Origins When
John Coltrane died in 1967, rock was the most popular music in America, and
DownBeat magazine went so far as to declare in a headline that: "Jazz as We Know It Is Dead".
AllMusic states that "until around 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock were nearly completely separate", although the
Daevid Allen Trio which later became the Soft Machine formed in 1963, while the jazz label
Verve released the influential debut album,
Freak Out!, by artist and composer
Frank Zappa in 1966. In 1966, he started the band
the Free Spirits with
Bob Moses on drums and recorded the band's first album, Axelrod said Davis had played the album before conceiving
Bitches Brew.
Miles Davis Miles Davis wrote in his autobiography that in 1968 and 1969, he had been listening to
Jimi Hendrix,
James Brown, and
Sly and the Family Stone. Composed of two side-long improvised suites edited heavily by Teo Macero, the album was made by pioneers of jazz fusion: Corea, Hancock,
Tony Williams,
Wayne Shorter,
Joe Zawinul and
John McLaughlin. When Davis recorded
Bitches Brew in 1969, he mostly abandoned the swing beat in favor of a rock and roll backbeat and bass guitar grooves. The album "mixed free jazz blowing by a large ensemble with electronic keyboards and guitar, plus a dense mix of percussion". Davis played his trumpet like an electric guitar—plugged in to electronic effects and pedals. By the end of the first year,
Bitches Brew sold 400,000 copies, four times the average for a Miles Davis album. was a key figure in the development of fusion. Although
Bitches Brew gave him a
gold record, the use of electric instruments and rock beats created consternation among some jazz critics, who accused Davis of betraying the essence of jazz. Music critic Kevin Fellezs commented that some members of the jazz community regarded rock music as less sophisticated and more commercial than jazz. Over the next two years, the aloof Davis recorded more often, worked with many sidemen, appeared on television, and performed at rock venues. Just as quickly, Davis tested the loyalty of rock fans by continuing to experiment with rock,
funk, and electronic treatments. His producer,
Teo Macero, inserted previously recorded material into the
Jack Johnson soundtrack,
Live-Evil, and
On the Corner.
Jack Johnson (1971) has been cited as "the purest electric jazz record ever made" and "one of the most remarkable jazz rock discs of the era".
Other musicians performs during his
Mahavishnu Orchestra period Herbie Hancock brought elements of funk, disco, and electronic music into commercially successful albums such as
Head Hunters (1973) and ''
Feets, Don't Fail Me Now (1979). Several years after recording Miles in the Sky'' with Davis, guitarist
George Benson became a vocalist with enough pop hits to overshadow his earlier career in jazz. They had a successful career along with major musicians like
Alphonse Mouzon,
Jaco Pastorius,
Airto Moreira and
Miroslav Vitouš until 1986. Although McLaughlin had worked with Miles Davis, he was influenced more by Jimi Hendrix and had played with English rock musicians
Eric Clapton and
Mick Jagger before creating the Mahavishnu Orchestra around the same time that Corea started Return to Forever. McLaughlin had been a member of Tony Williams's Lifetime. He brought to his music many of the elements that interested other musicians in the 1960s and early 1970s: counterculture, rock and roll, electronic instruments, solo virtuosity, experimentation, the blending of genres, and an interest in the exotic, such as Indian music. released fusion albums. Early 1980s, Larsen Feiten band,
George Benson,
Lee Ritenour,
Al Jarreau, and the Clark/Duke Project gained pop hits. ==Jazz rock==