What Was on Your College Soundtrack?

(Fusion, Part 2: Jeff Beck, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report)

Album cover art © Columbia Records

In Part 1, I took a look at some of the key players who smashed jazz and rock together, creating something with a whole new energy and dynamism.

Fusion: When Music Went Nuclear (Part 1)

The initial forays into fusion were led by people from the highest echelon of jazz, starting with Miles Davis and several of the musicians who had brushed up against him. Even while incorporating rock instrumentation into the music, they retained the academic and experimental feel of bebop and modern jazz. Early fusion was music for musicians.

For fusion to break through to a broader audience, it needed to sound a little more like what people were familiar with. In Part 1, I touched on the reality that threading that needle could subject a musician to accusations of “selling out.” It’s a sort of silly accusation — for one thing, the level of musicianship needed to attempt fusion seriously is out of reach of all but the very best rock musicians.

Gate-keeping fans, not other musicians, largely made the accusations of selling out. I’m grateful to the musicians who didn’t worry about blowback from the fans. Rather than being a haven for sellouts, fusion became a hotbed of innovative yet gorgeous music.

Take a listen:

Jeff Beck: “You Know What I Mean”

Back to the starting question: What was on your college-age soundtrack? Most of us partied to Disco, Springsteen, and “soft rock” like Jackson Browne and the Eagles. But I had the good fortune of being in a dorm with a lot of musicians, and they exposed me to an alternate universe.

When we wanted to sit and just listen to music, the menu was heavy on proto-metal bands like Rainbow and Black Sabbath, fusion albums by Miles Davis, Jeff Beck, and Herbie Hancock, and hard-to-classify artists like Pink Floyd and King Crimson.

Beck’s Blow by Blow and Wired were not the only fusion albums out there — far from it; but they were by far the best known and among the most influential.

This is from “Blow By Blow” — in this case, the original studio track. Unlike the Miles Davis-adjacent players, Beck came from the blues and hard rock world. He could have stayed there but went off in a new direction, merging rock, jazz, and funk. That restlessness would mark his entire career.

More than any of the other early fusion albums, this and its follow-up “Wired” were widely popular — it seemed every dorm room had copies. More importantly, they were a sign of things to come from Beck, who would go on to cover more ground, arguably, than any other guitarist in history.

Jeff Beck: “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers”

Here is Beck, many years later, playing his signature piece from “Blow by Blow.” He is accompanied by longtime partners Vinnie Colaiuta and Jason Rebello, with 20-year-old Australian prodigy Tal Wilkenfeld on bass.

Wilkenfeld had just made her American debut with them at Crossroads weeks earlier. Watch her giddy delight at playing with these legends (check out the looks she and Beck trade starting at 2:43) and their open admiration of her abilities.

Throughout his career, Beck has opened doors for new talent and given them room to strut their stuff. Just another reason he’s my pick as “the greatest.”

…….

Herbie Hancock: “Watermelon Man”

Herbie Hancock was a prodigy who was largely self-taught. Miles Davis recruited him into one of his ensembles when he was still a teenager, and Herbie was off and running. He is one of the most prolific musicians I know of, with credits on hundreds of projects, including many of his own. He has explored a wide range of genres and contributed to several movie scores. I am sure I have only heard a small fraction of what he has done.

This number is my favorite from Hancock’s 1973 Headhunters album, which had a big impact on fusion and jazz, rock, funk, and even pop music. It was not without controversy — I remember my jazz purist friends felt Hancock had “sold out.” By that, I think they meant he had made something accessible and fun that you could party to.

Weather Report: “Nubian Sundance”

I’ll end this section with my favorite single piece by any of the landmark fusion groups. This is from Weather Report’s second album, Mysterious Traveller.

Weather Report were a true international project founded by Austrian composer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and Czech bassist Miroslav Vitous. Zawinul and Shorter had played with Miles Davis and other giants of jazz.

Vitous left the band after “Mysterious Traveller,” and over the years, some 20 other musicians did turns with the band, many of them legends in their own right.

This song is a gorgeous, chaotic yet carefully composed melange of different influences. It is also supremely dance-able — if you can really let go. It is hard to find words to describe it, so just hit play.

Coming in Part 3: Jean-Luc Ponty, Tony Williams, Allan Holdsworth and more.