Joke's On All Of Us: 10 More Jazz Fusion Albums

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I credit jazz fusion--specifically Weather Report, Return to Forever, and, um, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones--with re-igniting my love for non-classical music when I was in middle school. This stuff is really important to me! And yet the question remains: why do I spend so little time listening to it? Am I always, in some sense, lying to myself?

The thrilling conclusion to a trilogy of lists: first entry here, second entry here.

Miles Davis - On the Corner (1972)

9/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock... Standard Miles Guys.

RELEVANT EMOJI: 🕴️

WHO SAMPLED: Organized Konfusion flipped "Vote for Miles" back in 1991 when such things were possible.

FACIAL HAIR: weird tiny blobby moustache

REVIEW: I really like how this album starts in medias res. This album was happening before you got there and it will still be happening after you leave. So when ~Herbieguy9 expressed surprise that I hadn't heard this one before: of course I had. We all have, whether we know it or not. Crazy that when Miles tried to "update" his sound to be more contemporary he ended up creating something that exists so completely and purely outside of history!

The Section - The Section (1972)

8/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar, Russ "Unkle" Kunkel, Leland "Multiple Sklarosis" Sklar

RELEVANT EMOJI: 🥧

WHO SAMPLED: No one on this album, but their later record Fork It Over seems to have been a favorite of Todd Edwards.

FACIAL HAIR: handlebar moustache that makes you look like an old west sherriff

REVIEW: Hey, have you ever wanted to hear instrumental jazz fusion from James Taylor's backing band?

That's not a rhetorical question. I'm actually asking.

Well, even if you think you wouldn't, you might find yourself surprised. This is very mellifluous, poppy take on electrified jazz-funk, and it's a lot of fun to listen to. I mean, the melodies are so sweet, and these guys can play, y'know, because of course they can. I will say: sometimes this gets a little bit too happy, like, to a corny degree. Still, file The Section along with Toto and ティン・パン・アレー [Tin Pan Alley] among the great bands formed by session guys goofin' off.

Brain Auger's Oblivion Express - Straight Ahead (1974)

8/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: Like a billion British people, none of whom I recognize.

RELEVANT EMOJI: 🚂

WHO SAMPLED: No one, surprisingly, although J Dilla did once sample a track by Brain Auger's previous band Brian Auger & The Trinity.

FACIAL HAIR: handlebar moustache that makes you look like an old west sherriff

REVIEW: Whoa, this guy sings! Spoiler alert, I guess. I certainly wasn't expecting it! This is, for some most part, some smooth 70s fusion, but then Mr. Auger opens his mouth and transports us into the prog-rock land of the faeries and the elves.

...it's honestly kind of welcome! Or more to the point, the weakest track on here is the lengthy instrumental workout "Bumpin' on Sunset". I feel like if Mr. Auger had kind of refined his approach and studied pop songwriting a bit more this band could have been the British Steely Dan. But it was not to be.

Henry Franklin - The Skipper at Home (1974)

8/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: The band on here is legit great but the only name I recognize is Leon "Ndugu" Chancler.

RELEVANT EMOJI: ⛵

WHO SAMPLED: "Soft Spirit" was sampled by both The Avalanches and A Tribe Called Quest, which is pretty cool.

FACIAL HAIR: giant sea captain beard

REVIEW: An interesting lil' album, because Mr. Franklin (Capt. Franklin?) clearly admires the noisy, wild, avant-garde big bands of free jazz, the The Jazz Composer's Orchestras and Ornette Coleman Double Quartets of the world, but he also just really enjoys a danceable funk groove. What's a skipper to do? Well, he actually does a pretty admirable job of putting them together--in truth, I do enjoy the bigness of this band, and this album works at both its most crowd-pleasing ("Blue Lights") and its most out-there ("Venus Fly Trap"). It's not the best possible iteration of what it could be, that would be Spirits Rejoice!, but it's worthy.

Bobbi Humphrey - Satin Doll (1974)

8/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: Both of The Mizell Brothers, plus many more.

RELEVANT EMOJI: 👶

WHO SAMPLED: Literally everyone, from Brand Nubian to Ludacris to Tyler the Creator. On his Grinch-themed Christmas album.

FACIAL HAIR: none, because you are a girl

REVIEW: You could be so cute, with just one little flute. No... this is fun little exercise in synthy jazz, led by Ms. Humphrey's flute playing, which is one of those cases where the main instrumental soloist ends up kind of taking the "vocalist" role. Like, as far as I am concerned they could have just let her sing, I mean she does sometimes and I actually like her voice. I guess then they'd have to write lyrics though. Anyway I really like the upbeat "New York Times" and "Satin Doll", the Barry-White-ish love ballad "Rain Again", and the Stevie Wonder cover at the end, which starts out corny but becomes disarmingly sweet by the end. I do not like the goofy, dumb "Fun House". But we can't have everything.

The Crusaders - Those Southern Knights (1976)

9/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: The Crusaders were a pretty self-contained band, but I do want to point out that Larry Carlton was a member around this time and the cover of his album Strikes Twice is really hilarious. Google it.

RELEVANT EMOJI: 🤠

WHO SAMPLED: The Crusaders in general were very beloved by crate-diggers ("Dear Mama" and "Block Rockin' Beats" were both built around Crusaders samples), but not this particular album for some reason.

FACIAL HAIR: chinstrap

REVIEW: Well, they don't do a cover of "Southern Nights", but otherwise this album is pretty much perfect. And I mean I get it. Allen Toussaint is Mr. New Orleans and these guys are all about celebrating Texas Excellence. Geographically incompatible!

(but consider: the spacy, dreamy ballad "Serenity" may spiritually be a cover of "Southern Nights". the original, not the Glenn Campbell arrangement)

George Duke - Reach for It (1977)

9/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: This is our second Leon "Ndugu" Chancler sighting of this list. He was also in the Crusaders but way later, in the 80s. Also when it comes to amazing album covers I once saw a copy of this bad boy in a used record store and I am still cursing myself for not buying it.

RELEVANT EMOJI: 🧊

WHO SAMPLED: Ice Cube's "True to the Game" samples the title track.

FACIAL HAIR: perfectly groomed beard

REVIEW: George Duke is so important, you guys. I first encountered him when my cousin gave me a copy of Frank Zappa's Roxy & Elsewhere, an album which I love a lot despite my general antipathy for Zappa, and I keep finding him popping up in the oddest places--and whenever he's there he makes things better. Like, did you know he produced an album for A Taste of Honey? And it's really good!

And here he is on his own, and wow. This album is just non-stop joy! It's bright, it's fun, it's energetic, but more than anything else it's just really diverse, like you never know what George will do next. Like it for the most part it's a pretty straightforward jazz-funk workout--and a very good one--but you also have hard rock ("Lemme at It"), pop soul ("Searchin' My Mind"), samba ("Diamonds"), worldbeat goofery ("Omi (Fresh Water)"), and even progressive electronic synth-mangling ("The Beginning"/"The End"). You also have "Watch Out Baby!", which is a lengthy p-funk pastiche that's mostly various female guest vocalists faking orgasms. But I even like that song! This album is so good!

Ramsey Lewis - Love Notes (1977)

7/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: Stevie Wonder!!! Several other people but also Stevie Wonder!!!!!!

RELEVANT EMOJI: 💞

WHO SAMPLED: 9th Wonder, who we have encountered elsewhere, flipped the title track. Another wonder!!!!! Will the wonders ever cease!!!!!!!

FACIAL HAIR: early-20th-century captain-of-industry moustache

REVIEW: "Spring High" is a wonderfully mellifluous bit of poppy, danceable disco-jazz, "Love Notes" is a corny sentimental ballad in the good way, and the "The Messenger" and "Stash Dash" are both killer funk-rockers. But "Love Theme From 'A Star Is Born'" is a corny sentimental ballad in the bad way (and btw, a take i heard once that has stuck with me is that the reason Hollywood is so obsessed with remaking that movie is that its message is "being famous is more important than anything else in the world"), and the other tracks aren't super memorable. You gotta take the good with the bad.

Bernie Maupin - Slow Traffic to the Right (1977)

9/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: Patrice Rushen, who was probably the one rushen around in her car while Bennie takes his time biking.

RELEVANT EMOJI: 🚴

WHO SAMPLED: "You Know the Deal" is a perennial favorite, making it all the way to Japan via SOUL SCREAM, and "It Remains To Be Seen" is pretty popular too, sampled by among others Blackalicious.

FACIAL HAIR: big bushy friendly-guy beard

REVIEW: So you're tellin' me that this album is 32 minutes long and there's even a picture of a guy on a bike on the cover? Where the hell was this back when I was doing my bike commuting album reviews? I'm commuting by bike again now BTW. But it's only like 15 minutes long now so I listen to podcasts instead.

Anyway this album is really good. This guy came up with Herbie Hancock and you can tell--he's interested in funk, yes, but he also has a love for this kind of magisterial, through-composed-sounding melody that brings to mind classical music, and not even modern avant-garde classical music, like Mozart and shit. My favorite moment is on "Eternal Flame" when he busts out the bass clarinet--a thoroughly underrated instrument.

The Jeff Lorber Fusion - The Jeff Lorber Fusion (1977)

8/10

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PERSONNEL OF NOTE: On this particular album, nobody. Paulinho da Costa apparently joined this band later but that barely counts, he was in every band.

RELEVANT EMOJI: 🌦️

WHO SAMPLED: Only sample specifically from this album comes from Flamingosis, who as far as I can tell is one of the future funk guys who crowd YouTube with their stupid anime-thumbnail'd "chill" mixes. Dislike.

FACIAL HAIR: hint of a neckbeard

REVIEW: My favorite part of this album is when Jeff Lorber comes out and says "It's Lorbin' Time!" and Lorbs all over the place.

Other than that... this is pretty solid and enjoyable stuff. Very listener-friendly and poppy, sometimes verging on smooth jazz but never quite getting there. Notable Brazilian influence on a lot of these tracks ("Deva Samba", "Lift Off"), but I think my favorite cut is the very traditional soul-jazz of "Terry's Lament" and especially "Cousin' Stu". This is very much dentist's-waiting-room type shit, but, like, mostly in a good way. That said, while I do generally love this type of fender-rhodes-saturated 70s jazz, there were some cuts on this that ended up kind of boring me. Sorry. That said! Stick around for the bonus track "Poppin'", which has a bunch of cool synths on it! That one's great!

Overall Ranking & Final Thoughts

There are many other musical genres I would like to listen to more of. Too many to list, mainly because at the end of the day it would just be "all of them". Music is so great.