Rock History

Jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton and Larry Coryell collaborated on Duster back in ’67 evoking wider use of the term ‘jazz rock’ and stimulating broader appreciation for what was then a very fresh-sounding new genre that fused jazz and rock. Coryell can certainly be credited with attracting guitarists from both sides of the fence to the jazz rock scene but Miles Davis’ highly improvisational Bitches Brew with John McLaughlin (recorded in ’69) blew minds and made jazz rock history. Listen carefully and you can hear Miles snapping fingers to set tempos, assigning solos to players and whispering direction such as, “Keep it tight.”