore that Miles Davis didn’t actually start another chapter of jazz, it was everyone around him who made him change. He’s actually one of my favorite musicians of all time, but I don’t like when people don’t think that he was bringing in other people to then be influenced by them in some way. He started his career around Bebop, and couldn’t actually do everything Dizzy did, so he found a way to adapt.

[@tylerelizondo6028]

Listen to Emergency and you will understand. Tony Williams wanted to start a band with jazz and rock influences, it’s a weird album but it’s legitimately something that’s trying to push ideas and meld things together before it was considered ‘fusion’

[@sprezzaturarrd]

needed to add tracks from "Watermelon man" to demonstrate and add to your dialog

[@Strafuzz]

He’d get a copyright strike which means no money

[@keyboardtek]

Jazz fusion pianist here. Bitches Brew is still a very nasty chaotic mess to listen to. It is basically an unstructured jam session where every instrument is primarily a rhythm part and much of harmony and melodic composition was abandoned. Mostly like voodoo music.

[@egebamyasi773]

Exmagma - gold ball 1974

[@mattrussell8654]

trumpet/sax solo swapped on your graphic

[@andym28]

The beginning point was miles end point was Holdsworth . Miles apparantly tried to get Holdsworth in his band.

[@lajeanette33]

Hi. I was really interrested in the subject but the total lack of musical illustrastions was a huge dissapoinment for me. I really think you should give a example of you just explained.

[@OffBeatChannel]

At the time of making this video essay I was unsure about fair use/copyright so I thought I'd play it safe and not use any just for this video. Thanks for checking it out :)

[@stuartfishman1044]

Wynton Marsalis makes me want to laugh my ass off every time he trashes what he views as corrosive threats to his beloved jazz tradition. Ornette Coleman had a few things to say about people like him.

[@gordonchristophertubo3164]

Wow did not know chick corea was in bitches brew

[@rafagxjunglezz]

and Masato Honda?? the korean People? xD Tsquare??

[@martinjameskeys]

I mean Boom Bap Hip Hop is basically fusion

[@Jiv_Ing57819]

Ah Wynton, but isn't it a trend to dress in a suit and tie and embrace that and play all the 'right' notes? You forgot that what had been pushing musicians for 50 years plus to that point was the excitement of discovery not boring themselves with some crazy idea of correct classical traditionalism....

[@rahsillyyoo]

i can't stand him.

[@sayanorasonic]

Classical was pushing itself by the Impressionism era, then they reverted from being composers pushing the bounderies to a bunch of musicians chasing old giants note per note. The modern day scene of Classical music is sad, just a former shell of it's glory

[@SirRunk666]

Oliver did it better.

[@skiphoffenflaven8004]

All these high school/college freshmen presentations…how did it happen?! So sick of these taking up so much space on YT.

[@HopperDragon]

The fuck is your problem? The title literally says "for beginners", so can you not read? If you're not interested just don't watch it, weirdo.

[@photoreference9429]

Ok, not the same FUSION that I'm trying to find the origin of.