fusion

Herbie Hancock, pianist and composer, is known for such a huge assortment of accomplishments, there’s no way to distill any of it. Of course, Chris Farley confusing Herbie with John probably ranks pretty high up there. But before that occurrence or having a deejay perform with his ensemble, Hancock sought to work the line between well wrought jazz stuffs and popular music.

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In talking about fusion, it’s obviously impossible to step around Miles Davis. That actually goes for pretty much any sub-genre of the jazz idiom in post-WWII America. Anyway, Davis may not have exactly invented fusion or even perfected it. But it can be said that the players that he worked with in settings that made use of electric instruments went on to record a litany of albums during the ensuing years.

Guitarist John McLaughlin is probably the best known player to come out from the shadow of Davis and his horn – although the Brit bred musician had already amassed an impressive discography prior to working with the trumpeter.

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Ethiopia holds an interesting place in western culture. The East African nation, while remaining deep in political and religious upheaval over the past few decades, is somehow one of the more visible and inviting places on the continent. Perhaps due to the fact that it neighbors Egypt to the south and sits on the same snatch of waterway that’s been contested during the various Middle East skirmishes over the years, but who knows?

Apart from its locale, during the ‘60s, the nations then-leader, Haile Selassie, visited Jamaica. The Emperor’s renown preceded him as he was the first (and probably only) black dude that a Pope has ever bowed to. That lone – and important fact – propelled the spread of Rastafarianism, which postulates that Selassie was the latest incarnation of G-d on earth.

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Originally finding his footing along Brian Auger in his various rock and fusion endeavors, guitarist Gary Boyle eventually put together his own ensemble of Brit players. The early formations of Isotope – the resulting combo – have been figured to have heavily influenced subsequent bands in the genre, specifically in the UK. And despite the fact that June of ’72 was relatively early for such a compendium of sounds to be concocted, Soft Machine had been kicking around for a number of years at that point and had already released five volumes of its music. Using that group as a marker, the sounds that Isotope levied upon the record buying public had as much to do with slinky funk and rock as jazz, this accounting for the band’s US deal with Motown.

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BAOEGrowing up in post World War II England allowed a young Brian Auger to take in the sounds of jazz as a result of an American military force in the area. So thanks to Armed Forces Radio, the occasional brilliance of Auger's keyboards were birthed. And while the world would probably be roughly the same with or without his musical contributions to jazz, Auger and his newly constituted Oblivian Express unloose some pretty heavy content on their first, self titled recording from 1971. Having said that, though, only about half of the songs here are of any consequence.

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LameIn writing and listening to entirely too much jazz, it's become at least semi apparent that the '70s were occasionally a troublesome time for the medium - not in the same way that the '80s were. But that decade, while featuring some extraordinary heights of musicality as well as vision, at points, gave away to indulgent nonsense.

The inclusion of spiritual overtones began in the '60s with Coltrane's ascent to the pantheon of artists that folks aren't allowed to dislike. But in his wake a slew of players copped the spirit and made off into the night with it. Pharaoh Sanders worked, for a time at least, with these precepts, but even he, at times, hit the low points of music. Experimentation, obviously, has its draw backs

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