1970s Jazz Fusion

The once derided musical hybrid that is 1970s Jazz Fusion has since become one of the most influential genres of music in jazz, rock, soul, and hip-hop. From the earliest glimmers of America's Music going electric, traditional fans accused such legends as Miles Davis and Donald Byrd of contaminating an art form so rich in history and complex in structure with the brazen commercialism and seeming simplicity of new genres like rock, soul, and funk. The accusations of selling out were only compounded by the fact that artists like Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea sold far more records and reached more non-jazz fans in the 1970s with their fusion records than with their straight-ahead jazz records. And yet, that popularity has also brought critical appraisal back around to fulsome praise, thanks to the volume of these hybrid albums being passed down through the generations, inspiring younger generations raised on funk and disco and hip-hop, who saw traditional jazz as a worthy music but one that felt as much an artifact as a living breathing thing that speaks to them today. And in many ways, the influence of jazz fusion streams through to further audiences, thanks to extensive sampling by hip-hop artists like J Dilla and A Tribe Called Quest, repeated shoutouts by funk and electronic artists like The Roots' Questlove and Flying Lotus, and fantastic emulations by newer jazz artists like Terri Lyne Carrington, Thundercat, and Kamasi Washington.