Date:	08-May-1999 18:49:53
From:	Zimbo
	I think it's only a matter of time until fusion merges with neo-disco to become the most unlistenable music since rap.

 

Date:	12-May-1999 00:13:31
From:	Beepo
	Fusion is the confused voice of our exiled gods.

 

Date:	13-May-1999 21:47:16
From:	ChriS (cslawec9@idt.net)
	That's pretty intense. I concede that would be a rather horrendous pairing, even worse than some of the stuff already out there. Ugh.

 

Date:	15-May-1999 01:27:22
From:	Randy
	Too much fusion will give you a brain contusion but how will you know?

 

Date:	19-May-1999 07:58:07
From:	Jonathan
	What's wrong with fusion? There's a lot of good music and a lot of good musicians in that style. I know everyone needs something to rant about - but give it a chance!! Listen to some of the best of the genre. Open your ears. Just because you have bad local fusion bands doesn't mean the whole style of music is bad.

 

Date:	19-May-1999 07:58:28
From:	Bossplaya (Bossplaya@hotmail.com)
	I'm all for it. The music I like the most is funk r&b and I find that combined with contemporary jazz to be as good as it gets (ie Rio Funk). Also people need to realize that music is as much of a cultural phenomenon as anything, so to disrespect music in genre's you don't like makes you look stupid and ignorant. Why not spend time finding something you do like then complaining on this website? I guess people are made to bitch.

 

Date:	20-May-1999 15:03:57
From:	dave (joocy.peach@virgin.net)
	try any Tribal Tech album or Gary Willis solo album before you complain about fusion , this IS the way to go.

 

Date:	21-May-1999 02:28:55
From:	AJS (Against Jazz Snobs)
	Fusion is a music that constantly evolves.......just like jazz.....

 

Date:	21-May-1999 11:06:13
From:	Neil (neil_loughran@hotmail.com)
	I'm confused as to what exactly fusion is. Is it that bland Kenny G, Grover Washington, Peter White style stuff with tinkling FM keyboards with so called 'soulful' playing or are we talking about a genre that combines many music forms ie jazz, classical, funk, african, latin etc. I think that most modern jazz anyway is a fusion of sorts whether its Kenny Kirkland, Branford Marsalis, McCoy Tyner etc.... it certainly ain't like jazz circa 1920 is it?

 

Date:	22-May-1999 08:03:57
From:	Triny Pasgota
	Fusion is like bluegrass on amphetamines without the soul.

 

Date:	22-May-1999 15:44:19
From:	KEN HINSON (KH030650@AOL.COM)
	I'm one of those radio guys who used to play that fusion stuff on the air. I know the difference between the good, the bad and the phoney, the trouble is we get more of the phoney than anything else. As a radio broadcaster, I'll leave you with this... the best music is not to be found on the radio, it's in the stores and if you want to find it you have to find someone who will let you listen to it before you buy it (hopefully they'll have it in stock for you to listen to). In closing I say this... every kind of music that is out today gets some kind of bad rap, why? Because you can't please all the people all the time.

 

Date:	23-May-1999 20:36:42
From:	Lisa
	Fusion is 20 years old? And it's still alive? I always thought it was sort of stillborn. OK, so there were a few good bands that were listenable because of the immense talent of the original players, but most of them made their dollars and moved on.

 

Date:	24-May-1999 12:44:03
From:	ericeaster (ericeaster@yahoo.com)
	fusion has change just as jazz/rap change i think that that the 2puriest of black music jazz?rap are here forever

 

Date:	26-May-1999 00:03:33
From:	Vivek Savant (savantv@bcc.orst.edu)
	Fusion has received the most bastardly treatment as an offshoot of jazz.....For me fusion adheres to the amalgamation of the right mix of jazz, soul, r-n-b, funk. When one tries to over-produce this genre it Sux! If one has to say that fusion (and believe me, I hat that term)is still around, then its strictly due to the handful few like Niacin, Tribal Tech, can't even think of anyone more. And like someone before said "the good music is never played on radio....esp. not commercial stations"

 

Date:	28-May-1999 09:24:36
From:	Nicki
	It's so confusin' all this arguing about fusion!!

 

Date:	29-May-1999 20:56:36
From:	Judson O. Maynard (jazzbo112@aol.com)
	There is still some excellent so called jazz fusion out there.There is a label called Tone Center that is producing some very good stuff by some excellent people like Larry Coryell, Scott Henderson, Grank Gambale, Bunny Brunel and others. Also a label called Magna Carta which is producing some interesting jazz rock or fusion whichever you want to call it by bands like the Liquid Tension Experiment, Bozzio Levin Stevens and Black Light Syndrome.

 

Date:	02-Jun-1999 08:08:55
From:	Ben (roadtrain_113@hotmail.com)
	im from sydney australia, and there are heaps of great acid-jazz/groove/funk/fusion bands around here. DIG, Baecastuff, etc etc. Dave Weckl, Billy Cobham are all great drummers that specialise in fusion, so whats the problem here???? people only wanna hear what they wanna hear. so dont go into it thinking u dont like it cos u prob wont enjoy it that way.

 

Date:	17-Jun-1999 19:55:40
From:	lulio (liqurgo@mailcity.com)
	GRoOVE FACToR ROCKS!!!!!

 

Date:	18-Jun-1999 07:40:28
From:	Len
	Hey guys, whats wrong with all of you. Open up your minds! I do a radio show here in melbourne australia and regularly play fusion and it's alive, well and growing. Check out Tom Costers 3 albums Forbidden Zone,Lets Set The Record straight and From The street, this is music from a master, do we have to label it?Vital Information, Frank Gambale Tribal Tech, Gary Willis Band, Dave Weckl Band,Paradox with Billy Cobham,John McLaughlin (Heart Of Things with Dennis Chambers)The list is endless, JUST LISTEN TO THE MUSIC NOT THE GENRE!!!

 

Date:	24-Jun-1999 11:07:34
From:	George
	There was a tremendous amount of talent conceiled, when some snobs deceided that there was something wrong or corrupt with Fusion. I love all types of Jazz, but I was introduced to Jazz and fell in love with it through this type of music. Jazz is more than just Be-Bop or Big Band. John Coltrane isn't smooth and listenable like Duke Ellington, but I don't hear anyone putting his music down. Early Fusion (i.e. Return to Forever, Larry Coryell w/ the Eleventh House, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jean-Luc Ponty, etc..) is probably the most exciting and moving music ever composed. I was shocked and excited to hear that Stanley Clark and Lenny White have gotten (back) together to form a new fusion band (Vertu). I haven't heard all of it yet, but Jazziz on Disc features a cut off of their first disc and it is really good!

 

Date:	25-Jun-1999 10:02:17
From:	Beatty
	Fusion has evolved at about the same rate as cheese curds. Its staying power will be about the same too. Call me a jazz snob, but I still won't eat a cheese curd even though I have some great friends who swear by 'em.

 

Date:	25-Jun-1999 15:26:24
From:	Coochie
	I resent the comparison of cheese curds to fusion "music." Cheese curds are a healthy, tasty food snack that anyone who tastes will enjoy. Is fusion healthy, "tasteful" music that everyone enjoys - obviously not, just read some of the previous comments!! I rest my case. In the future, please do not defame cheese curds by this odious comparison. Cheese curds are forever - fusion will go the way of disco and other superficial "fashion music."

 

Date:	27-Jun-1999 14:34:16
From:	Rodney Willis
	There is nothing wrong with fusion music. There is nothing wrong with cheese curds. They are both what they are - take them or leave them. Accept the diversity of our vast world.

 

Date:	06-Jul-1999 04:42:02
From:	Reid (reidtama@yahoo.com)
	It's changed in many ways. The most obvious being the style of music known as smooth jazz. But there's other off-shoots that don't get as much attention as they deserve, partly that has to do with poor marketing and partly because of current prejudices and hostility towards fusion (as can be seen by this thread). You may not think of musicians like Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Wayne Horvitz, Barbara Dennerlein, Greg Osby, Michael Brecker as fusion musicians, but you can certainly say that their music is informed by fusion. Then you have musicians who have are easily identified with the fusion style, groups like Tribal Tech, Last Exit, Zony Mash, Wayne Krantz and Wayne Shorter, and Ginger Baker. Here are some exmaples of post-fusion music: Ginger Baker--Going Back Home Marc Johnson--Sound of Summer Running Last Exit-Last Exit Sonny Sharrock--Ask The Ages Tribal Tech--Reality Check Michael Brecker--Michael Brecker Wayne Krantz--Two Drink Minumum Rick Margtiza--Hope Greg Osby--Zero Pat Metheny Group--Imaginary Day Astral Project--VoodooBop Naked City--Naked City Billy Childs--I've Known Rivers Pat Martino and Joyous Lake--Stone Blue Some of the new things they have done is deal with hip-hop grooves, 80's heavy metal, a country sensibility and some of them have suffused the music with be-bop. The one thing that they have in commonn is that their music is largely marginalized and ignored by mainstream jazz fans. It's this type of music that's the new underground style in jazz for the most part.

 

Date:	06-Jul-1999 10:35:48
From:	Beatty
	Coochie- I take back every libelous comment or thought I ever had about cheese curds. Over the big 4th of July weekend, I had the occassion to sample cheese curds, lightly browned on the grill. I do have to admit that I didn't really belly up to them at first though. The bar-b-que (if you could call it that) was sompeplace in northern Wisconsin and, well, when they brought out the first course, these big disgusting bratwursts (yeech- they were greasy and slimy!), I thought I wasn't going to eat at all. Two hours later , my stomach was grumbling and I plunged into a giant platter of those curds (they smelled real good too). OK, so what's my point here? Simple, if I could get over my disdain for cheese curds, could I overcome my jazz snob tendencies and embrace the evolution of fusion?

 

Date:	08-Jul-1999 03:05:36
From:	Reid (reidtama@yahoo.com)
	Here are some others: Wil Bernard--Medicine Hat Bela Fleck and the Flecktones The Lost Tribe--The Lost Tribe Wayne Horvitz and Zony Mash--Cold Spell Christy Doran-Corporate Art Doug Robinson--Plays Well With Others

 

Date:	24-Jul-1999 11:30:59
From:	Willie
	Do bricks evolve?

 

Date:	01-Aug-1999 17:02:30
From:	Saul L.
	Will Willie evolve?

 

Date:	15-Aug-1999 16:09:14
From:	GiGi
	How will fusion evolve? Will it? I believe these questions have more to do with the topic.

 

Date:	29-Apr-2000 21:56:46
From:	Leo
	Theres only good music and bad music, do not waste time with catergorisation. Open your mind!!!

 

Date:	08-May-2000 12:27:26
From:	Ludwig (LudwigW@hotmail.com)
	As if "good" and "bad" are not categories?

 

Date:	08-May-2000 15:40:32
From:	Stephen M. (Mallarme.internetfrancais.com)
	As if the blank page is identical to the text you are reading?

 

Date:	21-May-2000 13:41:41
From:	ShawGB@hotmail.com
	"Hell is full of musical amateurs."

 

Date:	12-Jun-2000 08:20:28
From:	Alan
	fusion once had a burgeoning soul

 

Date:	13-Jun-2000 18:38:46
From:	Karen
	just because you don't like a type of music doesn't mean that it isn't good or that someone else has to like your type of music - live and let be, please.

 

Date:	27-Jun-2000 00:16:15
From:	Chris LaRoche (cronoss@strategyplanet.com)
	is TUTU agood example of Fusion?

 

Date:	29-Jun-2001 14:06:11
From:	Jerry (jerrylev@adelphia.net)
	Fusion certainly has changed, particularly in that there are more variants of it. In the late 50's & early 60's it may have referred to what was then called "Third Stream", which combined elements of classical music with jazz, as typified by the compostions of John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Orchestra. In the 1970's it was typified by groups like the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return to Forever, who used jazz harmonies and scales, played on electrified instruments, over rock rhythms. These days, the term seems to be often used to refer to jazz harmonies and scales superimposed over r&b, rap, and dance rhythms, using the contemporary sounds of these genres. Fusion also encompasses "world music", which brings in additional harmonic and percussive elements, such as McLaughlin's work with Shakti. Jazz-rock fusion lost favor along with progressive rock in the late 1970's when punk emerged with it's disdain of advanced musical technique. Rap emerged about the same time and dispensed with all musical technique, in favor of generated loops and samples. While I have all due respect and admiration for all the great hollow-body jazz guitar player's from Charlie Christian and Django on, I personally like to use overdrive to get a fat tone that can be as expressive as a saxophone. Rock guitar players like Jerry Garcia & Carlos Santana have admitted in interviews that they admired the tone of players like John Coltrane. Why should electric guitarist's be restrained from using the full tonal palette of our instruments? Are we second-class citizens in the jazz world? Well, maybe. John Scofield's playing on an album like "Hand Jive" is a good example of how modern electrified instrument sounds can be used over a traditional jazz rhythmic approach without sacrificing musical integrity.

 

Date:	18-Jul-2001 21:44:45
From:	Jeff Davis (jeffddavis@aol.com)
	I think all of us realize the truly talented players who have payed their dues. The older masters who paved the way, such as Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Monk and the Bird as well as the numerous others along with their Blues and European classical influences hundreds of years ago. Music evolves in relation to human evolution. What we call "Fusion" is simply an example of that evolution. I certainly agree with many of you in that I think we can weed out the pretenders and point to the true practitioners of this hybrid music, such as Tribal Tech, Allan Holdsworth, John Scofield, Chick Corea, and so on. Lets give credit where credit is due, these people work their asses off and are not creating pop culture garbage. Keep listening Jazz heads! Jeff Davis

 

Date:	07-Aug-2001 20:33:47
From:	eduardo goicoechea (edugoico@hotmail.com)
	Of course it has evolved. When Miles Davis died I thought fusion was dead too, but with artists like Steve Coleman mixing jazz, rap and african rhythms, fusion survives.