Any jazz fusion fans here?

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youtooellen

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Apr 5, 2005
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I'm not sure if there's been a thread for this genre, but lately I've been listening to some Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and some others.

I'd love to get some excellent recommendations. It's such a fascinating sound.. some complex, some sporadic, it's magnificent.

So... any fans? Any avid listeners willing to make some recs?
 
While I'd label him more as experimental than fusion, if you're interested in the overlap between jazz and rock, I recommend pretty much anything involving Nels Cline. He's best known as the guitarist for Wilco, but his non-Wilco work is mind-blowing. His current trio is the Nels Cline Singers, and all three of their albums, while pretty different, are quite good. The Giant Pin is my favorite and I think their most accessible. Instrumentals, their first, is a bit darker. Their most recent, Draw Breath, shows off a wider range, but because of that has some problems with transitions and flow.

He's also got quite a few solo albums, and his next solo album, Coward, comes out next week.
 
Weather Report is another well-known group in the genre.

Weather Report - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm not very knowledgeable about fusion, but I will say that I enjoy Medeski, Martin and Wood, and for older stuff, Miles Davis' late 60's-early 70's period is my favorite of his career. I mean, you hook your trumpet up to a wah-wah pedal and you're A-OK in my book.
 
You might look into Herbie Hancock as well. "Head Hunters" is the best-known of his fusion albums, but "Sextant," "Crossings," and "Mwandishi" are also great albums. He is concerned with funk fusion during this time, resembling Miles's "On the Corner" more than "Bitches Brew."
 
Yeah, I'm listening to Return To Forever's Romantic Warrior... and I'm just fucking blown away. Literally stupefied. Haha.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm definitely gonna check 'em all out. I listen to Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and some of the other well-known artists, but I've always wanted to familiarize myself with jazz in general.
 
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