FWD → Conversations Pushing Music Forward
FWD.010 → Alex Coles: "Jazz Fusion is a process, not a genre"
Jul 5, 2025 · 51 min · 11 segments
- Speakers
- Alex ColesGuestLexisHost
FWD → Conversations Pushing Music Forward
Jul 5, 2025 · 51 min · 11 segments
I didn't know most of the artists mentioned in the book I knew.
Some of the songs I knew, and this one was definitely one I didn't know.
And I absolutely, absolutely loved it.
Very, very powerful, visceral stuff.
at a place called The Standard in London, and Danalog from The Comet Is Coming, the keyboard player, we did an interview together, and after that he did a live set with his new band, and that was one of the songs he said he was really drawn to, uh in in the book and and you know it didn't occur to me um it sounds um you know really naive in a way but but but it didn't occur to me what why perhaps he was drawn to it and i think you're right he he he could hear you know, the relationship between him and Chewbacca on tenor saxophone, you know, somehow the sort of the tussle, if you like, between their two instruments and sensibilities, I think he could hear elements of that in the bells.
And that's what I love about a lot of this music, because for me, fusion, the way that really what I really loved from your book, getting back to the concept of fusion being a process rather than a music genre.
um then to me it becomes a process of exploration a process of collaboration a process of pushing the music forward sometimes and uncomfortable or at least harder as you say harder to get into um places but as a obviously avid music lover um those are the moments that i that i love is like when you hear something for the first time and you're like what the fuck is this like what what what is going on and that to me is the most rewarding um is the most rewarding thing that you can say about music or the biggest compliment that you can uh that you can say about music um yeah i had the pleasure of opening for as a as a dj for uh comet is coming a few years ago um but yeah
yeah yeah big big big fan um um yeah so getting back to this um jazz fusion as a process which i felt was such a powerful thing um can you tell can you say a little bit more about also jazz fusion being you know throughout throughout all of the history that you chart which i think is like 50 years is also a mirror of what's going on in the outside world of jazz, right? Miles apparently was heavily influenced by the younger musician in his band, but also what was going on outside of jazz.
He was like, hey...
I want those listeners.
So I was fascinated by that and also fascinated by just the sheer evolution of technology, the sheer evolution of the studio and also keyboards, instruments, you know, which push the sound forward way more than just the acoustic things that you could do in jazz in the 60s and 50s.
Yeah, so each chapter, like you mentioned, looks at how the fusion of genres, and in each case it's a different genre, that is underpinned or is driven by this broader contextual fusion, which is... you know, I've called, I've termed it a fusion of cultures.
I didn't know most of the artists mentioned in the book I knew.
Some of the songs I knew, and this one was definitely one I didn't know.
And I absolutely, absolutely loved it.
Very, very powerful, visceral stuff.
at a place called The Standard in London, and Danalog from The Comet Is Coming, the keyboard player, we did an interview together, and after that he did a live set with his new band, and that was one of the songs he said he was really drawn to, uh in in the book and and you know it didn't occur to me um it sounds um you know really naive in a way but but but it didn't occur to me what why perhaps he was drawn to it and i think you're right he he he could hear you know, the relationship between him and Chewbacca on tenor saxophone, you know, somehow the sort of the tussle, if you like, between their two instruments and sensibilities, I think he could hear elements of that in the bells.
And that's what I love about a lot of this music, because for me, fusion, the way that really what I really loved from your book, getting back to the concept of fusion being a process rather than a music genre.
um then to me it becomes a process of exploration a process of collaboration a process of pushing the music forward sometimes and uncomfortable or at least harder as you say harder to get into um places but as a obviously avid music lover um those are the moments that i that i love is like when you hear something for the first time and you're like what the fuck is this like what what what is going on and that to me is the most rewarding um is the most rewarding thing that you can say about music or the biggest compliment that you can uh that you can say about music um yeah i had the pleasure of opening for as a as a dj for uh comet is coming a few years ago um but yeah
yeah yeah big big big fan um um yeah so getting back to this um jazz fusion as a process which i felt was such a powerful thing um can you tell can you say a little bit more about also jazz fusion being you know throughout throughout all of the history that you chart which i think is like 50 years is also a mirror of what's going on in the outside world of jazz, right? Miles apparently was heavily influenced by the younger musician in his band, but also what was going on outside of jazz.
He was like, hey...
I want those listeners.
So I was fascinated by that and also fascinated by just the sheer evolution of technology, the sheer evolution of the studio and also keyboards, instruments, you know, which push the sound forward way more than just the acoustic things that you could do in jazz in the 60s and 50s.
Yeah, so each chapter, like you mentioned, looks at how the fusion of genres, and in each case it's a different genre, that is underpinned or is driven by this broader contextual fusion, which is... you know, I've called, I've termed it a fusion of cultures.
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