Top ten Jazz Rock Fusion Albums

1) Mahavisnu Orchestra: Inner Mounting Flame
2) Return to Forever: Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy
3) Jeff Beck: There & Back
4) Jean Luc Ponty: Cosmic Messenger
5) Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays: As Falls Wichita So Falls Wichita Falls
6) Miles Davis: A Tribute to Jack Johnson
7) Bruford: One of a Kind
8) Dixie Dregs: What If
9) Billy Cobham: Spectrum
10) Al Dimeola: Elegant Gypsy

Note: Chicago II, Steely Dan Aja and Santana Abraxas fall more on the Rock side of the equation than jazz so that is why they were not listed although, I think very highly of those albums.

Also, I just picked one album per artist. Had I not, there would have been a few more Mahavisnu Orchestra and Jeff Beck albums on this list.

I would have picked The Aristocrats first album, but they are listed as Heavy Prog on PA. Not sure I necessarily agree with that classification.


Edited by Big Sky - February 01 2024 at 10:48

I would like to add the eponymous album by Mantra from Spain, an exciting blend of jazzrock/fusion and the distinctive Rock Andaluz. Never released recordings are put on CD in 2012 by Arabian Rock 2012 (Música Inédita Rock Andaluz Collection - see Prog Archives info at their biography)

Edited by TenYearsAfter - March 01 2024 at 10:17

This is what I posted in a 2019 non-Svetonio sock puppet accounts thread which asks the same and is still open CLICK HERE . I am tempted to merge these threads.

Janko Nilovic - Rythmes Contemporains
Herbie Hancock - Crossings
Miles Davis - Big Fun
Mandingo - The Primeval Rhythm of Life
Eddie Henderson - Realisation
Julian Priester - Love, Love
Embryo - Embryo's Rache
Perigeo - Genealogia
Soft Machine - Third
Placebo - Ball of Eyes

In fact, I will close this. Please put your lists in the other topic I linked to if you want to re-post them.

So I closed that other thread and moved most of the posts over to this older one (that I linked to before). So that above is now my list that I posted earlier in this thread.

Edited by Logan - March 01 2024 at 14:22

I prefer the other fusion thread that was recently closed. Most posts from this thread are from members who no longer participate in the forums. Why not close this thread and leave the other open? This five year old thread was bumped today.


Allan Holdsworth - i.o.u
Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up
Matteo Mancuso - The Journey
Mats Öberg - Visa från Inneröra
Owane - Yeah Whatever
Plini - Impulse Voices
Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior
Chick Corea Elektric Band - Beneath the Mask
Virgil Donati - In This Life
Tohpati Ethnomission - Mata Hati


Edited by Grumpyprogfan - March 02 2024 at 00:28

^I see three possible Svet posts. I bet it's tiring, but the other thread was more interesting.

Didn't Svet start the Pete Sinfield thread also? Will you shut that down?

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - March 01 2024 at 14:04

Logan wrote: Most importantly being that he started it as he has been attracted to his topics (and often would rate them five stars). With some of his accounts I have batch deleted the posts using a spam tool, so there have been more. As I said in the other thread, I was considering merging the topics (kind of a hassle as it's one post at a time, but it's worth it for a more lively and interesting thread, and I will exclude the already suspended Svet accounts from it). Another way I have dealt with those threads if active has been to hide the posts of the user, although then that is confusing. Feel free to PM with any questions. I don't want to get into certain details here. Hopefully you and others find this thread know more interesting after merging posts.

"Svetonio"' thread's request was 'your favourite ten albums by the acts that are listed as jazz-rock/fusion in Progarchives.' That's why I omitted from my list, for example, the Soft Machine's" Bundles," as that band is in the Canterbury Scene PA section. 

After 18 months into a “deep dive” dedicated almost exclusively to Jazz-Rock Fusion I have come up with a revised set of lists to replace the one I posted in 2020.

First Wave (anything goes):

Don Ellis Orchestra Autumn (1967)

Terje Rypdal Bleak House (1968)

Chicago Chicago Transit Authority (1969)

‘Igginbottom ‘Igginbottom’s Wrench (1969)

John McLaughlin Devotion (1970)

Jean-Luc Ponty King Kong - Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa (1970)

Herbie Hancock Mwandishi (1971)

Larry Coryell Barefoot Boy (1971)

Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire (1972)

Santana Caravanserai (1972)

Out of Focus Four Letter Monday Afternoon (1972)

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes Astral Travelling (1973)

Julian Priester Love, Love (1973)

Eddie Henderson InsideOut (1974)

Second Wave (structure and organization):

Herbie Hancock Crossings (1972)

Larry Coryell Offering (1972)

Weather Report Sweetnighter (1973)

Missus Beastly Missus Beastly (1974)

Michal Urbaniak Atma (1974)

Return To Forever Where Have I Known You Before (1974)

Mahavishnu Orchestra Visions of the Emerald Beyond (1975)

Return To Forever Romantic Warrior (1976)

Chick Corea The Mad Hatter (1978)

Édition Spéciale Horizon Digital (1978)

     

Power Fusion (the imitation of The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Return To Forever)

Cervello Melos (1973)

Arti E Mestieri Tilt - Immagini per un orecchio (1974)

Area Crac! (1975)

Fermáta Pieseň z hôľ (1975)

Michal Urbaniak Fusion III (1975)

The Soft Machine Bundles (1975)

Etna Etna (1975)

Fermáta Huascaran (1977)

Iceberg Sentiments (1977)

Toto Blanke’s Electric Circus Friends (1979)

Third Wave (the influx of funk/R&B):

Herbie Hancock Head Hunters (1973)

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes Cosmic Funk (1974)

Herbie Hancock Thrust (1974)

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes Visions of a New World (1975)

Lenny White Venusian Summer (1975)

Jean-Luc Ponty Imaginary Voyage (1976)

Billy Cobham Total Eclipse (1976)

Chute Libre Ali Baba (1978)

Freddie Hubbard The Love Connection (1979)

Michal Urbaniak Ecstasy (1979)

Fourth Wave (the advent and takeover of Smooth Jazz):

David Axelrod Song of Innocence (1968)

Freddie Hubbard First Light (1972)

Deodato Prelude (1973)

Mahavishnu Orchestra Apocalypse (1974)

George Benson Breezin’ (1976)

Lonnie Liston Smith Reflections of a Golden World (1976)

Bob James BJ4 (1977)

Steely Dan Aja (1977)

Jan Akkerman Jan Akkerman (1977)

Jean-Luc Ponty Cosmic Messenger (1978)

Earl Klugh Heart String (1979)

Lonnie Liston Smith Love Is the Answer (1980)

Outliers:

Hermann Szobel Szobel (1976)

Gong Gazeuse! (1976)

Shakti Natural Elements (1977)

Eberhard Weber The Following Morning (1977)

Matrix Wizard (1978)

Firyuza / Фирюза Firyuza / Фирюза (1979)

Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls (1981)

Allan Holdsworth Secrets (1989)

Pat Metheny Secret Story (1991)

Hiromi’s Sonicbloom Time (2007)

Pat Metheny Orchestrion (2010)

Antoine Fafard Ad Perpetuum (2014)

omphaloskepsis wrote: I swam ashore after the third wave.   The fourth wave was too smooth and didn't make for good mind-surfing.

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - 13 hours 34 minutes ago at 15:12