Fusion & Fragmentation

Miles Davis died in 1991 he was involved in all the jazz innovations in the post bop era. After Miles jazz has fused with electric pop and fragmented into a mainstream of variety on the innovations pioneered by -

Louis Armstrong

Duke Ellington

Charlie Parker

Miles Davis                and their sidemen ...  

1970 Miles Davis groups started to play with amplified equipment - 'Bitches Brew'
Electric fusion - Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea,
The fusion with Rock which through the Muddy Waters electric Chicago blues sound had established the pop mainstream.

Lennie Tristano shifted keys and metres almost at will.

Fusion developed in the late 1960's and early 1970's as an attempt to merge Rock with Jazz. Miles Davis helped usher in the fusion of jazz and rock in the mid to late 1960's through albums such as 'Bitches Brew'. Jazz/Rock Fusion Bands such as Chick Corea's Return to Forever flourished largely by creating a crossover audience which included many fans of Progressive Rock , and featured players of extremely high technical proficiency.

Tony Williams formed a rock oriented band called Lifetime with John McLaughlin, who also formed his own high energy group, the Mahavishnu Orchestra.

Other groups combined jazz and rock in a more popularly oriented manner, from the crossover Top 40 of Spyro Gyra to the somewhat more esoteric guitarist Pat Metheny.

Other popular fusion bands include Weather Report, The Crusaders, and the Yellowjackets.
John McLaughlin high energy group, the Mahavishnu Orchestra
Weather Report

Neoclassicism. Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and his brother, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, have achieved much popular success playing music that is based on styles of the 1950's and 1960's with a deep respect for the earlier innovators.