Are the Doors co-inventors of jazz-rock?

It appears I was not understood. Of course the Doors did not play those chops; if they had they would clearly be the inventors of jazz-rock, and I would not need to ask the question. But there is an overall very jazzy feeling to many of their tracks, as I pointed out, a lot more than in other bands. Just listen to Densmore's drumming in "When the Music's Over".

No, definitely not for me. The Doors were arty, and allied to beat poets etc, but it's a tenuous connection to jazz-rock. Plus only Manzarek was a true quality musician. 

Yes of course. I'm surprised anyone would argue they were not jazz influenced. Co-inventors of jazz rock? Quite possibly. They were essentially a fusion rock band; blues, rock 'n' roll, jazz, a bit of psychedelia thrown in for good measure. It's all there.

Ray's keyboard playing and Jon's drumming are clearly jazz influenced. On the sleeve notes to the debut album it says Jon Densmore was an 'aspiring jazz drummer'

They were an imporant band in the evolution of prog rock too IMO.

*spits first beer of the day on monitor*

In live performances Led Zeppelin were jazzy

It could be said the Doors did a fusion of musics ~ cabaret, rhythm & blues, vocal, pop, art ~ but unfortunately fusion with a capital 'F' was soon to become the staid and bland joining of modern jazz with hard rock, of which they could not do and wisely didn't try.   They did improvise, it's true, but by the 1950s improvisation no longer belonged to jazz/blues exclusively.   Further, no jazz, jazzrock, fusion or other musician would ever in their right mind refer to The Doors as having anything to do with any jazz of any kind.

Fun band though.

I would say that the Doors invented Cocktail Lounge Rock. Theses guys were way too obsessed with the bossa nova.

Well Ray cited Miles' Milestones as a favourite of his and fair enough says I. Robbie Krieger certainly grew into a fusion direction. But they had a such a hybrid of styles it may be more important to show at they did with them which was an audio (mainly) theatrical style.

They were quite structured pieces unlike usual jazz bop head / improv. Spanish Caravan was originally based around a late 19th C Spanish piece which is a bit close to plagiarism for comfort. But the rock song harmonies had a unique flow and identity harmonically which is where the jazz was used.

Light My Fires iv Minor to IV Major 6 inversion riff is a quick example whereas the intro is more Bach oriented.

LA Woman was so jazzy loungey (when it wasn't blues) that the producer told them he wanted nothing to do with it. But The Doors were too smart to make a bland album - always a danger with jazz. They made a great one. Or rather, another great one.

All musics were the tools of their trade so it's not easy to pin some numbers down too easily.

The thing with jazz harmony is it allows more ways to branch off harmonically than a blues scale yet they were very classically structured. Blues classical just won't really work. I recall in Beethoven's Aspassionata sonata a brief moment which could have been a 12 bar type riff for a bar... So yes, very jazz in places, very classical in others.

The thing with jazz drums is that they play from the cymbals down unlike blues and rock which is in the pocket drumming. A lot of jazz fans hate jazz rock for the back beat which to some destroys the jazz - thy have a point. Fusion is different (more jazz drums and a lot heavier than bop or cool  but with loads of jazz harmony  and yet less back beat) and this was where Krieger went with his records. Manzarek was more classical and structured - he did a nice Carmina Burana for starters.

The Doors used everything there was with fine taste to create their unique rock. But developing jazz rock? Or fusion? Not really - the concerts were rock theatrical performances but I doubt a jazz musician would have listened to get ideas. The records  were great rock but a jazz muso would be checking the Soft Machine or Miles. Jazz was part of the engine oil to make the material rather than a development of the new genre.

Simply... it's complicated.