Fusions:

1
Fusions
Rock and the World
2
Fusion

• As rock dominates popular music in U.S. and
  Europe, other types of music have to
• Reject influence
• Incorporate rock into national or established
  styles
• fusion

3
Rock Fusions - Types

• Fusion popular mostly in country of native music
• Ex. Yoruban Highlife
• Popularity outside of native country
• Become part of rock mainstream

4
Jazz-Rock Fusion

• Jazz influence on solos, individual songs
• Bands or artists whose sound is heavily
  influenced by jazz
• Ex Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears
• Jazz artists incorporate rock beats, ensembles
  into modern jazz

5
Miles Davis

• Jazz trumpeter
• Innovator of many different jazz styles
• Bebop
• Cool jazz
• Free jazz
• Album Bitches Brew primary testament of
  jazz-rock fusion
• Ex Pharoahs Dance

6
World music fusions

• World music popular in U.S. from early 20th c.
• Afro - Cuban dances mambo, rhumba
• Brazilian samba
• Sixteen-beat style beat
• Complicated rhythmic interplay between parts

7
Latin-Rock fusion

• Little influence beyond Latin rhythms, percussion
  
• More directly influences jazz, blues, RB
• Influence on rock delayed until 1960s

8
Carlos Santana (1947- )

• Mexican-born guitarist
• Forms Santana Blues Band in San Francisco in 1966
• Fused blues and Afro-Cuban rhythms
• Heavy Latin flavor

9
Santana - Style characteristics

• Rhythmic layering
• Two conga drummers auxiliary Latin percussion
  rock drummer
• Drums frequently create cross-rhythms,
  polyrhythms
• Little to no emphasis on backbeat
• Organ/electric keyboards integral part of sound
• Lyrics sometimes in Spanish

10
Santana - Oye Como Va

• Cover of mambo by Tito Puente
• Opening organ riff Latin rhythms
• As is bass riff but dont coincide
• Guitar riff laid over that
• Distortion, pedal effects
• Riff drops out under vocals
• Forms basis for solos, bridges

11

Reggae

• Most popular world music/rock fusion
• imported from Jamaica in early 70s
• Huge influence on rock, popular music

12
Roots of Reggae

• Jamaican musicians in late 50s-60s start to
  play American RB
• Some bands fuse RB and jump blues with mento
• Jamaican folk music
• Resulting fusion ska

13
Ska

• 4 beat style beat, like swing
• Accent on afterbeats in between beats (1 and 2
  and 3 and 4 and)
• Creates overall sense of delay
• Little emphasis on the bass

14
Derrick Morgan - Lover Boy

• Most ska includes horns
• Influenced by Mexican Mariachi
• Often RB influenced sax solos
• Another example Prince Buster Madness

15
Rock Steady

• Emerges c. 1965
• Ska influenced by Stax soul
• Gospel influence, call-and-response vocals
• Heavier bass lines
• Slower, more flexible rhythmically
• Example Derrick Morgan, Tougher than Tough

16
Jamaican rock fusion in UK

• First UK hit My Boy Lollipop - Millie Small
  (1963)
• produced by Chris Johnson, founder of Island
  Records
• More exposure on radio than in Jamaica
• Ska and rock steady disseminated via sound
  systems

17
Toasting and Dubbing

• Sound system DJs lay down rhythmic patter over
  intro to ska and rock steady records
• toasting
• DJs start to manipulate record to extend, alter
  intro
• dubbing
• Eventually dubs (heavily produced remixes of
  singles or new instrumentals) recorded in studio

18
Reggae

• From Toots and the Maytals Do the Reggay
• Slow, loping tempo
• Greater rhythmic complexity than rock steady
• Supported by syncopated bass riffs
• normally avoid first beat of bar

19
Popularity of Reggae

• Reggae rhythms arrived in U.S., U.K. by 1970
• Johnny Nash, I Can See Clearly Now
• Paul Simon, Mother and Child Reunion
• First Jamaican reggae star Jimmy Cliff
• Several modest hits in U.K.
• Stars in 1972 film The Harder They Come
• Cult hit in the U.S.

20
Bob Marley (1945-81)

• Lead singer of the Wailers
• First album, Catch a Fire, first real reggae
  album.
• Second Burnin hit in U.S.
• Exposure from Claptons cover of I Shot The
  Sheriff

21
Bob Marley - Characteristics

• Lyrics political/social commentary
• Rastafarianism
• Social justice
• Keyboards crucial part of ensemble
• Jamaican percussion plays prominent role
• Moderate to slow tempos

22
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Get Up, Stand Up

• Very socially conscious lyrics
• Several layers of rhythmic activity
• Bass riff (different in verse, refrain)
• Ska beat in cymbal, guiro
• Keyboard
• Drums (rock beat)
• Thick, dense texture
• Primary interest rhythmic

23
Reggae - Influence

• Reggae-inspired hits common in late 70s-early
  80s Paul Simon, Blondie, Stevie Wonder, Police
• Crucial component of late 70s-early 80s
  post-punk new wave