Jazz-Rock circa 1970

Jazz Rock is a broad term. Too broad, in fact, to be of any real use unless it is utilized as an overarching term to describe the sub genres beneath it.  For now we’ll discuss Fusion and the pop/rock/jazz approach, both of which displayed significant influence upon the jazz scene around 1970.

In and around 1968 and 1969, the idea of Jazz-Rock was moving ahead on more than one front.

In the realm of what would become known as Fusion, Miles Davis was in the studio working on those recordings which would become the high water marks for the Fusion genre (In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and A Tribute to Jack Johnson.)

Larry Coryell was working on his own ideas down in Texas, and recorded the wonderfully uneven Lady Coryell in 1968. Filled with blues, jazz, psychedelia, country and rock, it’s a raucous introduction the music scene. (Whatever your feelings on Jazz-Rock, check it out if you find it.) Coryell came to be an integral part of the early 70’s Fusion scene.

Tony Williams formed Lifetime in 1969 and released the Emergency! LP. Featuring John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Young on organ, the album is a historically important release deserving of its place within the Fusion pantheon.

On the less explorative, more overtly popular side of the street, Blood Sweat and Tears released their first album, Child is Father to the Man, in 1968, and the multi-platinum Blood Sweat and Tears in 1969, both on Columbia Records, the same label which released the Miles Davis recordings. The music of BS&T was called Jazz-Rock at the time, and is generally accepted as such – but time shows this music in a different light, and the accuracy of the designation is in question.

Chicago came onto the popular music scene in 1969 with the release of Chicago Transit Authority, followed by Chicago in early 1970, and its breakthrough pop hit Make Me Smile. The albums were also a part of the Columbia Records roster, which was making much hay in the Jazz-Rock scene of the time. Like their label mates BS&T, Chicago’s music has generally been accepted as Jazz-Rock.  At best, the designation is questionable.

After listening to all of this music back in the day, it occurred to me over time that bands like BS&T and Chicago were not jazz rock in any real sense, but simply more like pop/rock music with horns. Improvisation was certainly at a minimum, if existent at all, and the arrangements were all tightly scripted. Chicago could let loose a bit, but in a rock sense, and mostly with guitar. The freewheeling Terry Kath (January 31, 1946 – January 23, 1978) was a natural for this. (See: Free Form Guitar and Liberation from Chicago Transit Authority, and 25 or 6 to 4 from Chicago.)

Even when the horns were given a brief moment in the spotlight, the solos sound scripted, not spontaneous – and scripted solos do not a jazz recipe make – not even a bad one.

But all of this is just a view of the core of the jazz-rock scene around 1970. Early in the year, on the other side of the pond, a band by the name of IF had its first album released by Island Records.

IF  had a lineup of jazz players capable of improvising solos, and they did not hesitate to do so. Dick Morrissey (Saxes, flute), Dave Quincy (Saxes, flute) and Terry Smith (Guitar), all willingly displayed their wares on record and stage with enthusiasm and vigor. All were British poll winners, so from the get go a jazz-rock base was formed. Not rock with jazz overtones, nor AM Radio friendly pop music with a dash of horns; this was bona fide jazz-rock. Real solos over a rock rhythm section, which featured Dennis Elliot on the drum kit, later to be the drummer of the multi-platinum Foreigner.

There were other entries into the Jazz-Rock arena of the early 70’s, but IF is a special focal point. Sadly overlooked during the band’s brief 3 year lifespan, time has permitted their first four albums to age and reveal themselves for what they are – gems of the early jazz-rock era.

This is the band that put Jazz-Rock on the map. The other groups (BS&T and Chicago) while bringing much to the table to earn popularity and fame, did little in the way of furthering or creating Jazz-Rock. And rock music with horns may be cool and even good…. But it ain’t Jazz in any but the most superficial sense.

So have a listen to one of the bands which truly put the jazz into Jazz-Rock, and help keep this music alive.

From the debut album, IF in 1970:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CaigNaTlSQ

From IF3  (1971):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXaefhbtU2k

From the Waterfall album (1972):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UF9GUO_yRA

More videos by IF will be created and posted in the near future, simply because you can’t get too much of a good thing.

Dick Morrissey, (May 9, 1940 – November 8, 2000) was a founding member of the band, and a skilled hard bop tenor saxophonist and flautist  This page is dedicated to him. 

Rest in Peace.

jazzmanblue

Brooklyn, NY

September 10, 2014