Fusion Explorations from a Jazz Perspective
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Abstract
In my efforts to be progressive for myself as an artist (compared to my past work), and to not simply settle for my previous experiences playing jazz fusion, I set out to challenge myself (in most cases) by fusing more styles per song (or elements from a style) than just one with jazz concept, and additionally to keep the jazz foundation an integral part. I believe that often “jazz fusion” of the last 10 or so years (especially the more “popular” the artist) seems to lacks the spontaneity, freedom, deep group communication/call and response, sense of urgency, edge, looseness of beat, relaxed delivery, swagger, and fearless risk-taking/experimentation that jazz (and older forms of jazz fusion) is built on. I searched for a way, both in composition design and concept, to truly balance the “jazz” part with elements of more than 1 style, often taking cues from outside the USA.
Publication Date
7-1-2019
Campus
Valencia (Spain) Campus
Keywords
Jazz fusion; cross cultural; saxophone; jazz; composition
Recommended Citation
Casey, Michael. “Fusion Explorations from a Jazz Perspective.” Master's thesis, Berklee College of Music, 2019. https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-contemporary-performance/155.
Comments
Project Components: paper (.pdf), presentation (.pdf), audio files (ZIP file containing 7 .wav files), lead sheets (ZIP file containing 7 .pdf documents).