Jazz fusion is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians, particularly those who had grown up listening to rock and roll.
John McLaughlin, also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of activity, from 1971 to 1976 and from 1984 to 1987. With its first line-up consisting of musicians Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, and Rick Laird, the band received its initial acclaim for its complex, intense music consisting of a blend of Indian classical music, jazz, and psychedelic rock as well as its dynamic live performances between 1971 and 1973. Many members of the band have gone on to acclaimed careers of their own in the jazz and jazz fusion genres.
William Emanuel Cobham Jr. is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
David Sancious is an American musician. He was an early member of Bruce Springsteen's backing group, the E Street Band, and contributed to the first three Springsteen albums, and again on Human Touch (1992), Tracks (1998), and Western Stars (2019). Sancious is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known as a keyboard player and guitarist. He left the E Street Band in 1974 to form his own band, Tone, and released several albums. He subsequently became a popular session and touring musician, most notably for Stanley Clarke, Narada Michael Walden, Zucchero Fornaciari, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel, Jack Bruce, and Sting among many others. In 2014, Sancious was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.
Premiata Forneria Marconi (PFM) is an Italian progressive rock band founded in 1970 which continues to the present day. They were the first Italian group to have success internationally. The group recorded five albums with English lyrics between 1973 and 1977. During this period they entered both the British and American charts. They also had several successful European and American tours, playing at the popular Reading Festival in England and on a very popular national television program in the United States.
Melos is a progressive rock album released in 1973 by the Italian band Cervello.
Cervello ("Brain") is a band from Italy.
Banco del Mutuo Soccorso is an Italian rock band. A popular progressive rock band in the 1970s, they continued making music in the 1980s and 1990s. They were still active, playing live in 2001 and 2008 at NEARfest. Their charismatic frontman, Francesco Di Giacomo, died in 2014.
John Goodsall was a British-American progressive rock and jazz fusion guitarist most noted for his work with Brand X, Atomic Rooster, and The Fire Merchants.
Il Balletto di Bronzo is an Italian progressive rock band from Naples. The band was initially formed as the I Battitori Selvaggi, and played Nato bases in Italy. Early members included Raffaele Cascone, a progressive guitarist and Freddy Cannon on drums. Cannon would later become a very successful record company executive with EMI, Carrere, PWL and join BMI as a senior executive in 1994. They changed their name to Il Balletto di Bronzo in 1969 and released two singles, Neve Calda / Comincio 'Per Gioco (1969) and Si, Mama Mama / Meditazione (1970). The albums Sirio 2222 and Ys followed, before they before disbanded in 1973.
Locanda delle Fate is an Italian progressive rock band from the end of the Italian progressive rock movement.
Il Rovescio della Medaglia, or RDM, were an Italian hard rock and symphonic rock band. They are most famous for their symphonic rock piece Contaminazione, released in 1973. It contained four pieces from Bach's Well-tempered Clavier seamlessly integrated with RDM's own music, which often was inspired by rock or hard rock. In 1974 the record was released in an English version, Contamination, with the group's name simplified to RDM, although still written in full on the back of the LP jacket.
Osanna are an Italian progressive rock band.
Palepoli is a progressive rock album released in 1973 by the Italian band Osanna, widely considered amongst the best in the Italian progressive rock genre.
Ric Parnell was an English rock drummer. Notable for his work in the band Atomic Rooster, he is probably best known for his role as the ill-fated drummer Mick Shrimpton in the film This Is Spinal Tap.
Wings of Love is the third album by the Italian progressive/jazz rock group Nova, that was released by Arista Records in 1977.
Gianluigi Di Franco was an Italian singer. In the early 1970s he joined the brothers Corrado and Danilo Rustici and formed the progressive rock band Cervello. The group disbanded after one album and Di Franco spent the 1970s working in a psychiatric hospital in Naples as a musicotherapist In the early 1980s Di Franco resumed his music career. He collaborated with percussionist Tony Esposito, singing lead vocals on "Kalimba de luna" (1984) and "As Tu As" (1985). He also worked with Tullio De Piscopo and Mory Kanté on the single "Radio Africa" (1986). In 1988 he released his first solo album, Gianluigi Di Franco.
Corrado Rustici is an Italian musician, songwriter and producer.
Vimana is the second album by the Italian progressive/jazz rock group Nova, that was released by Arista Records in 1976.
