CHAPTER 17: Fusion II: Jazz, Rock, and Beyond
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Rock and roll represented a fusion of which two musical styles?
a.
jazz and doo wop
b.
black race records and rural hillbilly music
c.
Afro-Cuban and classical
d.
salsa and blues
e.
country and swing
2. Why was rock and roll initially dismissed by jazz musicians?
a.
It was aimed at a teen audience.
b.
It didn’t have the support of major record labels.
c.
It wasn’t popular with urban audiences.
d.
It wasn’t marketable by promoters.
e.
It was too sophisticated for general audiences.
3. Which of the following is an important aspect of the Beatles’ song repertoire that differentiates
them from older artists?
a.
They completely abandoned the blues.
b.
They focused on songs that had been hits in the 1920s and 1930s.
c.
They wrote their own songs.
d.
All of the above
e.
None of the above
4. What was the effect of rock’s popularity on the recording industry?
a.
an immediate decline in audiences for musicals and other popular recordings
b.
a stylistic shift with no real effect on total sales
c.
a decline in record sales, but an increased interest in live concerts
d.
steady growth in sales of jazz recordings
e.
a massive increase in overall record sales
5. In the late 1960s, artists such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix moved away from pop singles and
toward what style?
a.
tightly controlled orchestrations
b.
avant-garde expression
c.
album-oriented improvisation
d.
world music forms
e.
reinterpretations of jazz repertoire
6. All of the following elements of funk style made it well-suited for fusion with contemporary jazz
EXCEPT:
a.
interlocking rhythmic layers
b.
harmonic complexity
c.
open-ended forms
d.
a focus on sweet, hummable vocal melodies
e.
syncopated, danceable bass lines
7. Which is NOT an aspect of the crisis that jazz faced in 1967?
a.
death of John Coltrane
b.
audience shrinking
c.
jazz critics and magazines beginning to take rock seriously
d.
stagnation of mainstream jazz style
e.
young jazz musicians unwilling to embrace pop artists
8. What element of rock aesthetics drew the attention of Miles Davis?
a.
simplicity
b.
atonal, noisy timbres
c.
the abstract nature of rock compositions
d.
the strictness of rock recording practices
e.
all of the above
9. Which experimental recording process did Miles Davis and Teo Macero embrace on Davis’s
album In a Silent Way?
a.
extensive overdubbing
b.
slapback tape delay
c.
tape splicing
d.
live recording
e.
digital recording
10. Which is NOT true of Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew?
a.
It used a large band.
b.
The studio sessions were extensively edited.
c.
All of the songs were composed specifically for this recording session.
d.
Davis did not think it should be marketed as jazz.
e.
The album did not find a broad audience.
11. John McLaughlin’s music blended elements of all of the following traditions EXCEPT:
a.
flamenco guitar
b.
Celtic fiddle music
c.
Eastern religion
d.
Indian classical music
e.
American blues
12. Which of the following musicians did NOT work with Miles Davis before forming or participating
in an important 1970s fusion band?
a.
Chick Corea
b.
Joe Zawinul
c.
Billy Cobham
d.
Jaco Pastorius
e.
Wayne Shorter
13. How did Jaco Pastorius alter the electric bass to make a distinctive sound?
a.
extended the lower range with an extra string
b.
used guitar strings instead of bass strings
c.
removed the frets and filled in the holes with wood filler
d.
extended the upper range by adding frets to the fingerboard
e.
used a wide range of effects pedals
14. Herbie Hancock has had success in all of the following genres EXCEPT:
a.
postbop
b.
classical piano
c.
funk
d.
film score
e.
hip-hop
15. What was unique about the makeup of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters among 1970s fusion bands?
a.
Most of the musicians were inexperienced in jazz styles.
b.
The group included two percussionists.
c.
The band had no bassist.
d.
The group did not perform live.
e.
None of the band members had worked with Miles Davis.
16. Which of the following is NOT true of the career of pianist Keith Jarrett?
a.
makes noisy vocalizations while he improvises
b.
often berates his audience for making noise or not paying attention
c.
played electric piano with Miles Davis but disliked the experience
d.
recorded a solo LP that has sold more than 4 million copies
e.
most regular work has been as part of a quartet with saxophonist Charles Lloyd
17. Pat Metheny’s fusion embraces all of the following sources EXCEPT:
a.
Wes Montgomery’s smooth guitar playing
b.
Ornette Coleman’s avant-garde harmolodics
c.
country music
d.
Afro-Cuban jazz
e.
1960s rock
18. Oregon percussionist Colin Walcott established a connection between jazz and world music
through his study with which musician?
a.
sitarist Ravi Shankar
b.
conguero Chano Pozo
c.
vocalist/saxophonist Fela Kuti
d.
guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim
e.
vocalist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
19. Which of the following is NOT the name of a radio format featuring the work of Wes
Montgomery, George Benson, and Kenny G?
a.
“quiet storm”
b.
“easy chill”
c.
“jazz lite”
d.
“new adult contemporary”
e.
“smooth jazz”
20. Why are Medeski, Martin, and Wood considered a “jam band”?
a.
because they refuse to use acoustic instruments
b.
because the musicians have little formal training or jazz pedigree
c.
because they tour in a camper
d.
because their audience overlaps with that of various rock-leaning artists such as Phish and
Dave Matthews
e.
because they embrace the term “jam band” as a modern evolution of “jazz”
21. Which substyle of jazz is most prominently sampled within acid jazz?
a.
bebop
b.
Third Stream
c.
soul jazz
d.
swing
e.
Latin jazz
22. Pianist Robert Glasper has performed and recorded pieces by all of the following contemporary
artists EXCEPT:
a.
Radiohead
b.
Nirvana
c.
Mos Def
d.
Herbie Hancock
e.
Medeski, Martin, and Wood
TRUE/FALSE
1. The Kingston Trio’s recording of “Tom Dooley” became a political anthem but could not cross
over to a pop audience.
2. Jazz musicians had great difficulty in creating new interpretations of the new song repertoire of
1960s rock.
3. In the rock era, many jazz artists had difficulty attracting young audiences simply because of their
age.
4. Miles Davis continued to embrace the term “jazz” even as he explored electric instruments and
studio experimentation.
5. Miles Davis embraced the term “rock” to describe his new explorations with electric instruments
and studio experimentation.
6. Jaco Pastorius included a solo version of the notoriously difficult bebop standard “Donna Lee” on
his debut recording, a move that gained him considerable respect among jazz artists and
aficionados.
7. In the early 1980s, Herbie Hancock created a fusion between jazz and hip-hop, featuring MC
Melle Mel on his recording of “Rockit.”
8. Smooth jazz’s target audience of twenty-five to forty-four-year-old adults is commonly known as
the “money demographic.”
9. Guitarist John Scofield works with Medeski, Martin, and Wood because his blues-inspired playing
is not widely accepted within mainstream jazz.
10. Hip-hop groups such as A Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets make prominent use of jazz
samples in their productions.
SHORT ANSWER
1. A generation of songwriters working at the ________________ on Broadway in New York City
crafted a large repertory of pop songs aimed at the youth market.
2. __________________, the process of capturing distinct elements of a recording at different times,
allowed rock artists such as the Beach Boys to explore the studio in creative ways.
3. The combination of diatonic triads and unrelated bass notes are known as ________________.
4. Though he played it on Herbie Hancock’s “Cantaloupe Island,” trumpeter Freddie Hubbard
generally did not like the sound produced by the conical bore and larger bell of the _________.
5. Saxophonist __________________ refuses to call his music jazz, instead referring to it as
“Norwegian music.”
MATCHING
Match each artist or group to the fusion subgenre with which they are most closely associated.
a.
George Benson
d.
Weather Report
b.
Us3
e.
Medeski, Martin, and Wood
c.
Oregon
1. Jazz/rock fusion
2. Jazz/hip-hop fusion
3. Jam bands
4. Smooth jazz
5. World music fusion
ESSAY
1. Referring to his own work in the 1970s, Herbie Hancock asserted that he was “projecting
something from the black experience.” Explain how this statement might apply to all of the
jazz-rock fusion discussed in Chapter 17. How did the musical choices made by fusion artists
embrace certain elements of (white) rock culture while maintaining a strong connection to black
American creative traditions?
2. Smooth jazz artists such as Kenny G have developed a massive following of fans and a tremendous
amount of backlash from other listeners, musicians, and critics. Choose one side of this argument:
defend smooth as a valid subgenre of jazz, or argue for its exclusion from the jazz tradition.
Support your argument with specific musical details and contextual evidence.
3. Why have rock songs not made their way into the jazz repertory as readily as pop songs from older
eras and other genres?