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  • Essay / The Development of Jazz Music: Miles Davis and Frank Zappa

    Jazz music can always surprise the audience as to how the music could sound, because jazz always shows its great flexibility in combination with other styles of music and its great acceptability regarding new ideas. “In its earliest form, jazz showed an ability to assimilate blues, rag, marching and other idioms.” In contemporary times, some musicians combined jazz with rock, pop music, free funk, etc. The works they created, which began to emerge from the 1960s, belong to a new genre called jazz fusion. Jazz fusion brought audiences a new type of aesthetic experience and encouraged musicians of that era to create many special pieces. In “Bitches Brew,” Miles Davis mixes rock elements with jazz music; in Panic! and Weasels Ripped My Flesh, Frank Zappa created music that gives people totally different feelings although both are jazz fusion albums; and in Weather Report's Heavy Weather album, they combined jazz with funk and R&B music and gave each member the opportunity to improvise. Jazz fusion, as a general concept, only shows people that music represents an idea of ​​combining the characteristics of two or more types of music to create new and special works that have the musicians' personal icon and can better express their emotions. If we explore each type of combination, we might discover that each new type is so special in its goals, use of instruments, emotional expression. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay When jazz fusion is mentioned, people will probably think of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew first, due to its importance, the jazz-rock fusion music and its incredible composition and arrangement. The first time I listened to this song, I felt like it sounded like jazz because it includes a lot of improvisation and some of the melodies sound disharmonic and chaotic. However, the rhythms of the song played by the drum and bass are much more powerful than the rhythms of jazz music I have heard before, and this reflects the influence of rock music on Bitches Brew. Bitches Brew could probably be the most notable album that marked the emergence of jazz-rock music, and its features of both rhythm and improvisation can be considered innovations. The musical instruments used in this song in response to the rhythm section include a guitar. a bass, a double bass, three drums, two electric pianos and a percussion instrument were played at the same time during the recording. The rhythm section plays an important role in the overall music, much like the music of a rock band, and the soloists, Miles and Wayne Shorter, who played trumpet and soprano saxophone, could have more freedom and space to improvise and express yourself. When recording the record, Davis focused on the spontaneous interaction between each player, instead of giving numerous instructions on what they were going to play. This decision also made the improv part of Bitches Brew very special. Frank Zappa is also a representative figure of jazz fusion active from the 1960s to the 1990s. However, his music gives people a very different feeling from Davis' music. As a musician who did not receive much musical training, Zappa had a hybrid style of music that was difficult to clearly categorize. Although his music generally gives.