fusion jazz recommendations

The artists you note belong to the recent breed of fusion artists, but if you'd like to dig into the vintage years of jazz fusion I could offer a few suggestions. Keep in mind that the prime years of the original fusion artists spanned 1969-72, possibly stretching that to '74. Anything post-'74 should be approached with caution as much of the music became rather wispy and often overproduced with more focus on the playing finesse rather than musical body & soul. If you haven't checked out electric-era Miles Davis, that's a good and fairly obvious starting point. Personal favs of his from that era are Dark Magus, Agharta, Get up with it, Black Beauty...many others. Herbie Hancock's work from that time is great too; Mwandishi, Crossings, Sextant...excellent stuff. Eddie Henderson and Bennie Maupin from the Hancock band put out some interesting fusion as well. If you can find copies of Eddie Henderson's 'Realization' and 'Inside Out' recordings (vinyl only at this point I believe), those are great discs. Whatever you may think of John McLaughlin, his 'Devotion' recording is pretty shredding. Quite a few jazz musicians switched directions in that era in an attempt to stretch into the fusion arena. Donald Byrd did 'Electric Bird' (real nice one), Tony Williams had his Lifetime ensemble (not as familiar with those guys, but probably worth checking out), and Sun Ra even did a pretty choice out-reaching fusion disc, 'Lanquidity', that was most righteous. The one last band I might note is 'Soft Machine', a British group who recorded some great stuff in the late '60's-early '70's. Their first three or four discs are great examples of a genuine fusion of jazz and rock, from a distinctly English perspective. Robert Wyatt (former drummer of the band) is to this day making very relevant and forward thinking music. OK...enough rambling. Hope that gives you a few ideas.

A good summary by Centurymantra. Most of the so-called jazz fusion groups today have only limited elements of real jazz in their playing, and a look back to the fusion groups of the late '60's and early 70's would be a great beginning for you. I don't have much to add to the previous post, except to mention Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew" which essentially launched "fusion jazz", and the work by Weather Report, in my opinion to best of the fusion groups. Two of their recordings, "Weather Report" and "Heavy Weather", still find their way to my turntable. Finally, John McLaughlin's recordings with the Mahavishnu Orchestra should not be overlooked.

My .02: Miles Davis "A Tribute to Jack Johnson", John McLaughlin "Inner Mounting Flame" and more recent: Charlie Hunter/Leon Parker "Duo". Should also mention: John Scofield, Pat Martino and Al Dimeola--all electric guitarist with differing approaches to fusion. Jean-Luc Ponty--violinist was quite popular as well.

My suggestions follow suite with the above recommendations;

Mahavishnu Orchestra "Inner Mounting Flame", "Birds of Fire", and "Love Devotion Surrender" (Santana and McLaughlin).

Miles Davis "Bitches Brew".

Weather Report "Heavy Weather".

Herbie Hancock "HeadHunters".

Any of the first three Jean-Luc Ponty solo releases are also worth a listen.

When available, the twenty-bit remasters on CD actually do any (or all) of these recordings some justice in case you don't have a table.

Although I agree with the comment about "post-'74", you might like some Bill Bruford, Billy Cobham, and Jeff Lorber Fusion as well.

Happy listening.