50 years of fusion: Remembering Miles Davis

Few jazz musicians’ names are as iconic as ‘Miles Davis.’ He’s an eight-time Grammy Award winner, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and has albums have been named in Time Magazine’s top 100 albums of all time. Rising to prominence in the 1950s, Davis’ jazz music revolutionized the genre through its structure, personality and fusion.

Fifty years ago today, he released his album, “Miles in the Sky.” It features four songs, with a runtime of 51 minutes.

The disc fuses elements from traditional jazz music and rock. While finding consistent melodies is difficult, each song has an identifiable rhythm kept by a drum, cymbal or electric piano that the instruments play around. Layered on top of the base-rhythm are spirited performances on the trumpet by Wayne Shorter, scattered cymbal and drum beats by Tony Williams, subtle sounds of bass by Ron Carter and boppy electric piano by the legendary Herbie Hancock.

Compared to contemporary hits, this album sounds far less clean. The music came from a live band versus a beat machine, which lead to an unpolished feel. Instruments abruptly switch octaves and tempos, while subtle noises constantly ring in the background.

But each beat, rhythm and sound is important. They combine to form the trademark of jazz: organized chaos.

This is Davis’ trademark especially. He experiments by fusing elements of rock into more traditional jazz music. What seems like a combination of polar opposites results in a style which, according to Davis, “changed music five or six times.” As with every revolution, this musical innovation was at first met with some resistance by the fans in 1968 — and myself a few days ago.

But I found the impact of this style of music can be seen today in Drake’s most recent album, “Scorpion”. Fusing elements of rap, soul and R&B — three conflicting sounds that don’t usually go together — his album broke streaming records. Just as Miles transitioned between sounds, rhythms and genres, so does Drake, a lasting sign of the style’s success.

And many other contemporary rap albums are praised for seamlessly combining dissonant styles, whether it’s an electro-rock fusion on “Yeezus” by Kanye West, a funk fusion on “To Pimp a Butterfly” by Kendrick Lamar or R&B fusions on “Take Care” by Drake.

Without Davis pioneering jazz fusion in the ‘60s, perhaps artists such as Drake wouldn’t use similar techniques in their own music.

Davis revolutionized music, not only through the fusion of rhythms and instruments, but the genuine emotion he communicated with them. He used fusion as a tool and spent his career creating songs that truly reflected how he felt. This spirit has inspired musicians — and listeners — of all generations, and his music leaves us with lessons we can continually learn from, even 50 years later.