1. Fusions:
Rock and the World

2. Fusion
As rock dominates popular music in U.S. and Europe, other types of music have to
Reject influence
Incorporate rock into national or established styles
= fusion

3. Rock Fusions - Types Fusion popular mostly in country of native music
Ex. Yoruban Highlife
Popularity outside of native country
Become part of rock mainstream

4. Jazz-Rock Fusion Jazz influence on solos, individual songs
Bands or artists whose sound is heavily influenced by jazz
Ex: Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears
Jazz artists incorporate rock beats, ensembles into modern jazz

5. Miles Davis Jazz trumpeter Innovator of many different jazz styles
Bebop
Cool jazz
Free jazz
Album Bitches’ Brew primary testament of jazz-rock fusion
Ex: Pharoah’s Dance

6. World music fusions “World music” popular in U.S. from early 20th c.
Afro - Cuban dances: mambo, rhumba
Brazilian: samba
Sixteen-beat style beat
Complicated rhythmic interplay between parts

7. Latin-Rock fusion Little influence beyond Latin rhythms, percussion
More directly influences jazz, blues, R&B
Influence on rock delayed until 1960s

8. Carlos Santana (1947- ) Mexican-born guitarist
Forms Santana Blues Band in San Francisco in 1966
Fused blues and Afro-Cuban rhythms
Heavy Latin flavor

9. Santana - Style characteristics
Rhythmic layering
Two conga drummers + auxiliary Latin percussion + rock drummer
Drums frequently create cross-rhythms, polyrhythms
Little to no emphasis on backbeat
Organ/electric keyboards integral part of sound
Lyrics sometimes in Spanish

10. Santana - Oye Como Va Cover of mambo by Tito Puente
Opening organ riff – Latin rhythms
As is bass riff – but don’t coincide
Guitar riff laid over that
Distortion, pedal effects
Riff drops out under vocals
Forms basis for solos, bridges

11. Reggae Most popular world music/rock fusion
imported from Jamaica in early 70s
Huge influence on rock, popular music

12. Roots of Reggae
Jamaican musicians in late ‘50s-’60s start to play American R&B
Some bands fuse R&B and jump blues with mento
Jamaican folk music
Resulting fusion = ska

13. Ska 4 beat style beat, like swing
Accent on afterbeats = in between beats (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and)
Creates overall sense of delay
Little emphasis on the bass

14. Derrick Morgan - Lover Boy
Most ska includes horns
Influenced by Mexican Mariachi
Often R&B influenced sax solos
Another example – Prince Buster – “Madness”

15. Rock Steady Emerges c. 1965 Ska influenced by Stax soul
Gospel influence, call-and-response vocals
Heavier bass lines
Slower, more flexible rhythmically
Example – Derrick Morgan, “Tougher than Tough”

16. Jamaican rock fusion in UK
First: UK hit My Boy Lollipop - Millie Small (1963)
produced by Chris Johnson, founder of Island Records
More exposure on radio than in Jamaica
Ska and rock steady disseminated via “sound systems”

17. Toasting and Dubbing
Sound system DJs lay down rhythmic patter over intro to ska and rock steady records
= toasting
DJs start to manipulate record to extend, alter intro
dubbing
Eventually dubs (heavily produced remixes of singles or new instrumentals) recorded in studio

18. Reggae From Toots and the Maytals “Do the Reggay” Slow, loping tempo
Greater rhythmic complexity than rock steady
Supported by syncopated bass riffs
normally avoid first beat of bar

19. Popularity of Reggae Reggae rhythms arrived in U.S., U.K. by 1970
Johnny Nash, I Can See Clearly Now
Paul Simon, Mother and Child Reunion
First Jamaican reggae star Jimmy Cliff
Several modest hits in U.K.
Stars in 1972 film The Harder They Come
Cult hit in the U.S.

20. Bob Marley (1945-81) Lead singer of the Wailers
First album, Catch a Fire, first real reggae album.
Second – Burnin’ – hit in U.S.
Exposure from Clapton’s cover of “I Shot The Sheriff”

21. Bob Marley - Characteristics
Lyrics political/social commentary
Rastafarianism
Social justice
Keyboards crucial part of ensemble
Jamaican percussion plays prominent role
Moderate to slow tempos

22. Bob Marley and the Wailers - Get Up, Stand Up
Very socially conscious lyrics
Several layers of rhythmic activity
Bass riff (different in verse, refrain)
Ska beat in cymbal, guiro
Keyboard
Drums (rock beat)
Thick, dense texture
Primary interest rhythmic

23. Reggae - Influence
Reggae-inspired hits common in late 70s-early 80s: Paul Simon, Blondie, Stevie Wonder, Police
Crucial component of late ‘70s-early ‘80s post-punk new wave