Most college students are familiar with fusion music’s potential for incredible popularity. Beirut, El Guincho, and Vampire Weekend are all evidence of the recent proliferation of indie bands that draw influence from world music.
On Monday night, Michael Veal, an ethnomusicology professor from Yale University, will be discussing the concepts of fusion and musical appropriation in Technotopia 1969: Miles Davis at the Crossroads. Veal will examine Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, a studio double album that is often regarded as one of the major forerunners of the fusion jazz style.
Bitches Brew features both forms of jazz and rock music. Its songs blend trumpet solos with rock-influenced rhythms. Davis’ integration of popular music styles as well as electrical instruments such as the electric piano and the guitar was criticized when the album was released in 1970. It was seen as a sort of selling out and betrayal of the “art-for-art’s-sake” qualities of his earlier jazz. And indeed, the album was commercially successful—it had high sales, and was performed in concert halls across the country.
Veal will argue that Bitches Brew maintains a strong jazz avant-garde sensibility, rejecting the idea that the album is simply a fusion of unconnected musical styles. This position suggests that the use of pop music techniques in the album did diminish its avant-garde and cerebral elements.
Veal is the author of Fela: Life and Times of an African, a biographical examination of the Nigerian-born musician who was best known for his 1980s Afropop. More recently, he has published Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae, which discusses the use of techniques such as sampling and the reuse of sound in reggae music. The book also explores themes such as post-colonial identity and formal avant-garde innovations in the studio.
These themes will also most likely make an appearance during Monday’s discussion, as one of Bitches Brew’s claims to fame is its innovative use of studio technology. Davis manipulated audio tapes to create a composition and used studio procedures such as overdubbing.
Musician and journalist Harald Kisiedu will be acting as respondent during the lecture. Kisiedu has performed with notable musicians such as Champion Jack Dupree, Hannibal Marvin Peterson, and Branford Marsalis. He has also performed with Burnt Sugar, The Arkestra Chamber, which was formed in 1999. The group was initially conceptualized as the album Bitches Brew in modernized band form. Like Bitches Brew, it links and synthesizes seemingly dissimilar genres such as jazz, rock, and funk. Greg Tate of Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber will in fact be giving a demonstration later this month, on April 22.
Technotopia 1969: Miles Davis at the Crossroads is organized by the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia, and will be held in 622 Dodge Hall on April 6 at 8 p.m.
Comments
We're looking for comments that are interesting and substantial. If your comments are excessively self-promotional or obnoxious you will be banned from commenting. Consult the comment FAQ and legal terms.