Part 8: Fusion (Cont'd)

Another graduate of the school of Miles Davis was Chick Corea, who toured extensively with Davis after the recording of Bitches Brew. Corea can play free jazz, heavy duty jazz rock, or acoustic straight ahead jazz with equal aplomb. After leaving Davis he formed the original Return to Forever with Stanley Clarke, saxophonist Joe Farrell, drummer/percussionist Airto Moreira, and vocalist Flora Purim. The band was very light and airy, and the music demonstrated how beautiful and introspective fusion could sound. This lineup made only one other album, Light as a Feather, before Corea retooled Return to Forever into a heavy, technique-focused band. The new Return to Forever retained only Corea and Clarke supplemented by drummer Lenny White and guitarist Bill Connors, and their first album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy was very different indeed. Connors was subsequently replaced by Al DiMeola and the next release, No Mystery, was the blueprint for subsequent RTF albums. While fusion later suffered a backlash because the music focused too much on technique at the expense of having something to say, this album shows a group of young, accomplished players at the height of their youthful energies. Romantic Warrior, which was a concept album of sorts, was either one of the best fusion albums or a sign of the genre's bloatedness, depending on how you feel about its rocklike music, long solos, and perhaps overblown, romantic European grandeur. The other members of the group went on to release their own fusion classics: Stanley Clarke did Stanley Clarke and School Days, Lenny White released Venusian Summer and Big City, and Al DiMeola created Land of the Midnight Sun and Elegant Gypsy in addition to working with John McLaughlin. Corea later returned to electric jazz with the Electrik Band, but his main contributions to the format were made with RTF.

One of the most celebrated of the original fusion bands was Weather Report, formed in 1971 by Davis alumnus Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter. Originally featuring Miroslav Vitous, Airto Moirera, and Alphonse Mouzon, the group's first two albums, Weather Report and I Sing the Body Electric were logical extensions of the spacier work found on Miles Davis' In a Silent Way. There are no real solos, but the elements of melody, harmony, and accompanimnet are passed around between the players. The sound is not what people normally think of when they think of fusion, and the arrangements sound fluid and highly improvised. Elements began to coalesce into a more tune-oriented band on Mysterious Traveller, and Alphonso Johnson replaced Vitous on bass, providing his slick and much sampled composition "Cucumber Slumber." Tale Spinnin' provided more of the same, though it now sounds like a transistional album on the way to Black Market. Leon "Ngudu" Chancler, a veteran of Miles' 1973 touring band, rotated into the drum chair. Black Market brought in percussionist Alex Acuna and bassist Jaco Pastorious (though he only appeared on two numbers, he quickly became a focus of the band's live performances). The album features some excellent writing by Zawinul and Shorter, notably "Cannonball", "Elegant People", and "Barbary Coast." The next release, Heavy Weather, featured Pastorious and is the best known of the group's work due to the hit Zawinul composition "Birdland." There is a lot of other great stuff on this album: the ballad "The Remark You Made", Jaco's "Teen Town" and the celebratory Shorter composition "Palladium." The next album, Mr. Gone, is usually seen as the start of the group's decline, but there is still a lot going on that is interesting. The rest of the group's output becomes a little formulaic at times, but there is something on each one for the careful listener. The recently release Live and Unreleased provides a glimpse into some of the excellent work by the group that went unheard.

Joe Zawinul has released a number of solo albums, both under his own name and his new band, The Zawinul Syndicate. These albums explore similar territory to that investigated by Weather Report, with an even greater emphasis on world music influences. Check out Zawinul, Dialects, World Tour, or his latest, Faces & Places to see why Joe remains the master of fusion. Bassist Jaco Pastorious managed to release a few good solo albums before his untimely death as well. The best of these are Jaco Pastorious and Word of Mouth.