What you need to know about Fusion!

open.spotify.com/playlist/0Qs...

[@HerbalistGuybrush]

I want the whole world explained from Matt "Dutty G" Garstka and a whiteboard, please! Thanks for raising awareness for fusion, on a real dawg. I love Chick especially and early Miles' fusion stuff. One could make a case that Bitches Brew wasnt really the first fusion album but there was rather a slow transition into it in the previous albums he made with the legendary quintet, especially when electronic instruments were introduced. Another Fusion pillar that must be mentioned is of course Weather Report.

[@drummusician]

OMG! How did I forget Weather Report. I will pin this so people know what’s up🙏

[@ryancox5097]

I feel like you could also include The Yellowjackets and Spyro Gyra here. And I feel like Pat Metheny was one of the pioneers of using odd time signatures in fusion. All three go back to the early 80's and are still active today.

[@labontetrevor]

‘Fusion’ and ‘prog’ are just gimmicks. Just play real jazz. Start at the beginning. That should be common sense but of course no one does it. The reason certain ‘fusion’ groups are good is that musicians like Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul spent many years busting their asses on straight ahead jazz. In the case of Wayne, his best music is his pre-Weather Report stuff, especially his Blue Note albums. Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew’ is really a shitty album that was trendy at the time but does not hold up to the test of time. Some of the people that were once hailed and touted as ‘pioneers’ and ‘innovators’ were just purveyors of gimmicks. Things tend to regress, not progress, as humanity gets dumber and dumber with the decline of civilization. Sadly, the trends always lead us toward Idiocracy. The best jazz was already over by about 1950.

[@labontetrevor]

Yellow Jackets and Spiro Gyra are horrible, insipid smooth jazz, which btw are another tragic result of so-called ‘fusion.’ It’s crap. Just play straight ahead jazz.

[@ryancox5097]

@@labontetrevor Well you sound nice.

[@anshumaanpurohit6707]

animals be lifting

[@watsonehx]

animals as lifters 😂

[@GETaYOTA]

Gains as leaders

[@drumkidstu]

Pumps as animals

[@zenzybar]

@@watsonehxyo they need to make some merch like that. I’d be buying that shit.

[@Juan_Burgos]

Forgot to include Wayne Shorter and Zawinul in that Bitches Brew personnel list, which obviously did Weather Report later. Great video though!

[@williamkjwilliamkj1815]

Also let’s not forget about the great Japanese fusion band Casiopea. They are always overlooked.

[@R_G_S]

All great names of Jazz Fusion, love it, I add the band Weather Report, another great band from Miles Davis influence.

[@lukeshore1]

Great video! I remember reading how Tony put together Lifetime and Miles went to their first gig. After the gig Miles told Tony he wanted to be in the band and it be called Lifetime featuring Miles Davis. Tony said no, and then when Tony showed up to record Miles’ album ‘In A Silent Way’ all the Lifetime members had been called up to play on it. Tony was so pissed off he just played straight rim click beat through that album.

[@drummusician]

This is amazing! Lol What a MF✊ Thanks for sharing

[@wowthisiscrazyshit]

It's a killer rim click though!

[@MarkJKLawrence]

Hey man, you must always include Gary Husband in this 'fusion history'. Not only as one of the baddest drummers out there of all time, but also as a virtuoso pianist who has been held in the highest esteem by McLaughlin, Holdsworth, Cobham, Corea, Jack Bruce and so many others.

[@gavinclark2786]

@GaryHusbandKeyboardsandDrums Gary is a legend!

[@flowerlandofjohn]

I agree, Gary is phenomenal, but he didn’t play with those cats in the early 70’s. And the list was about the birth of fusion ✌🏻🤩

[@t3hgir]

@@flowerlandofjohn he did play (masterfully I might add) on Allan's 2nd solo album "I.O.U" released in '82 but recorded in 1979

[@flowerlandofjohn]

@@t3hgirYes, I absolutely adore Gary and his playing. But again. A little late for being a “true fusion pioneer”. But he’s absolutely one of the greats in wave that followed which guys like Vinnie Colaiuta, Terry Bozzio, Simon Phillips etc. 🙏🏻🤩

[@mathewreed818]

Lenny White doesn’t get enough spect in the drumming community. His work on so many fusion albums is absolutely incredible.

[@kcorpora1]

Agree!!!!

[@jonathanustin6295]

Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter were among the personnel on Bitches Brew who formed the first wave of fusion bands. They formed Weather Report. It's important to note that while Bitches Brew is considered the "starting point" of the fusion era, even within Miles's catalog there were many recordings prior to that one where the roots of that movement are clear. And this has a great deal to do with the fact that one of Miles's greatest strengths as a bandleader was to identify and surround himself with the talent that would teach HIM and push HIM into uncharted territory. They would all agree, probably to a person, that Miles was the leader, but the relationship was far more nuanced and complex than Miles simply telling them what to do and them doing it. The musicians in his bands, especially that first wave of so-called fusion musicians, contributed as much to his growth and to the trends of modern music as Miles did. Part of what made him so influential was his willingness to hire musicians twenty to forty years younger than he was and be secure enough to keep learning from them and whatever the current popular music was.

[@LiberacionIgualdad]

I was waiting for him to mention Weather Report!

[@JoseFerreira-zb7wh]

@@LiberacionIgualdad and if you mention Weather Report you have to mention Jaco Pastorius also. Never forget Jaco! 😀

[@danieljangula9046]

Thanks for sharing this hip drum shit. Don't have Spotify but spent the last hour listening to some Tony Williams. Was lucky enough to catch Billy Cobham and Dave Weckl in clinic in the early 00's, although too you g to appreciate how big of a deal they were back then.

[@rellis3940]

I love me some Lenny White and Don't forget Ansley Dunbar played with Zappa.

[@desrosimon]

Btiches Brew also had Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter of Weather Report on it!

[@danstigator]

Awesome video but when talking about the Headhunters, you have to give props to Mike Clark! Actual Proof is one of the greatest fusion tracks ever and the drums are iconic.

[@rkaylor5769]

Danny Carey on Cobham: “That guy changed my life.”

[@YouthDrummer]

was literally about to comment for you to make a spotify playlist but you already have it linked! Thanks for this priceless info Matt!

[@prithivnatarajan]

Vital Transformation is such a killer tune oh my god

[@drumfynnfun]

Please more genre-history and recommendations in the future ❤

[@markevans2814]

Mike Clark, who played with the Herbie Hancock. And you can't leave out Chad Wackerman's work with Holdsworth-Water on the Brain.

[@Riddim4]

The Tony Williams Lifetime album that got things rolling, in my view, was Emergency, from 1969. It was over most folks’ heads and a game changer. The first album with Holdsworth was Believe It.

[@DrumsBah]

Yep Emergency is definitely the earliest notable fusion record. Happens to be an awesome release it its own right too

[@syno9211]

Was thinking through the whole video I must make spotify playlist for this, but at the end Matt has done this already which Is class! Thanks Matt

[@joshw8854jw]

Fun fact Betty Davis was his wife and my girl Is her drummers daughter who was her cousin….. this is Amazing I feel soo proud 🥲

[@b.p.879]

Back in the late 90's/2000's, I'd heard all these names, but I didn't start getting into them until I had a friend turn me onto Jazz Is Dead, with Herring and Cobham. That sent me down the Rabbit Hole, starting with Cobham and Mahavishnu.

[@boarhead5573]

The Inner Mountain Flame of Mahavishnu Orchestra was huuuuge to me, when growing up! Another great Jazz-Rock Band has been Brand X with the incredible Phil Collins on drums! Check them out too!

[@Soulofkaleb]

Keep doing videos dropping this knowledge man. Been playing for years and didn’t know some of this. Thanks!

[@prithivnatarajan]

Matt we need something like this on Afro cuban stuff too

[@ryancox5097]

I think you can put Virgil Donati in the fusion category, too. He started out playing straight-ahead jazz, and even though he pivoted to prog-rock, he still plays a lot of improvisational stuff and stuff that sounds just like any other fusion. Throw a sax or a trumpet in with him and he'd probably be winning Modern Drummer reader's polls for fusion. Same with Gergo Borlai. $.02

[@williamkjwilliamkj1815]

Gergo is mind blowing. He will reach Donati levels in a few years if he hasn’t already. I was just listening to him on Mohini Dey’s record. Great stuff.

[@ryancox5097]

@@williamkjwilliamkj1815 Yeah, he's incredible. In fact, there are a bunch of master players these days. Virgil, Gergo, Garstka, Chris Coleman, Vinnie, Weckl, Horacio Hernandez, Eric Moore, Tony Royster, the new-school bop guys, the extreme metal guys, the Gospel guys, the Latin guys, etc. I feel like we're living in the golden age of drumming.

[@toddkiefer2003]

Thanks for posting this! A lot of younger people around my age are wanting to get into fusion but don’t know any of the history of how it came to be, so a video like this needed to be made at some point. I say that because a lot of your audience (with being in a band such as AAL) often times isn’t already immersed in the world of jazz and other genres associated with it.

[@spanzotab]

yup! I'm pretty sure I can trace back my foray into jazz to matt himself, I remember watching his old berklee videos and thinking "if jazz is a fundamental part of his playing, and I like him more than other metal drummers, maybe I should study jazz". Fast forward and it's made me a much better player and enjoyer of music in general.

[@Slipstream0001]

I lost my shit at 3:03 when you said "if you don't know these drummers you are in serious trouble"

[@marcseefrieddrums6622]

Love this! Thanks for this 🙏♥️

[@dima3899]

fking legend for the spotify playlist. please more of this

[@dvnam7842]

Thanks Matt. Solid wisdom 👊

[@Emma_Z1]

Love that you always take time to teach too, thanks Matt

[@Seetherfanlolpplwtf]

I love that you’re doing these! I am now committed to diving into the world of Fusion 🙏🏼

[@Philosophvr]

I don't even play drums and I am loving these videos!

[@DolkkarToyznstuff]

Thank you for taking the time to break this down. This is indeed important for drummers (musicians) at any level to understand IMO.

[@yeptoo1148]

I am a Big Chick Corea, Holdsworth, Scofield, Miles Davis. Meshuggah, Animals as leaders, Dream theater fan. Favorit current drummers: Matt Garstka, Marcus Gilmore, Tyshawn Sorey, Tom Rainey and Gerald Cleaver. Also huge Tim Berne Snakeoil fan.

[@donovanjones4175]

Alan Holdsworth work with Bill Bruford is something you overlooked, Bill is an incredible drummer that came by way of Yes and King Crimson. Prog-rock is another offshoot. While you can’t connect all the dots, you must talk about the drummers of Weather Report. I am going to put my Lenny white album now, have a great day

[@zhene.soeiro]

Thank you for this, deeply respect what you are doing for us and how you have influencing the next generation. Feel realy blessed to have this opportunity to get to learn from people who have put in years of effort into their craft.

[@braedonavants]

Love this! Thank you for sharing. That pause around the sleepy tea/chon tracks made me chuckle though. That dude gets under my skin and I'm not even good enough to be involved in the drama lmao

[@danielsemmelrock7808]

Weather Report tho!

[@Mike_Isakov]

Dude! That's great ! Thank you! Do more educational videos like this! We are your fans! love from Russia!

[@LenientProcess]

I remember hearing Spectrum for the first time in high school - I was completely blown away. I even tried playing open handed like Billy, but as fun as it was I went back to crossing arms again.

[@ShreddingSkin]

Not gonna lie I thought I was clicking on a video of Matt expecting him to have secretly been a particle physicist or something but this is what I should have expected

[@Churro5]

this is hands down the most influential and helpful video i have ever bumped into on youtube. thanks so much

[@gchavezmusic]

This is great!!! Hail sir Allan Holdsworth.

[@Irishpineapple97]

This is awesome! Thanks, Matt 🙏

[@BMR86]

I knew many of these names already but what I didn't know was how they were all interconnected... THANK YOU FOR THIS! this makes SO MUCH sense now after having discovered each and every one of these people independently I knew there was something that tied them all back together!

[@DecidingCanoe]

PLEASE add more songs to that playlist of yours! Been following it since 2019.

[@rellis3940]

Those 3 are some badd ass heavy weights.. Don't forget Stanley.

[@tomweaver1670]

This is why Matt is the GOAT! Loving these whiteboard vids

[@williamkjwilliamkj1815]

The Elektric Band was insane! Beneath the Mask and To the Stars are amazing! RIP Chick.

[@shaneedmundson7506]

Im a huge AAL fan, but I wonder what they would sound like NOW if Chebon Littlefield came back on bass. I watched a Matt G. Cribs where he was like, Why cant AAL have a singer? and Im thinking Why cant AAL have a bass player!!! Such a great band, though. Love and kudos to Tosin, Javier and Matty G!

[@imfineok]

love this! thank you!

[@jarrod.ives92]

bless you for this

[@KhalDrogo76]

Miles pivoting at that time and jumping head first into electronic music, for the legend he was at that time in bebop...it would've been like Frank Sinatra dressing like Jimi Hendrix and ripping full psychedlic rock jams. It would've been hilariously bad...not Miles, he actually took it over and paved the way for what this video deftly summarizes. Tony Williams Lifetime for me is the jump off point, that first band with Johnny Mac and Larry Young was deadly...the Holdsworth Lifetime is my personal favorite but the initial Lifetime was really the birth of something magical.

[@Mike_Isakov]

The most amazing thing is that legend tells us about legends. Matt Garstka is very cool!

[@montunop]

You have Jason Linder in our playlist ! Yay :)

[@jomo167]

I've always loved Jazz FUSION. PROG & FUSION BABY!!! i live in sydney, and i'm going to london in october. which is incredible timing because i will be seeing BILLY COBHAM! JEFF LORBER FUSION FT. SONNY EMORY! MARCUS MILLER! FUCK YEAAAAH!

[@SharigramaOfficial]

Greetings and Hugs =)

[@GrooveJuggernaut]

Thank you for thisss 🙌🏼

[@romazelensky]

Thanks professor Garstka!

[@CpLKaNeZA]

So cool seeing one of world's current greats talking about the giants from before, thanks for exposing greatness to your audience Matt 👍👍 And bring AAL to South Africa please, we've been starved for great music and we're still bummed that you guys had to cancel a couple of years back :)

[@francisfernandezcappola]

Thank you Matt

[@tiaraguy7705]

Really crazy how I can give credit to Guitar Hero/Clone Hero for my current music taste and the people I've found. I keep finding bands who have one song I like and then I end up diving into everything they like and I'll always hear these names thrown around and suddenly I'll be playing one of their songs and not even notice. Just found Chick Corea and Gary Burton from randomly scrolling through my setlist in CH and heard 2 seconds of Senor Mouse. Gave it one playthrough and almost stopped playing because of how much I immediately fell in love with the song.

[@ftdrum456]

This is great but I have to say that for the Funk/Fusion (HH Headhunters) the most killin' is Mike Clark on THRUST. Rock on

[@Marta1Buck]

I was watching videos about nuclear before this popped up. How fitting

[@marcopolo4468]

Matt I’m about to purchase some of your lessons online! Tired of sucking at the drums

[@greyhawk2842]

I love this so much

[@JoseFerreira-zb7wh]

If talking about Miles Davis and Bitches Brew you also have to mention Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. But this is a good intro to Fusion.

Yesuuur history lesson 👌

[@KKQI]

Peter Erskine 🥁

[@tajwashington86]

Wait …… John scofiled to Dennis chambers George Duke .

[@droblit]

great video. Now I'm in a quandary: who can bench more - yourself or Eloy Casagrande? :)

[@festinalente1729]

9:28 Chon...!

[@matthewmalphrus2906]

Joe zawinul and Airtoooo Moreira!!!!!!!

[@matthewmalphrus2906]

They were also in Bitches Brew

[@RWQMUZK]

You should never talk about Fusion as a genre without mentioning it’s biggest band, Weather Report, who had 20-plus drummers and percussionists in their 15 year run… And RTF was a fusion group before Romantic Warrior…

[@moses_dimski]

Dont forget Shorter and Zawinul and their little band called Weather Report

[@matthewmalphrus2906]

This is the best video ever

[@jiajuma2988]

Beast!

[@sammue6349]

nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@omnilightstudios7958]

Frank Zappa was definitely a pioneer in using free form in Rock music , and i seem take to his approach none of my music is concrete they're just grooves i play how ever i feel them at the time which keeps the sentiment behind the sound more honest and sincere, instead of revisiting an experience correlating to a songs original sentiment in order to maintain honesty . how do you do it or is it always fluid with you guys since there is no lyrics to narrow the vision of the song allowing you as an artist to interpret your music many different ways with different sentimental undertones those some songs come off as a physic lecture made by the best speaker ever all most a hyper logic artistic rather than intrinsically emotional

[@recksroller2220]

Please don't leave out Bill Bruford and Phil Collins (or do, it's your list). Bruford had his own band (with Holdsworth), King Crimson, U.K. (with Holdsworth again), and Earthworks, and he helped put Yes under the influence until he left; Collins put his fusion chops into Brand X, 70s Genesis, and many sporadic albums. Both players are absolutely phenomenal.

[@Drumsholic]

Return to forever are great !! What do you think about Frank Zappa??Do you put him to fusion stuff??

[@EthanHGray]

You should be playin' with Chick Corea big man

[@flynnedwards]

9:22 Listening to Lex Fridman. What an absolute legend

[@theofficialdrumcovers]

unique

[@terrapin323]

a lil guy named Holdsworth! I would have added Wayne Shorter - Weather Report (Jaco...), Joe Zawinul (Scott Henderson...)

[@Cygnus__X1]

Love these videos - any opinion on Gino Vannelli or Jean-Luc Ponty? You'd definitely pull a large following on youtube - twitch/kick if you committed to it with your spare time! I've never heard you talk about Prog Rock, do you have a similar White Board analysis for it?

[@rellis3940]

Love Mark Craney check his work with Gino. And Casey Sherrell. Bad men. I borrowed alot from these guys after my Appice days. Carmine is a Monster as well.

[@adriansmith6124]

Got em all

[@matthewmalphrus2906]

Joe Zawinul!!!!

[@NolikargAven]

I think maybe you missed the Gambale/ Steve Smith era, as well as Weckl solo albums, they were also hugely influencial

[@damiangomez8540]

Animals as lifters

[@basicelements1688]

like it for the mood and trumpet..as chat baker...i now two ha... return to forever when i got introduced to it did not like the drums haha to ruff ..gonna listen again 30 years later fuck snotty fy ..to bad its not on the tube also becoming dictators but more easy to access that was a nice little workshop fusion ... bay the ghost noot practice lesson in the near future as a coffee and cake from me 🤘 m

[@davidanthony729]

Weather Report is an egregious omission

[@drummusician]

The drumming wasn’t game changing on that album in my opinion. Music was great but drumming wasn’t there. What tune had the best drums on it?

[@davidanthony729]

​@@drummusician this list wasnt 'fusion bands that had game changing drumming' it's 'what you need to know about fusion', and his thesis starts with bands that came out of the bitches brew album... so zawinul and shorter should be mentioned in a major way. there's phenomenal drumming all across weather report's output

[@TheMellowYellowDrummer]

Could you do a history of prog!? Cover like King Crimson , Rush , TOOL? Love it matt!

[@edisongabutero9455]

Looking swole 💪

[@efafe4972]

do u happen to know how those pillars evolved to the fusion of today?

[@efafe4972]

the ability of that to penetrate the normie brain

[@rellis3940]

Gerry Brown!!

[@johnnhello4913]

0:46 yea I'd say four & more. Lol

[@enzosaison766]

God