his following release Bitches Brew. The music blends jazz with rock music, and specifically rock electric guitar. Miles was very impressed with the new pop music that was not necessarily mainstream; influences came from James Brown to David Crosby. Jazz-rock fusion first became popular in the mid-1970s. Traditional jazz instruments, such as the trumpet became electric. Keyboards, guitar, and bass were now all electric. Miles, for instance, sometimes used a "wah wah" pedal with his trumpet during this period. Many of Miles' sidemen went on to become some of the bigger names in this genre, such as Chick Corea, John McLaughlin; Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, and of course Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter with their super-group Weather Report (which contrary to the norms of this genre, used no lead guitar.) other forms of music that it was becoming hard to tell what direction jazz was taking. Some of the younger players may have felt something was missed before the 1970s and decided to look backwards for inspiration. The result is a more bop-based or Dixieland oriented music with some modern electric updates. The biggest name from this genre is Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961). Other "young lions" (as they have become known) include: Joshua Redman, Branford Marsalis, Cindy Blackman, Wallace Roney, Terence Blanchard, and Nicholas Payton. |