We’ve all heard of jazz music, and most of us have heard it before, whether it be on the radio, in a movie, or at a concert. But what exactly is jazz fusion? Music as a whole is very versatile and always changing. Look at where we are today, and look where we came from. Music dates back centuries from the earliest songs that were sung by our ancestors, to classical music and baroque, and now to modern rock, electronica and hundreds of other genres. It really has changed, and continues to change, just as people and cultures do.
Now that we’ve seen how things are constantly adapting and changing, we can take a look at jazz fusion. As its name implies, jazz fusion takes jazz music and fuses it with other genres of music. In other words, jazz guitar players would take other music styles and incorporate certain techniques or qualities into their jazz playing. They were also highly influenced by these other genres.
So what kind of genres can you find in jazz fusion guitar? There have been influences from rock, funk, the blues, any many more, even some traditional styles from around the world. Some qualities of jazz fusion that you might notice are different time signatures (as opposed to the standard common time signature) and combining traditionally jazz instruments like woodwinds and brass with other instruments from other genres like electric guitars with distortion or effects. This gives jazz fusion players a greater chance to branch out and expand their musical horizons. You’ll hear a lot of jazz fusion guitar players playing around and getting experimental.
Check out this VIDEO GUITAR LESSON ON A COOL FUSION LICK
Because of how many different kinds of jazz fusion there are in the world, it’s really hard to refer to it as a single genre. That’s why some prefer to refer to it instead as more of an approach to music than a style. Still, it does retain one of the main components of jazz music, and that is the improvisational qualities.
With jazz, musicians are always improvising on the spot, and they must be highly technical and skilled players in order to do that. If there’s one thing you’re likely to find throughout all jazz fusion, it’s the long improv sessions and instrumental components.
If you are into fusion guitar, I recommend you to check out this course in DVD:
