Anthony Tillmon Williams was an American jazz drummer. Williams first gained fame as a member of Miles Davis' "Second Great Quintet," and later pioneered jazz fusion with Davis' group and his own combo, the Tony Williams Lifetime. In 1970, music critic Robert Christgau described him as "probably the best drummer in the world." Williams was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1986.
John Symon Asher Bruce was a Scottish musician. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and bassist of rock band Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a solo career and also played with several bands.
Stanley Clarke is an American bassist, composer and founding member of Return to Forever, one of the first jazz fusion bands. Clarke gave the bass guitar a prominence it lacked in jazz-related music. He is the first jazz-fusion bassist to headline tours, sell out shows worldwide and have recordings reach gold status.
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.
Allan Holdsworth was a British jazz fusion and progressive rock guitarist, violinist and composer.
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.
Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion, becoming a purely instrumental band in 1971. The band has undergone many line-up changes, with musicians such as Andy Summers, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth being members during the band's history. The current line-up consists of John Etheridge, Theo Travis, Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Sirkis.
U.K. were a British progressive rock supergroup originally active from 1977 to 1980. The band was founded by bass guitarist John Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford, formerly the rhythm section of King Crimson. The band was rounded out by violinist/keyboardist Eddie Jobson, and guitarist Allan Holdsworth. Bruford and Holdsworth left in 1978, and Bruford was replaced by drummer Terry Bozzio. Jobson, Wetton and Bozzio reformed U.K. for a world tour in 2012.
Planet X was an instrumental rock supergroup, founded by keyboardist Derek Sherinian and drummer Virgil Donati. They were active for a decade, releasing three studio albums and a live album, each with a variety of guest musicians and oft-changing lineups.
Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist, keyboard player and bandleader. He is also a composer, arranger and producer.
An organ trio is a form of jazz ensemble consisting of three musicians; a Hammond organ player, a drummer, and either a jazz guitarist or a saxophone player. In some cases the saxophonist will join a trio which consists of an organist, guitarist, and drummer, making it a quartet. Organ trios were a popular type of jazz ensemble for club and bar settings in the 1950s and 1960s, performing a blues-based style of jazz that incorporated elements of R&B. The organ trio format was characterized by long improvised solos and an exploration of different musical "moods".
A jazz trio is a group of three jazz musicians, often a piano trio comprising a pianist, a double bass player and a drummer. Jazz trios are commonly named after their leader, such as the Bill Evans Trio.
Metal Fatigue is the third studio album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, released in 1985 through Enigma Records and JMS–Cream Records (Europe).
Believe It is the first album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1975 on Columbia Records. The New Lifetime was a jazz fusion band formed by the drummer Tony Williams with Allan Holdsworth on guitar, Alan Pasqua on keyboards and Tony Newton on bass.
Million Dollar Legs is the second album by the New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1976 on Columbia Records. The band was made up of jazz fusion drummer Tony Williams with guitarist Allan Holdsworth, keyboardist Alan Pasqua and bass guitarist Tony Newton.
Lifetime: The Collection is a compilation album by The New Tony Williams Lifetime, released in 1992 on Columbia/Legacy Records. The album contains all of the music from the two original New Lifetime albums Believe It (1975) and Million Dollar Legs (1976).
Bruford were a band assembled and led by British drummer Bill Bruford, originating in the late 1970s.
Ego is the third album by the American jazz fusion group The Tony Williams Lifetime, led by drummer Tony Williams. It was recorded during February and March 1971, and was released later that year by Polydor Records. On the album, Williams is joined by guitarist Ted Dunbar, organist Larry Young, bassist Ron Carter and percussionists Don Alias and Warren Smith. Jack Bruce performs vocals on “Two Worlds”.
Spectrum Road is the debut album by the American supergroup of the same name, featuring bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist Vernon Reid, keyboard player John Medeski, and drummer Cindy Blackman Santana. The group's sole release, it was recorded in February 2011 at Maggie's Farm in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, and was issued in 2012 by Palmetto Records. The album pays homage to the jazz fusion band The Tony Williams Lifetime, and is named after the song "Via the Spectrum Road" from the 1969 Lifetime recording Emergency!. Bruce served as a personal link to Lifetime, as he participated in the creation of their second album, Turn It Over (1970).
Blues for Tony is a live album by guitarist Allan Holdsworth, keyboardist Alan Pasqua, bassist Jimmy Haslip, and drummer Chad Wackerman. It was recorded in 2007, and was released as a double CD set by Moonjune Records in 2009. The album, which is dedicated to drummer Tony Williams, was issued after the release of a DVD titled Live At Yoshi's, featuring the same personnel. Pasqua appears on Holdsworth's first solo album, and both Holdsworth and Pasqua were members of the New Tony Williams Lifetime during the mid-1970s, recording two albums with that band, Believe It (1975) and Million Dollar Legs (1976).
