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| Value for Money | 10/10 |
|---|---|
| Overall rating | 10/10 |
Full review by
jfderry
expert review 
on 9th Sep 2004
User Rating : 10
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Julie Coryell & Laura Friedman, Jazz-Rock Fusion: The People, the Music - Simply the Bible of jazz-rock fusion. But why is a collection of interviews better than a chronological narrative of the fusion movement? Because with these interviews you get under the skin of the musicians, sense their goals and understand their motivations and influences. Also, as this book was first published in 1978 (and now re-released with a new preface), at the height of the fusion boom, you get here a cutting edge outlook on the new sound, rather than a retrospective overview hampered and biased by subsequent years of jazz development, or decay, depending upon your viewpoint.
'78 was the time when Dark Magus had just been released even though Miles Davis hadn't honed his chops for the last three years, although Miles Davis is featured and indeed the book is dedicated to him. Other albums released were Steve Kahn's The Blue Man, Herbie Hancock's Sunlight, Tower Of Power's We Came To Play, Billy Cobham's Inner Conflicts and Simplicity Of Expression, Jean Luc Ponty's Cosmic Messenger and Joe Zawinul recorded his first home-produced Weather Report album, the DownBeat 1-starred Mr. Gone. It was also a turning point for John McLaughlin. Shakti's farewell disc, Natural Elements, had just been released, saying goodbye to a concept that wouldn't see the light of day for another 20 years, freeing John McLaughlin to "return" to his crowd-pleasing electric guitar, but in a way that no-one could have predicted. First, there was a decennial summary with Johnny McLaughlin Electric Guitarist before the recording of Electric Dreams and what transpired to be the only album released under the name of the essentially live outfit The One Truth Band later in the year. Three months later would see John McLaughlin taking a very different direction by performing in the Guitar Trio with Larry Coryell and Paco de Lucia.
The interviews carried out by Julie Coryell for her book read more like discussions within a network of friends. Undoubtedly her association with Larry Coryell stood her in good stead, but insightful questioning draws the personality from each musician lending a familiarity to the text, although editing has resulted in few of the question sequences running like dialogue, in favour of succintness and an efficiency in page space allocation for each interviewee.
The interviews don't completely stand alone. Other than being collected into instrument groups, there are also subtle threads provided skillfully via recycled questions being posed to different people; for example, "What part do you think drugs play in music?" and the age old "How do you feel about technology and the use of electronics in music?", plus other standards. Can you guess which albums Tony Williams would take to a desert island? Some responses are short; a few words or senteances. Others have more to say on certain topics and read more like short essays.
All the replies are captivating and require revisiting many times to draw out every nuance and inference. Some comments seem in retrospect to define an artist's consistency of approach since release of this book. Narada Michael Walden identifies the melody and song in music as being most important to him, not a surprising comment from someone destined to become one of the most successful pop producers. The index page reads like a veritable Who's Who of fusion,
bass
RON CARTER
STANLEY CLARKE
ALPHONSO JOHNSON
JOHN LEE
WILL LEE
JACO PASTORIUS
MIROSLAV VITOUS
brass
RANDY BRECKER
MILES DAVIS
FREDDIE HUBBARD
CHUCK MANGIONE
composers
CARLA BLEY
MICHAEL GIBBS
drums
GERRY BROWN
BILLY COBHAM
STEVE GADD
ALPHONSE MOUZON
NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN
LENNY WHITE
TONY WILLIAMS
guitar
JOHN ABERCROMBIE
JOE BECK
GEORGE BENSON
PHILIP CATHERINE
LARRY CORYELL
AL DIMEOLA
STEVE KAHN
EARL KLUGH
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN
PAT MARTINO
RALPH TOWNER
keyboards
BRIAN AUGER
CHICK COREA
GEORGE DUKE
JAN HAMMER
HERBIE HANCOCK
BOB JAMES
KEITH JARRETT
PATRICE RUSHEN
RICHARD TEE
JOE ZAWINUL
percussion
AIRTO (MOREIRA)
RALPH MacDONALD
woodwinds
GATO BARBIERI
MIKE BRECKER
JOE FARRELL
JOHN KLEMMER
RONNIE LAWS
DAVID LIEBMAN
TOM SCOTT
WAYNE SHORTER
GROVER WASHINGTON, JR.
vibraphone
ROY AYERS
GARY BURTON
MIKE MAINIERI
violin
JEAN-LUC PONTY
vocalists
AL JARREAU
FLORA PURIM
Thankfully all but a few are still with us and most are still producing music of note. The supplementary bibliography is comprehensive, but not exhaustive, avoiding excessive length and page filling. An integral part of the book are Laura Friedman's portraits of each artist, one black & white study to accompany each interview plus a section of her stunning colour prints.
The book is a classic and easily revisited as a furthering of one's own approach to music, music playing and music appreciation. It is simply a compulsory resource for fusion fans.
jfderry's review and ratings | 772 words
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