CHAPTER 19 | JAZZ-ROCK FUSION 483
Davis did not participate; his idiosyncratic approach to jazz-rock fusion was his
way of entering avant-garde territory on his own terms.
Part of Davis’s genius as a fusion artist was his ability to enlist sympathetic
musicians who could bridge jazz and rock styles with dexterity and imagina-
tion. Several musicians associated with Davis in the late 1960s and 1970s went on
to become successful solo acts or formed their own fusion groups. Keyboard-
ist Herbie Hancock formed the Headhunters, keyboardist Chick Corea formed
Return to Forever, saxophonist Wayne Shorter and Austrian keyboardist Joe
Zawinul formed Weather Report, and pianist Keith Jarrett became one of the
most important soloists of the decade.
Another alumnus of Davis’s fusion projects was John McLaughlin, a guitarist
from Yorkshire who, like many other English musicians of his generation, grew
fascinated at a formative age with the records of Muddy Waters and other Ameri-
can bluesmen. After gaining a reputation as a rock guitarist on the British scene,
he moved to New York in 1969, where he caught the attention of Miles Davis, who
hired him to play on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew. Drawn to the classical music
and religious traditions of India, McLaughlin formed his own group in 1970 to
explore the fusion of jazz, rock, and Indian music. The Mahavishnu Orchestra’s
fi rst two albums were commercial successes, with the second, Birds of Fire (1973),
climbing to number 15 on the pop album charts.
The music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra embodies several style features of
1970s jazz-rock fusion. While the harmony tends toward simplicity, other ele-
ments gain in importance, especially timbre, rhythm, and melody. The sound
emphasizes loud volume, amplifi ed instruments, and rock-infl uenced drum-
ming. The beat is subdivided into even notes, as in rock, instead of the swinging
beat of earlier jazz styles. Meters are often irregular, with bars of fi ve or seven
beats supplementing traditional duple and triple meters. Refl ecting McLaugh-
lin’s interest in Indian classical music, the composed melodies and improvised
solos often use unusual scales derived from Indian ragas, while also including
the pentatonic scales and blue notes common to jazz and rock. Mastering those
asymmetrical meters and odd scales requires a high level of musicianship, which
also can be heard in virtuoso solo and ensemble playing.
Birds of Fire (LG 19.4), the opening track from Mahavishnu’s second album,
displays all these traits. The amplifi ed instruments and conspicuous drum-
ming immerse the listener in a rock-style ambiance. McLaughlin builds his
composition on an exotic-sounding scale, sometimes called
the “super locrian mode,” that resembles certain Indian ragas.
Throughout the piece that scale is heard at two pitch levels a
whole step apart, alternating in one-bar units. The meter,
which resembles the talas that govern rhythm in Indian music,
seems better suited for listening than for dancing: each bar has
nine beats, grouped as four plus fi ve. The players demonstrate
their virtuosity in both dazzling improvisations and disci-
plined ensemble performance, especially in McLaughlin’s and
violinist Jerry Goodman’s unison statements of the compli-
cated head. With Birds of Fire, the Mahavishnu Orchestra com-
bines the complexity of modern jazz and classical Indian music
with the electronically fueled overdrive and mystical overtones
of 1970s rock.K Guitarist John
McLaughlin and violinist
Jerry Goodman of the
Mahavishnu Orchestra.fusion style traits172028_19_468-494_r3_sd.indd 483 23/01/13 11:05 AM