Might as well speak more for my passion for music. I've been digging jam bands, classic rock & roll, blues, all eras of jazz, country music (particularly classic country) and other genres like bluegrass or alternative country for years. Have seen a lot of great bands in concert and own some great records. So, to begin, I want to highlight a tune from the first or second "jazz fusion" album that Miles Davis did. He was a true innovator in the world of jazz of course. But, in 1969, with the release of "In A Silent Way" and later on through the '70s with releases like "Bitches Brew", "Live Evil" and "On The Corner", he turned the world of jazz totally on it's ear and paved the way for future jazz/rock fusion bands including Weather Report, Return To Forever, The Crusaders, Herbie Mann etc. etc.
All these bands were different. Mann was a flautist incidentally. Davis' influence can be felt through all of the bands that came after. But Return To Forever took fusion jazz to new heights and made it an avant garde genre that was far beyond the pale of what fans of traditional forms of jazz (Dixieland, swing, bop, cool etc.) were used to. Hard bop and fusion sort of paralleled each other and there were even well known rock bands that took the formula and ran with it (Cream, the Allman Brothers, Pink Floyd etc.)
These songs also feature Wayne Shorter, who, at this time was playing with Davis and playing almost always on soprano saxophone. His sax lines perfectly echo Davis' trumpet.
Posted above is the first track "Shhh/Peaceful". Here is the second one. "In A Silent Way"/"It's About That Time".
The videos associated with this post for "In A Silent Way"/"It's About That Time" have been removed.
ReplyDeleteJust added another full recording of "In A Silent Way" back to the post. Hopefully it will be available for a long while. Check it out.
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