Beginner Please define Jazz Rock

[Pee Dee]

'spose I should know the answer to this, but I don't
Can someone define 'jazz rock' to me?
I heard a piece on the radio a while back, and thought that sounded great, didn't catch the group, but did get that it was jazz rock. Can anyone recommend groups, sax players that specialize in this gender of music for me to listen to/ buy?
cheers

 

[thomsax]

Hard to define Jazz Rock. Not easy for me to give english words to ..... sorry! But I listen to Rocksaxplayer that are plaiyng Jazz or Jazz Rock. Here are some samples:

David "Woody" Woodford : One of the best contemporary saxplayers!! Rock, Soul, R&B, Funk, Jazz, Fusion .... . He played in a group in the early 80's called "Dr Strut". I uploaded a sample a song from one of their LPs. The song is called "Blues For Sugar"
http://s297.photobucket.com/albums/...&current=BluesForSugar-DavidWoodyWoodford.flv

Scott "Scotty" Shetler: His CD "C'mon Man" is a good sample of Jazz Rock. Besides saxes he is playing bass clarinet great. A link to CD Baby.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shetler
The song "Show Me The Way" (Bon Jovi, Sam McClain) is a proof of Shetlers versatility. He wrote the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otad3U0SPQI

Glenn Shambroom: Tasty Jazz-Rock, Jazz-R&B. Jazz-Blues .... He is playing sopranino to bass sax. His barisax is a "The Martin Magna Baritone " to low A.

Thomas

 

[thomsax]

I forgot the link to Glen Shambrooms latest CD "Band Math": http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shambroom3

 

[dooce]

I think you could do worse than look at the Wikipedia page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_fusion. I have no idea how you would define jazz-rock - I'm not even sure there is such a thing. Soft Machine seem to me to too far over in the jazz field to be considered, while Kenny G is way too MOR. Personally, I think jazz-rock is just an artier name for what most of us think of as funk!

 

[Pee Dee]

Thanks Thomas, particularly like Scott Shetler, gives me some ideas to listen to.

 

[Pee Dee]

Thanks Dooce
Yep funk is what I thought.

 

[thomsax]

You are welcome. You can visit Scott Shetlers Soundclick site for more songs. He is a great player and arranger. He writes a lot of music as well. Other New England saxplayers like Andrew Clark, Sax Gordon, Glenn Shambroom .... have played/worked with Scott. Talking about New England saxplayers (David "Woody" Woddford, Andrew Clark, Sax Gordon, Glenn Shambroom, Scott Shetler, Don Wise, Mike Antunes .... ), there must be something in the water. Maybe all the snow from Vermount that is melting down ..... ???????

Thomas

 

[thomsax]

The link! http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=102674&content=music

 

[kevgermany]

You are welcome. You can visit Scott Shetlers Soundclick site for more songs. He is a great player and arranger. He writes a lot of music as well. Other New England saxplayers like Andrew Clark, Sax Gordon, Glenn Shambroom .... have played/worked with Scott. Talking about New England saxplayers (David "Woody" Woddford, Andrew Clark, Sax Gordon, Glenn Shambroom, Scott Shetler, Don Wise, Mike Antunes .... ), there must be something in the water. Maybe all the snow from Vermount that is melting down ..... ???????

Thomas

You're going to be in hot water - you left Lori off the list...

 

[thomsax]

You're going to be in hot water - you left Lori off the list...

I'm so sorry! I forgot Lori. My friends in Boston have been complaining about the snow this winther. Maybe it's Lori who starts the avalanches by blowing into her Martin baritone. It's a powerful thing she got ....

 

[phooesnax]

I forgot the link to Glen Shambrooms latest CD "Band Math": http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shambroom3

COOL... Just grabbed both suggestions from Thomsax off of Itunes. Never heard of either one. thanks

 

[Pete Thomas]

I remember back in the 70s when I first heard the term jazz Rock. The bands I thought of then as jazz Rock were of course Soft Machine, Coliseum, Nucleus in the UK and in the U.S. Miles Davis, Weather Report.

 

[TomMapfumo]

Others so described would include Santana, The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Traffic. The message seems to be something that combines the simplicity and raw energy of rock with the complexity and virtuosity of Jazz. A common set up would include the usual guitar, bass and drums, with keys and horn section (often about 8 - 10 musicians) and would be unlikely to feature swing in any form - may include Latin and other vibes, and have a greater complexity in the sound.

Kind regards
Tom

Traffic double live album "On the Road" would be a good example!

 

[Pee Dee]

Thanks all for y our contributions
This'll keep me busy on Spotify for a while

 

[Copstolemywife]

From long experience of this type of music I would say that 1970's bands like Colosseum and IF, are an excellent illustration of the genre, also Catapilla, Lighthouse, Heaven, Blood Sweat &Tears, Rock Workshop, Tonton Macoute. Further toward the Jazz end of the spectrum Nucleus, Soft machine Isotope, Centipede. Possibles, National Health, Audience, Egg, Van Der Graaf Generator, even Camel had elements of Jazz at one point. This is a broad spectrum and my opinion others might disagree with my interpretation but I see Jazz elements in a lot of Bands. Depends on your idea of what "Jazz" is I suppose. Cheers.