July 1955 - Miles Davis performs for the first time at The Newport Jazz Festival. This event is considered to be one of the most significant to the history of music.
August 17, 1959 - Blue Note Records releases Miles Davis' Kind of Blue.
February 1960 - Atlantic Records releases John Coltrane's Giant Steps.
March 1961 - Atlantic Records releases John Coltrane's My Favorite Things, an album whose sales and radio play proved that jazz music had a place in pop culture.
January 1965 - Impulse! Records releases John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. The record was recorded in one day, December 9, 1964.
January 1966 - release of The Free Spirits' Out of Sight and Sound, Larry Coryell's first New York City band's miserable (and failed) attempt at capturing their dynamic live sound in a studio setting.
September 18, 1966 - Day three of The Monterey Jazz Festival. During Sunday afternoon's legendary set, trumpeter and bandleader Don Ellis used his off-beat humor and educational speaking skills to connect with the audience, teaching them what made his songs unusual (the very, very odd time signatures and polyrhythms being played by his 20-person stage "orchestra"). The young audience members responded with a surprising affection as well as a very unexpected inclination to dance!
Late 1966 - Columbia Records releases the Don Ellis Orchestra's 'Live' at Monterey ! The vinyl recording of the now-legendary concert performance(s) of a couple of months before.
February 15 & March 7, 1967 - the studio recording dates for John Coltrane's album, Expression. This would be the last studio album that John would see through to production before his July 17 death. The feeling of John's full presence leaves the listener thinking that he might have known that these were to be his last studio recordings.
1967 - Gary Burton Duster, considered by many to be the first true Jazz-Rock Fusion album. Gary's forward-thinking genius was in his ability and willingness to try and adapt to new trends and sounds in music--here employing electric guitars of Larry Coryell with the dynamic rhythm section of Steve Swallow and Roy Haynes.
July 17, 1967 - death of John Coltrane--an event that sent shock waves throughout the music world.
September 1967 - Impulse! Records releases John Coltrane's Expression, the artist's last album that he had personally authorized. Personally, this is my favorite John Coltrane album.
September 19 & 20, 1967 - Columbia Records releases Don Ellis Orchestra's Electric Bath. Moving quickly to take advantage of the recent explosion in interest in Don's Orchestra, jazz record producer John Hammond was able to nail Don and his large ensemble down to recording dates immediately following the 1967 Monterey Jazz Festival at which the Orchestra performed as the Festival's headliner--due to the popular acclaim from the previous year. Don was very excited to try to record some of his new ideas with his 21-man band.
May 1968 - Miles Davis starts dating 22-year old model and aspiring singer, Betty Mabry. The two would marry in September and divorce one year later. The association would dramatically expand Miles' musical and cultural perspectives--especially in Betty's exposure to the music of James Brown, Sly & The Family Stone, and Jimi Hendrix. (Previously, Miles was notoriously obsessed with classical and jazz music to the utter exclusion of radio, pop, and television.) She even introduced Miles to Sly Stone and her friend Jimi Hendrix--with whom Miles would form an instant and profound connection and bond (despite his marriage-ending jealousy of him).
Late 1968 - Polydor (Norway) releases 21-year old guitarist/composer Terje Rypdal's first album, entitled Bleak House, under his own name, marking the new direction(s) that the young artist will be choosing to explore for the rest of his life.
February 18, 1969 - studio recording session for Miles Davis' In a Silent Way. After half a year of hearing the amazing things going on in the world of pop music, Miles opened himself up to "the future of music"--a future in which the electronic instruments and engineering treatments flooding the world of rock 'n' roll could and would be combined with, or rather, merged with jazz. Despite his excitement for the introduction of his "new" Quartet (to include dynamic drummer Jack DeJohnette, electric and acoustic bassist Dave Holland, and experimental keyboard player Chick Corea, and, later, saxophonist Wayne Shorter under the "Quintet" format), Miles invited newcomers John McLaughlin, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, and Tony Williams to sit in on the session in an unprecedented expanded, electric lineup.
March 1969 - Recording sessions for Larry Coryell's ground-breaking album, Spaces, occurs in March of 1969. Guest artists John McLaughlin, Billy Cobham, and Chick Corea were coming straight out of the February 18 recording sessions with Miles Davis for what would become the album, In a Silent Way. Larry is quoted as saying that it took a whole day of recording for his guests to 'come back down to earth' in order to play his compositions as he set forth. Consequently, none of the music recorded from Day One ended up being used on the published album.
April 28, 1969 - Columbia Records releases Chicago's debut album, Chicago Transit Authority. Though expressing themselves through a variety of established styles, the overall feeling of the album is quite progressive and often clearly a fusion of rock 'n' roll with jazz and blues rock. Aside from the astonishingly groundbreaking arrangements of the amazingly tight horn section, critics and musicians (including one Jimi Hendrix) are immediately magnetized to the dynamic virtuosity of guitarist Terry Kath and drummer Danny Seraphine. Side One of the four-sided album represents the most polished progressive rock/jazz-rock fusion.
May 11-12, 1969 - fairly fresh from February's studio recording sessions with Miles Davis (which would become the In A Silent Way album) and most likely already having seen Tony WIlliams' Lifetime trio in a live setting (multiple times), Chick Corea books some studio time for the exploration of some new ideas of his own. Employing Miles' other Second Great Quartet members (of which he was also a member), Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette as well as other experimental fusion enthusiasts Bennie Maupin and Hubert Laws, Chick's septet records four songs that, unfortunately, don't get released until 1972 as the Groove Merchant album, Sundance. The music is still founded in post-bop jazz but boasts some more aggressive play and sound dynamics than previous albums--especially from drummer DeJohnette and Chick himself.
May 26 & 28, 1969 - Dates of revolutionary drummer Tony Williams' studio recording sessions with John McLaughlin and Larry Young for what will become the album Emergency! Fusion giants Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea all mention the loud and aggressive sound and play of Lifetime guitarist John McLaughlin as transformational in their personal visions of the future possibilities of music.
July 1969 - Newport Jazz Festival. The Miles Davis Quintet performs a set in the early evening of Saturday's lineup as a quartet as saxophonist Wayne Shorter got stuck in traffic and never made it. The day's lineup included Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Gary Burton Quartet, and John Mayall's new post-Bluesbreaker US lineup before Miles' appearance and then Sly & The Family Stone and Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention afterwards. Whether or not Miles saw or heard any of the other artist's music remains obscure: Knowing the social nature of his still-wife Betty, it is a possibility; knowing the moodiness that Miles' jealousy and his response to Wayne Shorter's lateness might have cause, the chances dim considerably.
July 30, 1969 - Columbia Records releases Miles Davis' In a Silent Way.
August15-18 1969 - The Woodstock Music & Art Fair, otherwise known as "Woodstock." Sunday night's closing act is Jimi Hendrix--performing a now-legendary set less than 12 hours before the historic Bitches Brew recording sessions were to begin.
August 19-21, 1969 - dates of the studio recording sessions for Miles Davis' Bitches Brew.
September 1969 - Verve Records releases The Tony Williams Lifetime's debut album, Emergency! The double album represents a major landmark in the emergence of the Jazz-Rock Fusion movement of progressive rock music.
November 1969 - Vertigo Records releases of Colosseum's Valentyne Suite. With its 17-minute side-long title song suite, Valentyne Suite represents a true landmark in and representative of progressive rock music's new Jazz-Rock Fusion subgenre.
January 12-21, 1970 - the recording session of Ian Carr's new band, Nucleus. Fresh out of a five-year stint with Don Rendell, Carr envisions the fusion of electric instruments within his beloved jazz music. According to Carr, this was before he or any of his band members had heard Miles Davis' In a Silent Way much less the as-yet-unreleased Bitches Brew.
March 1970 - Vertigo Records releases Nucleus' debut album, Elastic Rock. Over the course of the next four months, Ian Carr's band would win first prize at June's Montreux Jazz Festival as well as appear in July at The Newport Jazz Festival and perform at New York's prestigious Village Gate jazz club.
March 30, 1970 - Columbia Records releases Miles Davis' Bitches Brew.
June 1970 - CBS/Columbia Records releases of The Soft Machine's Third. Recorded and band-produced from January through May, they were now working with a quartet lineup that included Robert Wyatt on drums and vocals, Mike Ratledge on keys, bass guitarist Hugh Hopper, and saxophonist Elton Dean. Relased as a double album, it contains four side-long songs, each representative of four different inspirations and objectives. The opening song, "Facelift" was a Hugh Hopper-composed, Miles Davis-inspired jam recorded live on two different occasions in January at two different venues and then elaborately and laboriously spliced together with various other studio tracks and techniques to make the version presented on the album. "Slightly All the Time" is a medley of various instrumental pieces (some of which would end up on future Caravan albums). Robert Wyatt's three-part "Moon in June" is a Softs song that represents the quirky art rock direction from which the band members had emerged whereas the first two songs were more indicative of the jazz-rock fusion direction they would go. The final song, "Out-Bloody-Rageous," is an instrumental experiment of Mike Ratledge's that was inspired by the recent minimalist electronic work of Terry Riley (In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air, specifically).
July 1970 - Douglas Records releases guitarist John McLaughlin's second album, Devotion--his first to be recorded in the USA. It featured a lineup that included organist Larry Young, Billy Rich on bass, and former member of Electric Flag and Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys drummer, Buddy Miles. John immediately distanced himself from the album as he was disappointed in the way producer Alan Douglas "destroyed" the music when mixing the songs down in John's absence.
Fall of 1970 - Chisa Records' The Jazz Crusaders decide to to drop the "jazz" part of their name in an effort to expand their potential listenership.
November 1970 - Vanguard Records releases Larry Coryell's ground-breaking album, Spaces. It is a mystery as to why an album recorded in March of 1960, 19 months ago(!), has taken so long to reach the public.
January 1971 - Vertigo Records releases Nucleus's sophomore album, We'll Talk About It Later.
February 1971 - CBS/Columbia Records releases of The Soft Machine's fourth studio album, titled 4, "Four," or "Fourth." Despite the core membership remaining the same as the previous record, Third, the album sees the participation of five "guest" artists, including double bass player Roy Babbington: the first of the band's refugees emigrating from Ian Carr's Nucleus.
May 12, 1971 - Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter release their first eponymously-titled Weather Report album. Recorded in February and March, two of the rhythmists on board (Airto Moreira and Don Alias) are also carryovers from Miles Davis' Bitches Brew sessions the previous August. Readers of DownBeat Magazine voted Weather Report their jazz Album of the Year.
May 1971 - After 15 albums in the 19760s, The Jazz Crusaders release their first album as The Crusaders. It is entitled Pass the Plate and is their second and final album with the Chisa label. Interestingly, the music contained herein--six songs and one 15-minute five-part suite--were all composed exclusively within the band: three by Wayne Henderson, three by Joe Sample, and one by Stix Hooper.
June 1971 - Columbia Records releases John McLaughlin's third album as bandleader, entitled, My Goals Beyond.
August 14, 1971 - fresh off of the March recording sessions that would lead to the June release of his third studio album, My Goals Beyond, guitarist John McLaughlin was inspired to take a step further into the aggressive music of rock-powered jazz fusion. Thus, the Mahavishnu Orchestra was born. Here he used an international lineup of musicians, some of whom he had used on My Goals, including American violinist Jerry Goodman and Panamanian drummer Billy Cobham, with Irishman Rick Laird performing the bass duties and Czechoslovakian-born keyboard wizard Jan Hammer rounding out the quintet.
November 3, 1971 - Columbia Records releases The Mahavishnu Orchestra's debut album, Inner Mounting Flame. After this, "John McLaughlin" would become a household name.
December 1971 - Finnish record label Love releases Wigwam's Fairyport, a landmark in European music and one of the pinnacles of Continental jazz-rock fusion.
February 1972 - The Crusaders release their first album with their new label, Blue Thumb, entitle Crusaders 1. It is the first of ten albums the band would release with Blue Thumb throughout the 1970s, all the while conforming to tremendous pressures to incorporate more easy listening jazz covers of recent pop hit songs.
July 1972 - CBS/Columbia Records releases The Soft Machine's fifth studio album, titled 5, or "Five," or "Fifth." The band's lineup still includes Ratledge, Hopper, and Dean, but drummer Robert Wyatt has departed and double bassist Roy Babbington plays alongside Hugh Hopper while the drumming duties are split between Phil Howard on Side One and Nucleus ex-pat John Marshall on Side Two.
September 1972 - ECM Records releases Chick Corea's Return to Forever. Recorded in New York City, the album's Brazilian-dominated lineup (vocalist Flora Purim and drummer Airto Moreira providing the album's percussion tracks) resulted in a more Latin-jazz-expressive album than the RtF successors will have. The album's song "Crystal Silence" will become the central title piece to Chick's duet with vibraphone player Gary Burton in the following year.
September 1972 - RCA Records records and releases Perigeo's Azimut. Recorded in Rome in 1972, the Miles Davis-inspired music is raw and electric.
December 6, 1972 - recording date for ECM of Chick Corea & Gary Burton's historic duet, Crystal Silence with Manfred Eicher in Oslo, Norway.
December 1972 - Love Records releases Finland's Pekka Pohjola's debut album as a solo artist and bandleader, entitled Pihkasilmä Kaarnakorva. Before Wigwam's bass player was fully ready to commit to a career on his own, Pekka created this album. The influences of Frank Zappa and Samla Mammas Manna are pretty apparent.
January 1973 - release of Deodato's Prelude with its breakout AM and FM radio hit, "Also Sprach Zarathustra" proving that Jazz-Rock Fusion has reached the mainstream of popular music. Aside from Eumir's employment of eight highly-regarded and prominently up-and-coming American jazz artists (Stanley Clarke, Hubert Laws, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, John Tropea and Jay Berliner, Airto Moreira and Ray Barretto) the maestro incorporated a full 26-member jazz orchestra throughout all of the songs.
January 1973 - Polydor Records releases Chick Corea's Return to Forever's second studio album, Light as a Feather. The mostly acoustic lineup remains the same from the debut album though perhaps a little less Latin-oriented.
February 1973 - CBS/Columbia Records releases The Soft Machine's sixth studio album, titled Six. The band's lineup has shrunk back down to a quartet with Mike Ratledge and Hugh Hopper remaining as two former-Nucleus members now join in: John Marshall sitting in on the drum kit and newcomer Karl Jenkins providing reed instruments as well as additional keyboards.
March 26, 1973 - CBS/Columbia Records releases The Mahavishnu Orchestra's album Birds of Fire, a masterpiece of virtuosic performances that is considered by some as the pinnacle of the fusion of jazz with rock 'n' roll. The exhausted and frustrated band would crumble and fall apart during recording sessions in June at London's Trident Studios.
April 27, 1973 - Columbia Records releases Weather Report's third album, Sweetnighter. Recorded in early February, the album represents a step forward for the band's experimentation with electric instruments.
July 20, 1973 - Columbia Records releases the Santana-Mahavishnu confabulation, Love Devotion Surrender, a celebration of John Coltrane's spirituality between Sri Chimnoy devotees "Devadip" Carlos Santana and members of his band with Mahavishnu John McLaughlin and remnants of his Mahavishnu Orchestra and other solo projects. A polarizing album among many fans and critics both then and today, I happen to consider Love Devotion Surrender as one of the finest achievements of the Jazz-Rock Fusion movement. The work of organist Khalid Yasin (Larry Young), electric bass phenom Doug Rauch, and the Santana percussion section transcend all expectations and Carlos' melodic guitar work has never been better though John's pyrotechnics are sometimes a bit over-the-top. Still, this sits in my list of Top 10 Jazz-Rock Fusion Albums from the Classic Era.
September 5, 1973 - Cramps Records releases Milanese band Area's debut album, Arbeit Macht Frei. Though not quite as polished--with all band members' full virtuosity on display--as future albums (especially my favorite, Crac!), this was an Earth-shattering debut in the scene of Rock Progressive Italiano as well as European Jazz-Rock Fusion.
September 1973 - RCA Records releases Roman band Perigeo's sophomore album, Abbiamo tutti un blues di piangere. The band members have all matured and congealed better than their impressive debut, Azimut from the year before: The skill level of American-born guitarist Tony Sidney and saxophonist Caludio Fasoli have improved markedly as have the support skills of keyboard player Franco D'Andrea making this one of the finest Continental jazz-rock fusion albums of the Classic Era.
September 23, 1973 - BMG Records releases the first and only studio album from Napolitano band Cervello, entitled Melos. The album announces to the world the arrival of 17-year old guitar phenom Corrado Rustici, one of my favorite guitarists of all-time.
October 1, 1973 - Atlantic Records releases Billy Cobham's Spectrum. This was the drumming superstar's first foray into solo band leadership. The collaboration between Billy and keyboard virtuoso Jan Hammer was obviously the result of the continued creative respect and appreciation the two retained for one another after the demise and disbandment of Mahavishnu Orchestra's first incarnation. The list of other musicians employed for the studio sessions reads as a cornucopia of ages and backgrounds--all that was necessary to help them complete their "flying by the seat of our pants" vision. These include young "Section" bassist Leland Sklar on electric bass and veteran Ron Carter on acoustic, Tommy Bolin and John Tropea on electric guitars, Ray Barretto on percussion, and Joe Farrell and Jimmy Owens on winds and horns, respectively. The album is often touted as one of the best jazz-rock fusion albums of all-time and is legendary for the oft-covered 10-minute drummer's fantasy classic, "Stratus."
October 1973 - CBS/Columbia Records releases The Soft Machine's seventh studio album, titled Seven. The only remaining founding member is Mike Ratledge; his quartet's lineup now includes three former members of Ian Carr's Nucleus: Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington, and John Marshall. (Kind of makes one wonder what it was like working with Ian Carr). With only seven months between releases, the collaboration with the former Nucleus team is obviously quite fertile.
October 1973 - Polydor Records releases Return to Forever's third album, Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy. The significant lineup change with electric guitarist Bill Connors, electric bassist Stanley Clarke, and Tony Williams-like drumming phenom Lenny White replacing all of his previous collaborators, thus announcing leader Chick Corea's desire to take his jazz-rock fusion more into the realm of electrified rock-oriented sounds and dynamics.
Late 1973 - Trident Records releases Dedalus debut album Dedalus. The Turino-based band's instrumental jazz evokes the sound of The Soft Machine's early jazz works.
January 3, 1974 - ECM Records releases Julian Priester, aka "Pepe Mtoto"'s album Love Love. Recorded on June 28 and September 13 of the previous year, it is the final studio album recorded with the final lineup of Herbie Hancock's famous Mwandishi septet (plus a few other guests). I consider this album along with it's "twin" Eddie Henderson's Inside Out to be two of the very best examples of jazz-rock fusion at its very pinnacle of form and quality.
January 1974 - Capricorn Records releases trumpeter Eddie Henderson's sophomore album as a band leader, Inside Out. Recorded in October of 1973, it is one of the last albums made with the entire Mwandishi lineup from Herbie Hancock's Sextet sessions. In my opinion, the music recorded here represents the absolute peak of the exploratory movement that became known as "Jazz-Rock Fusion."
February 1974 - Love Records' release of Finnish band's Wigwam's fifth album, Being. Band leader and principle keyboard artist and vocalist Jukka Gustavsson and bassist Pekka Pohjola's last album with the band. Some regard this as Wigwam's best album while many prefer its predecessor, Fairyport.
March 24, 1974 - Columbia Records releases Weather Report's fourth album, Mysterious Traveller, noting the band's continued evolution with multi-tracking and even more expeirmentation with sound and sound effects on their instruments (including Wayne's saxophones) for their less-amorphous, more-structured song compositions.
March and April 1974 - the studio recording sessions and subsequent release of new music from The Mahavishnu Orchestra's second incarnation. Gayle Moran, Jean-Luc Ponty, Ralphe Armstrong, and Narada Michael Walden formed John McLaughlin's support crew with the resultant album, Apocalypse, also fully incorporating the orchestral arrangements of Michael Gibbs with pianist Michael Tilson Thomas leading the London Symphony Orchestra..
July to September 1974 - recording studio time and release of Chick Corea's Return to Forever's fourth studio album, Where Have I Known You Before. This is the electric quartet's first album with 20-year old guitar phenom Al DiMeola, replacing much-beloved Bill Connors.
October 1974 - After hearing George Martin's production of the Mahavishnu Orchestra's 1974 album Apocalypse, Jeff Beck decided to hire the legendary engineer/producer for his next project. With friends Stevie Wonder and Max Middleton and Carmine Appice, Martin was able to guide Beck into a new form of sound. The result would be his Grammy Award-winning album (and highest selling album of all-time), Blow by Blow. In my opinion, this is the album that opens the door for the explosion of lush, melodic, and "watered down" "jazz" music--some of it by known and established jazz musicians, much of it from pop- and sales-oriented wannabes--that would become known as "Smooth Jazz."
December 1974 - Finnish label Love releases Wigwam bass player's Pekka Pohjola's Harraka Bialoipokku (The Magpie), his second solo album but his first since he had officially stepped away from his original band. Pekka's classical-sounding piano modulations are sometimes solo, sometimes matched by electric bass and keyboards as well as drums and horns. A stellar contribution to the J-R Fusion cause and one of the Continent's finest releases during the "Classic Era."
December 1974 / February 1975 - recording and release of Columbia Records' Visions of the Emerald Beyond from the second incarnation of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. Of all the Mahavishnu albums, this one is the one I listen to most--the one I most enjoy.
January 1975 - Opus Records releases Slovakian band Fermáta's debut album, Fermáta. The obviously-impressive musicians are here modeling their sound and expression on that of The Mahavishnu Orchestra; the music on this excellent album is, in my opinion, trying too hard to impress, not enough to engage and be remembered.
February 1975 - Polydor Records releases Return to Forever's fifth studio album, No Mystery, its second with the Corea, Clarke, White, and DiMeola lineup. The album earned the group a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Individual or Group.
March 22, 1975 - Harvest Records releases The Soft Machine's eighth studio album, entitled, Bundles. The band here expands once again to a quintet with the band's fourth former-Nucleus member, guitarist Allan Holdsworth. In my opinion, Bundles is one of the Top 10 Jazz-Rock Fusion Albums of All-time.
March 29, 1975 - Epic Records releases Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow. The new jazz-rock style conveyed by Beck and producer George Martin would earn the guitarist household recognition as well as record album sales (over one million) and universal acclaim among the critics.
June 15, 1975 - Cramps Records releases Milanese band Area's third studio album, entitled Crac! which is, in my opinion, the finest example of Jazz-Rock Fusion to come from any Italian or Continental band during the "Classic Era" of progressive rock music. It is not only in my Top 10 list of All-Time "Classic Era" Favorite Jazz-Rock Fusion Albums but an album that I think surpasses anything to have been released by any of the incarnations of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra. Drummer Giulio Capiozzo should be in every music lover's discussions of the very best drummers who ever lived.
October 1975 - Columbia Records releases Believe It, drummer Tony Williams first album with his newly-reformed New Tony Williams New Lifetime band. A quartet that is perhaps as famous for its having lured guitar phenom Allan Holdsworth away from a pretty good gig with The Soft Machine as it is for being one of Tony's best albums, Allan recalled his association with Tony at this point in his career as "the most influential and formative" of his life.
March 1976 - Columbia Records releases Return to Forever's sixth studio album and third with its Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, Al DiMeola, Lenny White lineup, Romantic Warrior--the last with guitar sensation Al DiMeola. This is another of my Top 20 Favorite Albums of the Classic Era of Jazz-Rock Fusion.
March 11, 1976 - Columbia Records releases Weather Report's sixth studio album, considered a transitional album, entitled Black Market. The band's lineup consists of leaders Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter with electric bass duties being shared by Alphonso Johnson and newcomer Jaco Pastorius (fretless on two songs), drumming duties split/shared by newcomers Chester Thompson and Narada Michael Walden (on two tracks), and percussion duties split between Alex Acuña and Don Alias (on two songs). The critically-acclaimed Afro-funk themed album is considered a landmark album for both the band and Jazz-Rock Fusion. It was the band's most successful album commercially up to that time. Bass phenom Pastorius would affix himself to the band for the next six years, boosting sales, audience numbers, as well as critical success before leaving after the release of the band's 1982 self-titled album.
September 27, 1976 - GAD Records releases SBB's sophomore album, Pamiec. The Polish power trio of includes Jósef Skrzek on keyboards and bass guitar, Apostolis Antymos on guitars, and Jerzy Piotrowski on drums. This is my all-time favorite SBB album and, in my opinion, one of the Top 10 Jazz-Rock Fusion albums of the Classic Era--for the whole world, not just the Continent.
October 25, 1976 - Columbia Records releases Al DiMeola's debut solo album to great critical acclaim. It is called Land of the Midnight Sun. It enlists the support of all of his Return to Forever bandmates as well as several Weather Report members and other jazz-rock fusion all-stars like Anthony Jackson, Mingo Lewis, Barry Miles, and Steve Gadd.
March 1977 - Columbia Records releases Weather Report's seventh album, Heavy Weather. With a lineup that is now solidified with Zawinul, Shorter, Pastorius, Ales Acuña on drums, and Manolo Badrena on percussion. Buoyed by its massive hit, "Birdland," the album sells over a million copies in the US, making it one of Columbia's biggest jazz sellers of all-time, and is voted "Album of the Year" by DownBeat magazine.
April 1977 - Columbia Records releases Al DiMeola's sophomore solo album, Elegant Gypsy. Highly acclaimed at the time and now, sold over 500,000 units in the US and nearly as much in the rest of the world. It is considered a peak landmark album in the development of jazz-rock fusion.
August 1977 - Drummer Bill Bruford, a past member of bands Yes, King Crimson, Genesis, and National Health, sets off on his own in order to better satisfy his strong leanings toward jazz drumming. The result is the band Bruford. The lineup for the band's debut album, Feels Good to Me, includes American bassist Jeff Berlin, vocalist Annette Peacock, keyboard genius Dave Stewart (of Egg, Khan, Hatfield and the North, and National Health fame--not The Eurhythmics), and guitar phenom Allan Holdsworth.
September 23, 1977 - ABC Records releases Steely Dan's Aja. It was founding duo Donald Fagen and Walter Becker's sixth studio album, selling over 5 million copies. The album is considered a landmark for successfully crossing jazz-rock over into the realm of pop music--letting the industry know that "pop infused with a little jazz was a good thing." ("Yacht rockers" Billy Joel, Boz Scaggs, Chris Rea, and Rickie Lee Jones apparently heard the message.)
Late 1977 - Opus Records releases Slovakian band Fermatà's third album, Huascaran. An even more impressive album than their debut, each song seems to emulate a different jazz-rock or progressive rock band's sound and style with the symphonic overtones of something very romantic in the 13-minute opener, the Al DiMeola-era Return to Forever, Black Market Weather Report, and smoother, more melodic second incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra as it's most obvious targets. The central figure is, of course, technically-gifted guitar wizard Frantisek Griglák, but bassist Ladislav Lucenic's presence is huge. Too bad this is his only album with the band. Also, Tomas Berka's increasing use of synths is actually very tastefully done--never gaudy or kitschy, always expanding the music and its soundscapes in fuller, more beautifl ways. Though perhaps a little too familiar due to the close emulation of its source inpirateurs, this is a very impressive display of nearly-perfect performances of very mature and well-developed, complex compositions.
January 1978 - EG/Polydor Records releases fusion band Bruford's debut album, Feels Good to Me.
Early 1978 - Supraphon Records releases SBB's Wołanie o brzęk szkła ("Slovenian Girls"). Two songs, "Julia" and "Anna," one for each side of the vinyl disc. Melodic and highly accomplished musicianship that satisfies on many levels.
May 1978 - E.G. Records releases British supergroup U.K.'s self-titled debut album, UK. Though satisfying the progressive rock lover's appetites, the music of the supergroup's debut album definitely checks off the requirements of any Jazz-Rock Fusion effort as well--especially thanks to Bill Bruford's complex rhythms, Allan Holdsworth's free-flowing incendiary solos, and Eddie Jobson's masterful electric violin play.
1979 - Dig It Records releases Pekka Pohjola's fourth album as a bandleader, called Visitation. It is regarded by many as Pohjola's finest album from the Classic Era.
June 1979 - EG/Polydor Records releases the band Bruford's most highly- and universally-acclaimed album, One of a Kind. The lineup is now reduced to a quartet that includes original members Bruford, Holdsworth, Stewart, and Berlin. The album was recorded after Bruford and Holdsworth's super group, UK's first album release and tour during the previous year, and, thus, surprised no one to have incorporated versions of two Bruford-penned songs that UK had performed live while on their tour, "Forever Until Sunday" and "Sahara in the Snow." (UK keyboard/violinist Eddie Jobson even appears as the violinist on the former song.) One of a Kind is considered by most as Bruford's finest album and a minor masterpiece of progressive rock music's Jazz-Rock Fusion sub-genre.
December 9, 1979 - The Crusaders release their first album with new label MCA and their 12th studio album of the decade. The album, Street Life, contained the 11-minute version of the mega hit title song which helped launch singer Randy Crawford's career. What a perfect way to end the decade!
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