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Jam Band Music Has Fusion DNA
I’ve been re-watching the Ken Burns PBS Television series Jazz recently. For the most part, I have found it has been very enjoyable. But it didn’t take long for me to re-live some anger from my first time around viewing. In the second episode Wynton Marsalis talks about the origins of jazz. He postulates that a mark of genius is to take an established music style and combine it with its opposite to create something new. I just don’t understand, then, how Marsalis continues to justify his negative attitude towards fusion.
It is my contention that fusion is the next evolution of jazz, and that, in the forty years since the first fusion recordings were made, that evolution has not stopped. It has, however, changed addresses. The seeds planted by Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, Joe Zawinul, and Chick Corea (and many others) have now found fertile soil in the Jam Band scene.
Sure, there are plenty of one-chord noodlers and folk rockers living there. But it is in Jam Band festival circuit where you will hear compelling fusion artists like Garaj Mahal, Umphrey’s McGee, and Tal Wilkenfeld, as well as many established masters such as John Scofield and Bela Fleck.
So if you are looking for new fusion, check the festival schedules. You won’t run into Wynton there. But his loss will be your gain.
Vaylor Trucks is a musician and blogger, and one third of the band Bonobos
Convergence. (Yes, he is part of a famous musical family). |
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