PROGRAM SUMMARY

Today in Part TWO of Jazz Fusion, we look at FIVE more Jazz Fusion artists on …VINYL VIBRATIONS !

M1 Miles Davis and his "Bitches Brew" album 1970 Columbia. Miles Davis experiments with electric instruments like electric piano and electric guitar. Also we see more of an improvisational style with a rock rhythm. a double album - a studio album.  We listen to the song titled "John McLaughlin" on Bitches Brew.  This is an all-star cast--Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul on two electric pianos, John McLaughlin on electric guitar, Jack DeJohnette and Don Alias on two drum sets, Dave Holland and Harbey Brooks on two electric basses and of course on trumpet, Miles Davis.

M2  Return to Forever,  featuring Chick Corea. The recording and title song is "Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy". A phenomenal set of musicians --- guitarist Bill Connors, Stan Clarke on Bass, Lenny White on Drums. This song provides examples of time changes, which Chick Corea thrives in, providing a high energy framework for Bill Connors to play lead guitar. A very mechanical song, with enough melodic component to to be interesting and tell a story about THE SEVENTH GALAXY ---- The band is Return to Forever and the title song is "Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy"featuring Chick Corea, 1973, Polydor Records.

M3 Soft Machine and we listen to the album simply named "5". On this 1972 CBS album, part 2 of the 2-part song "L.B.O., by John Marshall, the drummer.  The musicians are Elton Dean on Alto Sax, Saxello and Electric Piano, Hugh Hopper on Bass, Mike Ratlidge on Organ and Electric Piano, and John Marshall on Drums. Note the time changes, the improvisation, the use of electric saxello, electric piano, in a jazz format, with the rock beat.

M4 Pat Metheny and his 1976 album BRIGHT SIZE LIFE. We listened to UNQUITY ROAD, composed by Pat Metheny.  I remember seeing the very young Metheny back in 1977 at a small venue named Amazingrace, then  locatedat 845 Chicago Ave in Evanston IL. There, up on stage stood this white kid from Missouri, then 21, with huge a afro and and a very large hollow body electric guitar. This kid is really different. The guitar playing is like nothing I had heard before. Great technique, the scales, wide intervals, the melodic character of this music, the little excursions each of the songs take. And a very NEW sound with jazz "improvisation"  The bass sound is also new, because it is fretless and electric, that's Jaco Pastorius on bass. Bob Moses Drums. Recorded in 1976, not in the US… but in Ludwigsburg, Germany, for ECM Records.

M5 SPACES. Next, we hear from the Band, Album, and title Song . . . all titled "SPACES". Another all-star cast, featuring Larry Coryell and John McLaughlin on guitars, Billy Cobham on drums, Chick Corea electric piano, and Miroslav Vitous on bass….. Vitous playing a bowed bass, in this case, an electrified, acoustic bass. And the Coryell-McLaughlin guitar combination, works well … it's surprising, as they have such different styles (Coryell's fury and power vs McLaughlin's texture and finesse). Much improvisation, much power in the guitar solo parts. This is a great instrumental album. The song SPACES was composed by Julie Coryell. This was originally recorded in 1971, and this release is 1974 from VANGUARD APOSTOLIC records.

M6 The Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin and the album "The Inner Mounting Flame" and the most laid back song on that album, if you will, a track named "Dawn" with John McLaughlin on Guitar, Jerry Goodman on Violin, Jan Hammer on Piano, Rick Laird Bass and Billy Cobham on Drums. Original composition of John McLaughlin. This first studio album, released in 1971, by Columbia Records.