Word: fusion
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...disco beat and the lusher sounds of a synthesizer. Weather Report, a well-respected group that includes Wayne Shorter on sax, has continued to work in the jazz-rock field; its latest album, Heavy Weather, which rides sophisticated solos over rock rhythms, has sold half a million copies. But fusion, as Davis' original album title foretold, is a dangerous brew. It was a short step to what many traditional jazzmen bitterly refer to as crossover music...
Each new current in jazz has, of course, always faced opposition. The '30s swing music swung at the '40s bop; bop booed the experimental movements of the '50s and '60s. But many jazzmen feel that fusion is not true jazz-and they are right...
Says Avant-Garde Musician Rivers: "It's not really in the tradition because the tradition is the solo voice. Fusion never goes anywhere." West Coast Jazz Pianist Paul Potyen thinks that most fusion albums have lost the sense of jazz's uniquely personal sounds and interactions. "The 'in' cuts are really slick; they're turning out musical TV dinners," he says...
...good news, however, is that many new fans have reached jazz through fusion. They began by listening to such groups as Blood Sweat and Tears and Chicago, which moved toward jazz in the '60s as some jazz began moving toward rock...
Once that audience got as far as fusion, it often went still further back in time and finally arrived at "pure" jazz. Says Producer Orrin Keepnews, whose Fantasy/Prestige/Milestone label has put out major rereleases: "If we narrow the gap with fusion, we will have accomplished something large...