Overview
This section examines how Miles Davis became a driving force in the effort to combine jazz and rock music to form a new style of jazz known variously as jazz fusion, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion. We will focus particularly on Davis’ seminal 1969 album, Bitches Brew.
A number of the musicians who worked with Miles Davis in forging the new fusion style of jazz eventually formed their own bands. We will consider the work of Miles Davis’ sidemen as leaders in their own fusion bands, particularly Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin, and Herbie Hancock. We will also look at other artists who explored various currents in jazz-rock fusion.
Finally, having already examined Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock in some detail, we'll take a closer look at two more trend-setting Miles Davis keyboardists, Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett, and their work as pioneers in acoustic settings.
Objectives
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to do the following:
- Identify influential jazz-rock fusion musicians and their contributions
- Appreciate the accomplishments of Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett
- Identify musicians who collaborated with Chick Corea and Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (b. 1945) followed Chick Corea as Miles Davis' pianist in 1970, staying with Davis until late 1971. After his departure from Davis' group, Jarrett returned to acoustic piano, and he continues to favor the instrument to the virtual exclusion of electric keyboards.
Jarrett is fully capable of straight-ahead, swinging jazz. He possesses a virtuosity that can match that of Hancock and Corea. However, he made his mark by cultivating a style that was less "jazzy" and more "classical," drawing large audiences from beyond the normal confines of the jazz-loving populace.
In the mid-1970s, Jarrett was performing solo concerts all over the world, pouring out his extraordinary creativity in spontaneously composed and improvised pieces. Amidst his solo work, he still found time to perform and record with two different quartets.
In 1983, Jarrett renewed his association with drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Gary Peacock, returning to a trio setting — and to jazz standards — inviting the inevitable comparison with Bill Evans' landmark collaboration with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian. The Jarrett trio holds up well, and it has endured, on and off, for more than a quarter century.
From the piece, "You Don't Know What Love Is," we can get an idea of the range of Jarrett's expressive style. He starts with an improvisatory-like solo introduction. About two minutes into the piece, the group starts swinging. Five and a half minutes later the tune has finished, but that becomes the launching pad for some modal improvisation by Jarrett in straight time.
It is characteristic of Jarrett's spontaneous expressiveness to flow from one compositional palette to another, as he does in this piece. Let's watch and listen.
"Chick is the fourth-most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammys, with 63 nominations. He's also earned 3 Latin Grammy Awards, the most of any artist in the Best Instrumental Album category."
