Your 30 best jazz fusion albums

Why ? It’s a Return for Forever album, with Stanley Clarke on electric bass, Chick Corea on keyboards, Airto Moreira on percussions…
It’s completely a jazz samba fusion album, IMO.

But we may disagree on the genre. On your list, you have Soft Machine and Colosseum. For me it’s not jazz fusion, more Rock jazz, Progressive Rock.

1 Like

I’m not sure of a distinction between jazz-rock and rock-jazz (a description I wasn’t particularly aware of), but the boundary between progressive rock and jazz-rock fusion is very muddy and blurred. That being said, I would never describe Yes, Genesis, Tull etc. as jazz-rock; likewise I don’t think Miles ever ventured into progressive rock. However, I think Soft Machine have drifted into both camps, but Fourth, Bundles, Softs and Hidden Details are most certainly fusion albums to my mind.

For me Soft Machine is more progressive, psychedelic rock than jazz. More rock than jazz. But I am aware it’s sometimes qualified as Jazz fusion.
In my mind and understanding of jazz rock/ fusion, the musicians were mostly playing jazz before, or in the meantime. They are issued generally from jazz, at least for the leaders.
And after they could choose some musicians in other genres of music, like for example Herbie Hancock who invited funk musicians as Paul Jackson or Wah Wah Watson.
I personally added Brian Auger in my above list, but will not qualify that group, in absolute terms, as Jazz fusion group, more Rock group playing, on some tracks, jazz fusion.

Surprised there are no votes for Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! Simply the heaviest of all fusion albums.

2 Likes

Here a list of Digitaldreamdoor site. Their 100 best.

  1. In A Silent Way (1969) - Miles Davis
  2. Bitches Brew (1969) - Miles Davis
  3. The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) - Mahavishnu Orchestra
  4. Weather Report (1971) - Weather Report
  5. Third (1970) - Soft Machine
  6. Return To Forever (1972) - Chick Corea
  7. Tribal Tech (1991) - Tribal Tech
  8. Atavachron (1986) - Allan Holdsworth
  9. Emergency! (1969) - Tony Williams Lifetime
  10. Electric Bath (1967) - Don Ellis Orchestra
  11. 8:30 (1979) - Weather Report
  12. Love, Devotion & Surrender (1972) - Carlos Santana & John McLaughlin
  13. Rocket Science (2000) - Tribal Tech
  14. Lotus (1974) - Santana
  15. Blood, Sweat & Tears (1969) - Blood, Sweat & Tears
  16. The Lost Trident Sessions (1999) - Mahavishnu Orchestra
  17. Chicago Transit Authority (1969) - Chicago
  18. Light As A Feather (1972) - Return To Forever
  19. Birds Of Fire (1972) - Mahavishnu Orchestra
  20. Quantum (2007) - Planet X
  21. Amandla (1989) - Miles Davis
  22. Head Hunters (1973) - Herbie Hancock
  23. The Grand Wazoo (1973) - Frank Zappa
  24. The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys (1971) - Traffic
  25. Six (1973) - Soft Machine
  26. Sand (1987) - Allan Holdsworth
  27. Reality Check (1995) - Tribal Tech
  28. Aja (1977) - Steely Dan
  29. Pick Hits Live (1987) - John Scofield
  30. Elegant Gypsy (1977) - Al Di Meola
  31. Michael Brecker (1986) - Michael Brecker
  32. Spectrum (1973) - Billy Cobham
  33. Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (1981) - Frank Zappa
  34. Believe It (1975) - The New Tony Williams Lifetime
  35. Live At The Village Gate (1971) - Larry Coryell
  36. World Gone Strange (1991) - Andy Summers
  37. Short Stories (1987) - Bob Berg
  38. Where Have I Known You Before (1974) - Return To Forever
  39. Sunburst (1975) - Eddie Henderson
  40. Steps Ahead (1983) - Steps Ahead
  41. Vertical Vision (2003) - Christian McBride
  42. Seven (1974) - Soft Machine
  43. Closer To The Light (1989) - Leni Stern
  44. Romantic Warrior (1976) - Return To Forever
  45. The Forbidden Zone (1994) - Tom Coster
  46. I Sing The Body Electric (1972)- Weather Report
  47. Pat Metheny Group (1978) - Pat Metheny
  48. School Days (1976) - Stanley Clarke
  49. Petite Blonde (1992) - Bill Evans
  50. Getting Even (1998) - Dennis Chambers
  51. Unorthodox Behaviour (1976) - Brand X
  52. Crossings (1972) - Herbie Hancock
  53. King Kong (1969) - Jean-Luc Ponty
  54. Vital Tech Tones (1998) - Vital Tech Tones
  55. Kinesethetics (2006) - Scott Kinsey
  56. Stories To Tell (1974) - Flora Purim
  57. Expansions (1974) - Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes
  58. Cycles (1998) - Bob Berg
  59. Metro (1994) - Metro
  60. Tutu (1986) - Miles Davis
  61. The Rotters’ Club (1975) - Hatfield & The North
  62. Bass Desires (1985) - Marc Johnson
  63. National Health (1977) - National Health
  64. We’ll Talk About It Later (1971) - Nucleus
  65. Train Of Thought (1985) - Mitchel Forman
  66. Upside Downside (1986) - Mike Stern
  67. To The Heart (1976) - Mark-Almond
  68. Captain Marvel (1972) - Stan Getz
  69. B,S & T 4 (1971) - Blood, Sweat & Tears
  70. Dreams (1969) - Dreams
  71. Introducing The Eleventh House (1974) - Larry Coryell
  72. Forty Reasons (1991) - Chad Wackerman
  73. Arrowhead (1980) - Wayne Johnson
  74. Still Warm (1986) - John Scofield
  75. Secrets (1989) - Allan Holdsworth
  76. Don Ellis At Fillmore (1970) - Don Ellis Orchestra
  77. Crosswinds (1974) - Billy Cobham
  78. Expresso II (1978) - Gong
  79. Music On The Edge (1991) - Chroma
  80. Cross-Collateral (1975) - Passport
  81. Compost (1971) - Compost
  82. If 2 (1970) - If
  83. Electric Guitarist (1978) - Johnny McLaughlin
  84. Blue Matter (1986) - John Scofield
  85. Enigmatic Ocean (1977) - Jean Luc-Ponty
  86. Thick (1999) - Tribal Tech
  87. Smash & Scatteration (1984) - Bill Frisell & Vernon Reid
  88. Mountain In The Clouds (1969) - Mirolslav Vitous
  89. CAB 2 (2001) - CAB
  90. My Goals Beyond (1970) - John McLaughlin
  91. Volume Two (1969) - Soft Machine
  92. MoonBabies (2002) - Planet X
  93. Illusion (1975) - Isotope
  94. Like Children (1975) - Jan Hammer & Jerry Goodman
  95. Unity (1974) - Catalyst
  96. Live (2006) - Michael Landau Group
  97. Wardenclyffe Tower (1992) - Allan Holdsworth
  98. Vinnie Colaiuta (1994) - Vinnie Colaiuta
  99. Live And More - Marcus Miller
  100. Mobo II (1984) - Kazumi Watanabe
1 Like

I just deleted my post so.

Sorry for getting back late.

These labels are just convenient buckets where we put music, for want of a way to define and categorize it. It is artificial and incorrect as music does not fit into buckets. There are no distinct cut-offs between one genre and another; it’s a continuum and we chose, for convenience, to draw an arbitrary line and say the stuff on the left fits in this bucket and the stuff on the right fits in that bucket.

You’re free to call it whatever you want. Most jazz standards were called pop music back in the 30s-40s, many wouldn’t consider that anything Miles Davis did as of In A Silent Way can be called jazz, at the time, most musicians didn’t call whatever Bird, Dizzy, Monk et al were doing as jazz.

In my book, and that is my opinion withe way I draw the lines and define the buckets, Light as a feather is a latin-jazz album but not a jazz-rock album. I wouldn’t call it samba-jazz either. For that you can go to Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 as a prime example. Return to Forever did become a Jazz-rock/fusion outfit as of the subsequent album (Hymn to the 7th Galaxy). But the way, Stanley Clarke plays mostly acoustic bass on Light as a Feather and the 1st album. He switched fully to electric afterwards.

Soft machine started as a Canterbury band (there’s another bucket) or progressive quirky rock and with time became a jazz-rock band. Basically, anything after their 4th album is firmly into fusion territory (including the Bundles that I suggested and the Softs that someone else did). You should listen to those albums. Btw, Gong also started as a weird Canterbury band and morphed into a fusion outfit, basically starting with YOU (iirc).

Colosseum is definitely not a rock band. Hiseman was a jazz drummer, Richard Heckstall-Smith was a jazz sax player. They melded jazz and rock. Same can be said of If (and others).

Also, in my book, there is no difference between jazz-rock and rock-jazz. You’re free to think of it differently (jazzed-up rock vs rocked-up jazz ) but that’s a bit too much for me.

Yes and Genesis are definitely NOT jazz or jazz-rock bands. You can call them progressive rock, classical rock, pompous rock, but there is practically no element of jazz in their music, Genesis prides itself on the fact that most of their solos are written, not improvised. Don’t get me wrong, I love Genesis and Yes, but it’s a long way to jazz from there.

Labels are difficult and to misquote Duke Ellington: “there are only 2 kinds of music, good music and bad music”. The rest is for librarians not music lovers.

PS I was not allowed to post Heckstall-Smith’s known name, so I went for Richard. Is this political correctness gone too far ??

Nice list - very few that I do not know or have here. I’ll look them up (Compost? Metro?)

Clearly written by a fellow Allan Holdsworth lover as he’s got quite a titles in there (he’s also on Planet X, Believe It, Wackerman’s Forty Reasons, Expresso II) and Zappa (a few titles in there, including King Kong).

Anyway, I wouldn’t put the following on a fusion list: Aja, The Low Spark of high Heeled boys, Dreasm (more of a funk album), Lotus (latin-rock in the most), BST (on the border there), Chicago (same, on the border), Light as a feather (as discussed). Hatfield is Canterbury. Michael Landau is a blues guitarist - I have a live blues album of his, but not sure it is the same one mentioned.

Anyway all fun.

1 Like

[quote=“Cemil, post:50, topic:17913”]
Anyway, I wouldn’t put the following on a fusion list: Aja, The Low Spark of high Heeled boys, Dreasm (more of a funk album), Lotus (latin-rock in the most), BST (on the border there), Chicago (same, on the border), Light as a feather (as discussed). Hatfield is Canterbury. Michael Landau is a blues guitarist - I have a live blues album of his, but not sure it is the same one mentioned.

I agree at 99%….apart the album we discussed above.
My definition of jazz rock, from what I could read elsewhere in the past : Jazz rock is an evolution of the jazz after 1968/1969, a jazz that incorporates electric instruments from rock ( electric guitar and electric bass, whah whah pedals….) and other forms and cultures of music, from Africa, India, Caraïbes….( so the reason of fusion term).
For a lot of jazz aficionados, jazz ended in 1967 , with the death of Coltrane.
Not all persons think that, of course, but many many unfortunately.
Look at the jazz thread for example : > 90 % of the albums posted are from the 50’s and 60’s. For a majority, real jazz is from 50’s and 60’s.
Perhaps the reason jazz rock / fusion, is very often not considered as jazz.
So better call it jazz fusion.

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.