Some of This
and Some of That:
Fusion
Mark Anderson
Music History 10
Prof. Fink
May 28, 2001
I one day discovered, quite randomly, by listening to a CD that was too weird for my dad, that in contemporary Scandinavia there is an exciting and intriguing movement in the music scene. The younger generation, attempting to combine their modern musical tastes with their folk traditions, have successfully combined their music history with the esthetics of jazz, rock, and electronica. It is not, of course, merely Scandinavians that are doing this. Musicians across the world are mixing their traditional cultural music with the music that they are exposed to as a result of globalization. I have always found the traditional music of other countries interesting, and I also have always been interested in the hybridized results of “fusion” records. Fusion generally refers to the mixture of jazz and rock that had its heyday in the 70s, but I will use fusion to refer to any mixture of traditional and modern music. So it is thus quite natural for me to draw the lineage from bands such as Hoven Droven or Hedningarna back to Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra years.
Miles Davis’ album Bitches Brew (1970) is the most widely accepted identifier of the phenomena of fusion music. Not only did it combine jazz and rock musically (electric and acoustic), but it mixed methods of production and cover art with a more modern esthetic. Hence the cover art is hallucinogenic in contrast to the formality of the standard jazz album, and the producer, Teo Macero, uses methods of tape splicing to cut-up and mix the recording in unusual ways. Miles Davis was always on the cutting edge of jazz, using modal instead of chordal basis for improvisations, and working with the hottest and most innovative talents in his bands. A young guitarist by the name of John McLaughlin was recorded for Davis’ In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew sessions, and he is notable for his carrying of the fusion torch. John McLaughlin not only fronted one of the most memorable and top-billing jazz/rock fusion bands of the 70s, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, but initiated the jazz/world fusion group Shakti. Shakti, featuring McLaughlin and three classically trained Indian musicians, stands as one of the first and most successful attempts to harmoniously combine western music with eastern music.
Incidentally, George Russell was the one who set the path for Miles Davis’ modal revolutions in his book entitled The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization (All Music Guide). George Russell took a five-year hiatus to Scandinavia in 1963, and there he worked with and influenced a number of notable Scandinavian jazz musicians such as Jan Garbarek and Terje Rypdal. These musicians have done extensive dabbling in fusion efforts in everything from jazz/classical mixtures to jazz/world and jazz/rock and otherwise. These artists were also strongly influenced by Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and in fact Jan Garbarek recorded an album for the ECM label with Zakir Hussain, a member of Shakti, and John McLaughlin.
After the success of the fusion of rock and jazz during the 70s with acts such as Weather Report, Return to Forever, and Mahavishnu, fusion then became associated more with the cheesy and risk-free r&b flavored smooth jazz. Basically pop jazz, this is the stuff that you hear a lot on the radio. However, there are some very good jazz/rock fusion bands that continue the courageous and fiery path set by their forefathers. To name a few: Tribal Tech, Jonas Hellborg, Martin Medeski and Wood, Trilok Gurtu, Phish, and John Scofield.
Since Shakti, world fusion has become widespread, such that pop hits by Madonna or Sting contain elements of world music, thanks to the efforts of pop artists in the 80s such as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, and David Byrne. Some wonderful and compelling world fusion has been generated by western artists such as Bill Laswell, John McLaughlin, 3 Mustaphas 3, and Deep Forest. However, not all world fusion consists of western musicians incorporating the music of other countries. Other countries are taking the influence of western music and using it to complement their own music—and not just to “dumb it down” or mass-market its appeal.
One of my favorite artists (whom I also discovered randomly, in a used CD store) Cheikh Lo, is from Senegal. Similar to his contemporary Youssou N’Dour, who worked with Peter Gabriel, Cheikh Lo uses the traditions of Afro-Cuban influence and the Senegalese Mbalax and fuses it with the western traditions of jazz and funk. On his latest album, Bambay Gueej, Pee Wee Ellis (known for his work with James Brown) does the horn arrangements. There is a lot of African music that similarly takes western conventions and applies them in a completely unique and distinct manner to their tradition. Musicians such as Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade demonstrate that electric guitars and keyboards can be used in culturally different ways.
Examples from all over the world can be given, but I will here concentrate on the Scandinavian fusion. Thanks to the Northside label, this fascinating music is being made available to American audiences. These bands have an apparent respect and love for their musical heritage, and yet they also enjoy the music of the world. And of course, in the burgeoning Scandinavian jazz scene since the 60s, the crossing of musical boundaries was already firmly established. So hence it does not seem at all awkward or pretentious for these musicians to throw in a rock beat over a Swedish polska tune, or a jazz trumpet in between the nyckelharpa and the fiddle. The results are sometimes too inundated with arena rock to be taken seriously, but other times the mix becomes something quite new and refreshing, even as it also heightens interest in the traditions on which it is based.
Much of traditional Scandinavian music already contains an element of gothic darkness to it, and thus it combines very well with electronic music, as the group Hedningarna demonstrates. On albums such as Kaksi! or Tra!, two Finnish women wail over synthesized beats like witches, while Swedish musicians provide fiddling, and fluting. Listening to this music makes me envision pagans engaged in bloody ceremonies.
Another notable artist is Mari Boine, who has worked with Jan Garbarek on a couple of albums. She uses the chanting singing technique of the Samis (Laplanders of northern Scandinavia, somewhat similar to Native Americans) and mixes this with jazz/rock elements as well as with other ethnic influences. Hedningarna similarly used a Sami “joiker” on the Hippjokk album, demonstrating how modern and traditional musical forms could complement each other in a natural manner.
Other notable artists include: Hoven Droven, Hege Rimestad, Varttina, and Den Fule. These bands make it seem like a rock, jazz, or techno beat were meant to drop behind a Scandinavian folk song. The most important aspect of this music is that the mixtures do not feel forced—the fused result stands on its own, without the support of its parents. And it points the way to an exciting musical future, where traditions and new forms, global and indigenous, can exist together in a positive, personalized concoction.
Sources
I used the AMG All Music Guide at www.allmusic.com as a resource for general dates and artist background information.