Modern Fusion - worth a Listen - Aaron Parks

Do you use the ALLMUSIC website?
Enter an artist's name in the search bar.
Click on CREDITS to see and hear their
past work.

You can bounce around easily, and open up
new musical universes.  A great resource.

@dougsat -
Agree with you about Aaron Parks. If you enjoy Little Big (almost more guitar-centric than piano) try his Invisible Cinema (a bit more piano leaning) but a similar sort of contemporary vibe as Little Big.

The whole of AP’s discography is worth investigating, including his Find The Way and Groovements.

Adding to the @sgordon1 mention of the All Music guide website, check out the "Similar Albums" tab after finding the original album you were interested in.

I'm an Aaron Parks fan too and ghost gave some good recommendations.

@ghosthouse 

Thanks for the other suggestions., Aaron Parks is the real deal,
He plays many styles of Jazz and on other artist recordings. 

Haven't dipped into Jazz Fusion in quite awhile.
This is what makes streaming fun for me discovering new music!

@sgordon1 
@dougsat 
@tuberist

Someone should start a new thread...

"What contemporary Jazz Fusion are you listening to tonight?"

I'd love to learn about other albums similar to Aaron Park's Little Big.

FWIW - Alan Pasqua's Antisocial Club and also his Northern Lights might be of interest to you.

@ghosthouse 

Thanks for the tip on  Alan Pasqua's Antisocial Club.
Very Nice indeed.

@dougsat 
You are very welcome, Doug.  Glad you like it.  

I like Pasqua quite a bit.  Check out his "Northern Lights".  Not as "improvisational" as Anti-social Club, more conventional song oriented.  A bit akin to Aaron Parks' Invisible Cinema. 

Pasqua was in Tony Williams' Lifetime.  In that regard, check out "Blues for Tony" with Allan Holdsworth, Jimmy Haslip & Chad Wackerman.  Really good live recording...sound and music.  

There's no reason, given enough interest, this thread can't continue as an on-going resource on "modern fusion" recordings.  I'd have more to add and would appreciate ideas from others.  Getting too damn fussy in my old age (harder and harder to find stuff I like) so looking forward to some new ideas.  


  

Sounds like a great concert, @tvad . In the above, I didn’t connect the dots entirely because I accidentally left out Alan Pasqua who was part of the lineup doing that Blues for Tony album.

On a visit to LA years ago, my wife and I stopped in at the Baked Potato. Got to hear music (and eat a potato). Enjoyed the music quite a lot. No one "famous" ...house band with maybe a guest musician (not sure).
Is the Baked Potato gone?

Got anything to recommend by way of modern fusion?

Not exactly fusion but mostly instrumental.

Khruangbin

"Con Todo El Mundo"

Has caught my ear and attention of late too. 

Cheers.

Doug 

So many great suggestions! 

Some of you may like " A Comet is Coming".

More Electronic and Sun Ra like than fusion though.

Thanks @acman3 .  Will have to check that out.

I've been spending time with Tony Williams' post-fusion recordings.

Am enjoying "Civilization" quite a lot.  Acoustic jazz.  No electric guitar but plenty of energy.   

Ghosthouse, that late 80's band was really good. There are 2 or 3 more recordings right around that time you should listen to. 

Hello again @acman3 .

Just caught the TW/Civilization video you posted yesterday.  THANKS for that.  As far as other recordings by TW's "Civilization" quintet, I've saved a few as "favorites" in Tidal:  Foreign Intrigue, Native Heart, The Story of Neptune & Angel Street.  So far, of those, only Angel Street has drawn me back for more than one listen but Civilization was a must buy.  Located a reasonably priced NM copy on Discogs.  Shipped recently from the UK.

Are those titles (Foreign Intrigue, etc.) the ones you had in mind? 
Any that stand out to you??  

I really liked all the Wallace Roney, Bill Pierce, Front line and Muligrew Miller was awesome. I THINK I fell in love most with Native Heart, but it has been 20 years since I first heard these Gems, and honestly they run together in my head. Getting old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f3-MxYCbNg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUWeCsOgEYQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyeHUMap1Sw

Bill Bruford's Earthworks - The Sound of Surprise (2001).

Track 5 - Half-life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4tFODM4B80

Are you Hungry?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn6gjoMUEY4

Haha, @acman3 . 
Well, not at the moment and not chronically. 

I know little about Mehldau and nothing about Guiliana. 
Thanks for taking time to post the suggestion.  
(...well, I know enough to realize they qualify as "modern".)

@acman3 
Hmm... SQ on "Taming the Dragon" is very good; textures are interesting; synth'd. bass is a lot of fun.  More electronica than jazz.  Not sure how much time I'll invest in it.

Am interested in checking out Guiliana's Beat Music...see what that's about.  

Thanks again.

@dougsat
Magnus Ostrom (if you are familiar w/E.S.T.) - Parachute (2016).

2nd track here (Junas)....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMi7PHSF6_Y&list=OLAK5uy_lQSidKl6Bofya7SGVm3ZEOmIVvX8BazMI&i...

the JazzMann (review)
http://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/magnus-ostrom-parachute/

Excellent suggestions from everyone.

@ghosthouse - Listening to Magnus Öström on Tidal good stuff.

@tvad - My time frame (for my loosely named Modern Fusion) I suppose I was thinking of current recordings Artists that are still putting out new music. I listened to a lot of Fusion back in the late 70s and 80s so this newer modern Jazz (for lack of a better term) is capturing my ear.

So I’m not too hung up on what is considered "Fusion" as compared to the early days of the Genre.

As far as using Allmusic as a learning tool, I use it all the time.
Roon from what I here is also a great tool but I guess I am to fugal to pluck down $500 for software.

So while I’m at it here, a few more recent ones I am enjoying -

Ruby Rushton - "Ironsides"

Works For Me - "Reach Within"

Cheers

Someone should start a new thread...

"What contemporary Jazz Fusion are you listening to tonight?"

Ghost
That is an excellent idea.
We are waiting.......

Tvad
Long time Tidal and Qobuz streamer here although mostly Qobuz now due to what I perceive as superior SQ.
However Tidal does have a larger catalogue so I keep the lower tier active there.
$14.99 Qobuz and $9.99 Tidal per month compared to hundreds spent on CD and records is a great deal.

Oh wait....
I still blow hundreds on CD and records!
Doh!

😁😁

Five Peace Band Live (2009)
A "collaboration" between Corea and John McLaughlin w/Kenny Garrett (sax), Christian McBride (bass), Vinnie Colaiuta (drums). Is it jazz? Is it fusion? Touches on both of these and sure as heck is "modern". Listening to it for the first time...complex but accessible (so far) and I’m not even minding JM’s guitar work.

Chick Corea’s comments from his website:
"I decline to attempt to describe this music or give it a name. But I will say that it’s a music that is made by five musicians who don’t care about what it’s called or where it comes from or what are its “influences.” I will also say that we’ve just scratched the surface of what more might be done with this collaboration. So, humbly offered (but not so humbly played) is a selection of the performances from our first outing—22 concerts throughout Europe, fall of 2008.

Thom Jurek’s lengthy All Music Guide "review" is worth reading.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/five-peace-band-live-mw0000814498

@tvad - I have concert envy.  I always thought you were a West Coast guy.  But 10 years ago, now.  I guess you are allowed to move around :-)

@dougsat - This Ruby Rushton - Ironside is really working for me.  Totally off my radar.  Glad for the tip.   Enjoying the jazz flute and like Nick Waters trumpet quite a bit.  The drummer is great...propulsive without being a distraction (if that makes sense). Songs are a perfect blend of structure and improvisation.  Commendable "self-editing" in that none (and no ONE) overstay their welcome.  Someone definitely knows jazz and what they are doing.  Thank you very much.

Saved to favorites in Tidal but suspect this will become a "buy".

@uberwaltz “Oh wait....I still blow hundreds on CD and records!
Doh!”

Touche -LOL 

School of the Arts - s/t (a T Lavitz project; 2007)

Track 4 - Portrait
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uf425TIboE

Music From Our Soul - Charnett Moffett (2017)

An interesting stew of live and studio performances with an equally interesting mix of musicians including at various times:  Pharoah Sanders, Stanley Jordan, Tain Watts, and Cyrus Chestnut.  It ain't all fusion (Tracks 3 & 4 being Mood Indigo & So What, respectively) but it's definitely modern.  

Track 10 - Just Need Love (live track)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP1RH_Jp2Og
(great piano)

Charnett Moffett- 

Now there is a name from the past. I remember seeing Mr, Moffett
in Philly at a free concert when he first hit the scene.
BTW - Nice mellow Live cut - "Just need Love" 

Now that we are on the subject of bass players, how about a little
Christian McBride -   "Ham Hocks and Cabbage "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFZBHeJpEYY

Trio Jazz but boy does it swing!

Moffett has indeed been around for A while, Doug (though new to me)...over 30 years based on his discography.  
He's on that Tony Williams Civilization recording which is what led me to him.   

No expert on McBride.  I listened to Ham Hocks just now and enjoyed it.  Have you listened to Chick Corea's Trilogy?  Trio format as on Out Here.  McBride on Trilogy with Brian Blade as drummer.  

Looking for higher energy than on Just Need Love?  Try the preceeding track:  For Those Who Know.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpPSL4kICLo



 

Bill Bruford's Earthworks - Footloose & Fancy Free (2001; Live)

Track 6 - No Truce With The Furies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjjRhkC2oog

Yellowjackets - A Rise In The Road (2013)

Not fusion, but still....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImuJn7MRGQU

Simon Phillips - Protocol II (2013)

Great stuff - compositions, musicianship and sound quality.  

Simon Phillips - drums
Andy Timmons - guitar
Steve Weingart - keyboards
Ernest Tibbs - bass

Track 3 Gemini, here....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQc4lwDQMDA

Great call on the Simon Phillips/Protocol series!  You mentioned II.  Guitarist Andy Timmons cont'd with the band and recorded III but for IV, Phillips brought in guitar-slinger Greg Howe!  Really well recorded and played, hard charging Fusion with a groove, Simon Phillips is a monsta!;)

@chazro
@tvad
Glad to read the further comments about Simon Phillips. I wish I could credit the poster that first mentioned his Protocol recordings on a post to The Minority Report. Tried a search but did not find it.

Sounds like there is more to be gained by further exploration of SP's discography.

Just bought this.

Spinning Globe

Kazumi Watanabe/Jeff Berlin/Virgil Donati

https://www.prestomusic.com/jazz/products/8189779--spinning-globe

He is another one I like - 

Chick Corea and Steve Gadd

Chinese Butterfly 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OACPDaHIYQ

Alex Skolnick Trio
Transformation 

Another good one,

Keep em coming Dougsat.
I check this thread regularly for ideas for new to me stuff.
As I do all the music threads tbh.

Really dig this!

Dave Holland Prism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNzaYH0qCsc

Virgil Donati - Ruination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFRS7Mbhxco&list=OLAK5uy_n4k_-aasGWMKdUyX4MZP2415PmfJqI2lM

@aniwolfe 
Thanks for posting.  Sampled both.  The Donati, in particular, a tough listen.  Dave Holland's Prism a little friendlier to these ears but lost patience with the longish, slow paced intro.  Horses for courses....

From Special Treatment (2001), Jazz Pistols Track 2 "Odd Blues"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHow0xmP8es&list=RDosFQkXa_8Oo&index=24