Jazz Fusion

What is it?

Jazz fusion is a very unique genre of music that not many people are aware of. Jazz fusion, or jazz rock, is a genre that developed in the 60s that combines jazz themes with other genres. The most popular is rock, but it also is combined with rhythm and blues. The reason I decided to explore this genre is because my guitar teacher got a lesson from Mike Stern fairly recently. He very frequently quotes things that Mike Stern taught him in their short lesson and this made me curious about his work. The reason this was also so special is because it was my teachers first formal guitar lesson, which I think is wild considering how talented he is.

Mike Stern

Mike Stern is a jazz guitarist who worked with someone very prominent in the jazz fusion genre, Miles Davis. After listening to their work I was pleasantly surprised. In every song I never really knew what to expect. The song “Fat Time” starts out very slow and jazz like, but farther in the song it feels very different. There is an extremely well though out solo that feels like rock but has simply too many references to jazz to label it like that. It slows down again with Miles Davis on the trumpet and a groovy bass. This isn’t necessarily my favorite sound but I can definitely still enjoy it and learn from it.

Steely Dan

Steely Dan has been referenced many times in my guitar lessons, and after taking a deeper dive into their discography this week I see why. Steely Dan has some of the most talent I have ever heard in every part of the band. Lets start with the vocals. The vocalist has a huge range, and the backup singers are always a wonderful compliment to every song they are included in. There is also a wonderful saxophone in songs like “Dirty Work” and “Dr.Wu”. The chord progressions and guitar solos is where Steely Dan really stands out to me. A prime example of a song with a really interesting chord progression is “Kid Charlemagne.”  There are some really cool sounding chords like Bb13/9 and F6/9. The solo is also incredible, but there is another one of their songs that takes the prize for best solo in my opinion.

This song is called “My Old School“. There are a couple solos in the song, but my favorite is the final one. It combines high speed, artificial harmonics, rock elements, and playing the same lines as the saxophone to add a lot of dynamics to just one solo. Another notable thing about steely dan is their rhythm. One song that really emphasizes the rhythmic talent of the band is a song called “Razor Boy“. There seems to be a tempo switch mid song, which is outstandingly impressive if they can do it live just as fluidly.

This genre is really interesting to me, however I think it is more of an acquired taste. I didn’t like a lot of the stuff I listened to, but the good outweighed the bad in this case.

Why Folk?

When looking for new genres to explore I found folk music. This is a genre I always associated with country, but after listening I don’t really know what other genre it sounds like. I can only describe it as a calm version of rock. I knew some folk artists before really getting into this genre, but I was really pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable I find folk music.

Yusuf/Cat Stevens

Cat Stevens is an artist who I find very nostalgic, because the song “Father and Son” was played very frequently throughout my childhood. I discovered that Cat Steven’s entire discography is extremely soothing and relaxing. One song in particular is titled ” The Boy with a Moon and Star on his Head”. This song doesn’t feel like a song as much as it does a story. The lyrics masterfully tell a story about a boy coming into the world. I believe the song represents his conversion to the Islamic religion. The accompanying music directly matches the story, and makes it much more dynamic and intriguing to the listener. Cat Stevens is someone I will always listen to if I need to cry or relax.

Jim Croce

Jim Croce is another very nostalgic artist to me. My Grandfather always used to have on a Jim Croce CD on when I would visit. This encouraged me to listen to him for this blog post. Jim Croce has a lot more energy in his songs than Cat Stevens does. Some of his songs such as “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” have a western saloon type of feel, while others are much calmer and talk about his life experiences as a musician. My favorite song that I found by Jim Croce is titled “Box #10“. The song describes his struggles when he was an upcoming musician and is like a call for help from his parents. It is very humanizing, as well as catchy.

The Avett Brothers

The Avett Brothers are certainly the youngest musicians I will be talking about in this blog post. I discovered them because of finding the song “Murder in the City” in a folk music collection on Spotify. This song is one of most well arranged songs lyrically I have ever heard. I am unaware of the context surrounding this song, but the family values described in it correlated directly to me.

One thing that sticks out about this band musically is their live performances. The vocalist sounds almost identical to how he does in the recordings. The musicians are also very versatile with the instruments they play and I respect that.

James Taylor

Of all the folk artists I listened to, none inspired me to learn their songs more than James Taylor. As soon as I heard the intro to “Fire and Rain” I sat down and learned it for myself. It was definitely a challenge, but it sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. James Taylor’s riffs I discovered are consistently difficult and beautiful I soon discovered with songs such as “Mexico” and “Sunny Skies”. I will most definitely to continue to explore his work and learn as much as I can from his playing and writing.

The Forbidden Genre

From my perspective, country music has a bad reputation. It seems to be the one genre that nobody will listen to. To be honest, I was one of those people. However, this week I decided to give it a chance despite my bias against it.

The Beatles?

One of the reasons I got the idea to include country into my music diet this week is because of a more modern rendition of a Beatles song.

One of my favorite Beatles songs is Don’t Let Me Down. In 2013 John Mayer and Keith Urban performed their version of Don’t Let Me Down, and after discovering the performance it quickly became one of my favorite live performances of all time. It is one of the few live videos I go back and watch about once a month. When I first found the video, I was confused as to why a country artist was playing with John Mayer. To my surprise Keith’s playing blew me out of the water. He is obviously such a talented artist with a diverse skillset, so this week I decided to start with him.

Keith Urban

When listening to Keith Urban I actively sought out songs where he shows off on the guitar. Blue Ain’t Your Color is one I found where he plays a couple cool blues licks, but nothing really beyond that. I struggled to find anything close to what I saw in his performance with John Mayer. The song Brown Eyes Baby has some really tasteful playing as well, but it really just seems like he’s holding back now that I know what he is capable of.

Zac Brown Band

I asked my mom for recommendations before starting this week’s exploration because I know she is a fan of country. She told me to listen to an album called The Foundation by Zac Brown Band. Despite not really being a fan of country, this album admittedly has no bad songs.

This album offers everything. There are a couple songs with high energy and fantastic guitar solos, and also at least one song that made me cry. Different Kind of Fine has an amazing guitar solo that I immediately wanted to learn. However it took me almost 45 minutes just to get the first couple seconds using my ear. Another song called Sic em on a Chicken seemed super weird at first, but ended up having a super cool rock solo that came out of nowhere. My favorite song off of the album is Highway 20 Ride.

John Denver

John Denver is someone I kind of knew of before but hadn’t listen to a lot. His music reminds me of my grandpa because of his love for old country. This should honestly be its own genre due to its vastly different sound from the modern “pop country”. John Denver of course has the classic song Take Me Home Country Roads, but I found some other songs of his that I really enjoy such as Back Home Again, and This Old Guitar. I would definitely recommend him to anyone who hasn’t heard him before.

Rap?

DC The Don

I would be lying if I said that rap is a completely new genre for me. I used to listen to it a lot in early high school, but slowly fell out of touch with it as time went on. The only rapper I have consistently kept in touch with over all this time is DC The Don. I have been listening to DC The Don since 7th grade after my cousin introduced me to him. My friend from high school and current roommate recently started producing for DC, which has opened up opportunities for me to put guitar parts on beats that get sent his way. This is one of my favorite songs by him. Here is a clip of him performing my favorite song at a concert I attended last semester.

DC The Don

Other than DC, there hasn’t really been any rappers that I have been very consistent with. This week I went back and listened to some artists I used to listen to, and also discovered some new ones.

J Cole

One of my favorite artists that I “discovered” this week was J Cole. While I definitely know popular J Cole songs, I have never really dove into his discography before. J Cole really has a talent for storytelling, and his ability to translate that into rapping is amazing to me. One song where I think this is done especially well is Lost Ones. Throughout the entirety of this song I feel like I am part of the conversation between the two people he is rapping about. Another thing I love about his music is his ability to switch flows without disrupting the rhythm of the song. Sometimes when he switches flows he will start singing a melody, which is one of the coolest techniques in rap in my opinion.

Lil Baby

While exploring a variety of popular rappers, one thing stayed consistent across all of them. If Lil Baby was featured on it, the song was amazing. Lil Baby has a couple singles that I like, but his ability to elevate any song he is featured on is a skill not a lot of people have. The only artist I would say has comparable features is 21 Savage. The song Wants and Needs by Drake has the best Lil Baby feature in my opinion because of how he is able to keep the same feeling the song has through the first half of the feature but is able to increase his energy and make it his own in the second half.

Childish Gambino

Childish Gambino is someone who I knew about but never actually listened to. I listened to a lot of his album titled Because The Internet. The only song I knew before listening to him is Redbone, so I knew his music was unique. However I was not prepared for how diverse his voice, pacing, and beats would be. Some songs were incredibly dramatic and big while others were so melancholy. The diversity made exploring his music very interesting and exciting. Childish Gambino is someone I will continue to explore along with some of the other rappers mentioned.

Discz

When making my decision to explore new genres this semester, I found an app to help me do that. Discz is an app that allows users to explore all types of new music recommended by other users. There are groups based off of genres, and after joining a group you have access to the groups mixes. A mix is a collection of 4-5 songs, and the app plays a small preview of the song. Discz is essentially tinder for music, because it utilizes the swiping right and left feature to choose songs you like or don’t like.

Alternative Metal

One of the discoveries I have made on this app is a sub genre of metal: alternative metal. While this isn’t an entirely new genre for me, I have never really listened to it enough to appreciate it. Alternative metal is a genre based off of metal/heavy metal with influences from alternative rock. There are a couple popular bands from this genre that I have heard of such as Deftones and Radiohead (more alternative rock than metal), but I had never taken the time to listen to their discographies before this week. I have also discovered a couple artists that I have never heard of, such as Gojira and Elder.

Deftones

Despite hanging out with big fans of Deftones for most of high school, I didn’t really know what their sound was until very recently. The first thing I have noticed after listening to various albums is they are easily able to jump between the extreme sounds of metal and alternative between different songs. The first song I listened to was called 7 Words off of their 1995 album Adrenaline. It is extremely upbeat and in your face, and the rough vocals made me think of Rage Against the Machine.

However, after listening to other titles in various albums I soon realized why they were labeled as alternative metal. I can only describe the sound as soft metal, because of how passive the vocals can be. The contrast between the vocals and background music is what defines the sound of the genre to me.

Slipknot

After being invited to a slipknot concert last year, I tried to listen to their music so I could enjoy the concert more. However, something came up and I was unable to go so I never listened to more than a couple songs. Fortunately I was able to rediscover slipknot after finding this genre in my exploration for new music. Slipknot is a little too heavy for my liking, but there are still things about them that I like. Slipknot has a lot of down-tuned “chug” riffs that I personally really enjoy listening to. These types of riffs are also one of my favorite types to play, so I always feel a need to sit down and learn them after hearing it. Slipknot typically sticks to a thrash/scream vocal tone (example here) with a very heavy feel to most songs, so if I want to get some energy during my morning or at the gym they are the perfect band.

Overall I am glad I was able to explore alternative metal as a genre recently. I am not a big fan of a lot of metal, but a couple of these bands are right up my alley. I look forward to what I will find in the future weeks of blogging.

Going into the new year I have decided that it is time to try new things involving music. While I do not plan to pick up any new instruments, I will be exploring as many new genres of music as I can. Last Semester I listened to mostly rock music with a few other genres sprinkled in, but never enough to the point where I was able to fully experience the genre.

During final’s week however, I started listening to classical music to help focus. While I intended for it to just be background noise, I often would hear a song and immediately check what the song was so I could add it to a playlist. While I had never particularly loved the genre before, I’d never hated it either. Discovering a newfound liking for a genre as spectacular as this has allowed me to really appreciate the complexity and nuance it provides.

One of the biggest things that sets it apart from other genres in my opinion is the wide arrangement of emotions that can be fit into a single piece. The classical pieces I have had the privilege of listening to are typically much longer than songs today, but manage to fill all that extra time with new and fascinating sounds. It can go from melancholy to exciting to dreadful in a matter of 3 minutes, which makes listening so exciting and fresh.

My current favorite is Piano Concerto No.2 Op 102 in F major: 11. Andante by Dmitri Shostakovich. The piece starts with a lot of clarinets and oboes without emphasis on the piano before moving to mainly piano and creating a sort of marching sound. It then moves into a long string section before ending the piece with a melodic piano part that is a pleasant way to finish off the song.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Another piece that I have taken a particular interest in is a more well known piece titled Requiem in D Minor, k626. As soon as I heard the start of the vocals to this song I was immediately intrigued. It starts with a string section that leads a beautiful yet intimidating vocal sequence in. It becomes further dramatized by a droning deep percussion sound heard in the background. Listening to this entire piece almost brings a sense of dread upon me in the best way possible. I did not know it was possible for music to sound so large and important.

While I have only hit the tip of the iceberg in the world of classical music, I look forward to the things I will find in the future. If I have to end with one big takeaway from this genre, it is that listening to a classical piece is not the same as listening to a song. It doesn’t seem the typical modern patterns that I see in songwriting, like a repeating catchy chorus. Each part is carefully constructed to build off of the last section and add or change something to draw the listener in. I look forward to exploring new genres, but I will certainly return to classical music to explore it more in depth in the future.

Where is the Genre Now?

Since I have been briefly discussing the different time periods and genres of rock, it is only appropriate that this blog ends with an update on the current state of the genre. Where is it? When I think of rock I primarily think of bands from the 60s-90s. Does the genre still exist? The answer is yes. Rock still exists today, but it is a genre that has long exited its prime in my opinion. There will never be another Queen or Led Zeppelin unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost for rock. One of the biggest things keeping rock alive is the fact that a lot of bands are still touring. For example both Toto and Journey are both coming to the BJC this year. Also, there are several radio stations completely dedicated to playing only rock music.

Journey’s Dont Give Up On Us (A song on their upcoming album)

The sounds of rock isn’t just the sounds of the 60s to the 90s. There are still many artists today that are making their own take on the genre, and some that try to stick true
to the musicians that came before them.

An example of a group who I believe is trying to stick true to the sound and feel of the 60s and 70s is Greta Van Fleet. They are a modern rock band with a heavy rock style of music accompanied by a phenomenal vocalist. They get a lot of hate for sounding too much like Led Zeppelin, but I think that they have established themselves well enough as an individual group to get comments like that. This is also backed up by their stage ability. Here is a video of a particularly good performance by them. While I couldn’t find the video, I saw a performance of theirs where the vocals and guitar cut out. Instead of panicking and stopping the show, the bass player stepped up and performed an amazing solo while the tech crew fixed the problems. This shows that the ability to put on an engaging rock performance is still possible.

Greta Van Fleet Live

The Future

Where is the genre going from here? Rock will most likely never be the same again as I mentioned. But while the sound changes, the genre will still exist. The existence of the internet is such an advantage for any musician. I truly believe that there is an audience for everything. Internet access allows musicians to upload or find music from any genre. If you want to make 80s metal, 90s grunge, or 60s blues, you can upload it and give people access to it. While this is a great tool, live performance of a genre is a large contributor to its popularity. There are some artists who are carrying this on, but I am unsure if it will ever reach the level it was at in the past. The sound of modern rock is also changing, with the introduction of things like math rock and indie rock. While I will always love rock from the 60s-2000s, I am excited to see the journey that the genre takes in the future.

U2

Almost everyone with an iPhone knows U2. Their album Songs of Innocence was installed to most peoples phones without them having to actually download it. I ended up actually listening to it just to give it a try, and it was worth it. That lead me to watch the documentary It might get loud, which includes guitarists Jack White from the White Stripes, Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, and The Edge from U2.

Songs of Innocence

U2 is an Irish band formed in 1976 in Dublin. U2 consists of Bono on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, The Edge on lead guitar and backing vocals, Larry Mullen Jr on drums, and Adam Clayton on bass guitar. The band is an alternative rock/rock band. Their music focuses a lot on politics and spiritual themes. Their biggest hit is probably Sunday Bloody Sunday, which is a song about the 1972 Bloody Sunday event, which was was when British troops killed civil rights protestors. While I haven’t really explored beyond Songs of Innocence, the band still has a great discography. One thing about them that has helped me with my playing is the use of delay pedals in songs. Also, one of their songs gave me a reason to use the crystal effect on one of my delay pedals.

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John Mayer

I feel the need to preface talking about this artist with the fact that I will only be discussing his contribution to the music world. I am a huge Taylor Swift Fan.

John Mayer with PRS Guitar

Anyway, John Mayer was an aspiring guitarist learning at Berklee under professor Tomo Fujita. However, he soon dropped out to pursue a musical career in performing. He first gained popularity in 2001 when he released his first album Room for Squares, which includes popular songs such as Why Georgia, No Such Thing, and Your Body is a Wonderland. Soon after he joined a blues band, and then dropped another album titled Continuum. This is my personal favorite album because of songs like Waiting on the World to Change, Gravity, and Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. He released a couple albums after that with not quite as much success. Currently he plays in the band Dead and Company. 

There is a lot to take from John Mayer musically. First off, his fingerstyle techniques. The song Neon is widely considered by the guitar community as one of the hardest songs to play. I have never attempted it, however I have tried to learn some of his fingerstyle songs such as Stop This Train and Who Says. They involve an incredible amount of coordination to the point where it almost seems like something only he can do perfectly.

Another thing he is exceptional at is performing. Two of his live performances are videos that I come back to at least once a week. First a performance of my favorite Beatles’ song titled Don’t Let Me Down. He performs with the country artist Keith Urban, and they really have so much chemistry together on stage. At one point Keith’s strap falls off in the middle of a guitar solo, and John doesn’t waste a second helping him fit it back on. If I were to just listen to the performance without watching I would never be able to tell that something so dramatic happened. The second performance is a performance of If I ain’t got you and Gravity with Alicia Keys. 

The Beginning

Nirvana. Soundgarden. Alice In Chains. Pearl Jam. Stone Temple Pilots. This is only 5 of the grunge rock bands that started to emerge and gain popularity around the early 90s. How did it all start? A genre doesn’t just invent itself over night, right? Of course not. Grunge is the culmination of all the rock influences before its time. It has a lot of influence from heavier bands in the 70s and 80s, like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Guns N’Roses. The first real grunge hit album was Alice in Chains first album, Facelift, in 1990. In 1991, other hit albums released such as Nirvana’s album Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s album Ten, and Soundgarden’s Motorfinger. 

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana

What is Grunge?

Grunge Rock is a unique genre not only in the sounds, but the aesthetic that comes with it. Instead of the crazy hair and over the top leather jackets covered in spikes worn by artists like Kiss, Grunge rock musicians appear to be pretty regular people. Their clothes didn’t deviate far from what you might see any select college student wearing.

So what sets the actual music apart from other genres? It definitely takes a lot from its predecessors as I mentioned before. Grunge is kind of a fuse of punk and metal with varying speeds. Additionally, the vocals have a tendency to differ from the standard. Kurt Cobain from Nirvana has a certain growl to his voice that makes their songs have more character. Eddie Vedder is known for his unique way of singing, where he seems to blend a lot of the words together with a more throaty sound.

Temple of the Dog

Temple of the Dog is a fun subject to touch on when discussing Grunge Rock, primarily because of the members of the band. Hunger Strike is one of my favorite songs that has come out of the 90s. Hunger Strike is one of the songs on Temple of the Dog’s first album. It was originally supposed to be sung by Chris Cornell, until Eddie Vedder was invited to sing background vocals on the song. It then was split, making the song more of a duet. Chris Cornell came from another band in the genre called Soundgarden. Temple of the Dog was sort of a “super band” composed of Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, Jeff Ament from Pearl Jam, Mike McCready(who would later join Pearl Jam), and Matt Cameron, who was also in Soundgarden. They Released one self titled album in 1991 in tribute to Andrew Wood. Andrew Wood was Chris Cornell’s old roommate.

Andrew was the lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone, which were alternative rock and heavy rock bands. Unfortunately, he died of a heroin overdose in 1990. The band’s name is even a tribute to Andrew’s work. The phrase “Temple of the Dog” comes from the opening lyrics of the Mother Love Bone song Man of Golden Words. In my eyes they are one of the most enjoyable bands from the genre to listen to, because of the combination of bands that made it. While the genre of grunge rock is probably better defined by bands like Nirvana, I get more inspiration from Temple of the Dog. 

Bon Jovi

Bon Jovi is an American Rock band out of New Jersey. They started in 1983 with Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, Tico Torres, Phil, and Hugh McDonald. From 1984-1985 they released their first two albums, with the third album dropping in 1986. Slippery When Wet showed immediate success, selling 20 million copies and 3 top 10 singles. The next album, New Jersey, showed great success once again, selling 10 million copies. Soon after touring New Jersey, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora both released solo albums. Their most recent album, 2020, released in 2020 and spoke on social issues relating to the time period.

Jon Bon Jovi

Jon Bon Jovi released 15 studio albums with Bon Jovi and 2 solo albums. One particular song by Bon Jovi that has inspired me is Dead or Alive. Last year I performed this song with my friend live on stage. I played lead guitar, while he played backup acoustic guitar and sang. The link is here. 14:27-20:00. One of the most important things I have learned is the use of pinch harmonics. A lot of Bon Jovi songs have pinch harmonics during guitar solos that do a great job in making the audience feel that “wow” factor.

Guns N’Roses

Guns N’Roses is an American hard rock band created in 1985 in Los Angeles, California. The band originally consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, guitarists Slash and Izzy Straldin, bassist Duff McKagan, and Duff McKagan. Their first album released in 1987, titled Appetite for Destruction. It had great success, reaching number one on the billboard 200 a year after its release. The album included Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, and Sweet Child O’Mine.  These songs have become a staple in Hard Rock and “slash” rock. Their next album, G N’R Lies, had even greater success, selling 35 million copies worldwide. They continued to release 2 more albums with similar levels of success before a rift developed in the band. It was not until 2008 when they released their next album with only 2 of the original members still in the band. One of the many things that makes Guns N’Roses special is that their album Appetite for Destruction is the best selling debut album of all time. I would put money on the fact that everyone has heard a Guns N’Roses song at some point.

Guns N’Roses Lead Guitarist, Slash

Slash is one of the biggest rock icons of all time with his signature top hat and slash rock shredding. To say Slash isn’t one of the greats is like saying George Washington wasn’t the first president. He got the name Slash because of an actor he met through his mother. He said that slash was,  “always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another”. One of my favorite things about him that I try to replicate is his near incomprehensible shred licks. Every time I try to sit down and learn part of a slash solo, I end up quitting and moving onto something else because of the pure speed of them.