Jazz metal

Reverend

John Zorn has done a fair bit of jazz metal. Later Atheist albums and Cynic had a major fusion influence.

Moominpapa

Reverend said:

John Zorn has done a fair bit of jazz metal. Later Atheist albums and Cynic had a major fusion influence.

Saw John Zorn in Leeds in 1989 (I think) doing his thrash/speed jazz with the 'Naked City' band (inc. Bill Frisell and Fred Frith - I didn't know at the time what a range of talent was on the stage before me). Lots of small pieces, some less than a minute, played at blistering speed. To be honest I think most of the audience hated it. I was trying to appreciate it as something arty and different but I was having some trouble, too. Funniest part of the evening was the encore. After the sonic assault they had resolutely stuck to for the entire eveening (and props to Zorn for having the courage to do so in the face of a very lukewarm audience), he cheekily played the theme to "You Only Live Twice", at normal speed, and with great beauty. Not sure whther it was a big iroinic 'fuck you' to the audience or just a way to say 'see we can play melodies, too' but it was a surreal and serence moment.

RobDavies

I always thought Celtic Frost's Into The Pandemonium album had some Jazz elements....?

Aidanspaghetti

Was only listening to Shaun Baxter yesterday.... Pulled out an old issue of GTwith the bird man solo transcribed...

Blueingreen

Saw Zorn in Rotterdam in 2009 iirc with another staggeringly strong line-up including Marc Ribot, Uri Caine, Jamie Saft and others.  Not sure I'd have called it jazz metal though, there were definitely heavy rock elements but it was a bit too stylistically varied/experimental to be labelled very easily.

Bucket

Cynic are the kiiiiiiings:

Loads of glassy clean guitars, wonderful fretless bass playing, bizarre chords, brain-melting time signatures, and a mix of vocoder and screamed vocals... truly strange, but it all comes together brilliantly. And the solo at 3:50 in this track is just wonderful.

viz

Does Greg Howe count? If so, this is one of his more famous ones, Jump Start off the Introspection album.

 

english_bob

Metal in the Sabbath sense rather than the Slipknot kind, but the first couple of Mahavishnu Orchestra albums are well worth a listen. Also Miles Davis' Dark Magus album.

HollowAxis

Moss said:

Shining are Black Jazz

Came to mention Shining too.
They mix both elements well.

I think In the Kingdom Of Kitsch is one of the best albums of the 2000s

equalsql

viz said:

Does Greg Howe count? If so, this is one of his more famous ones, Jump Start off the Introspection album.

 

^^^ THIS ^^^

Megii

Moominpapa said:

Reverend said:

John Zorn has done a fair bit of jazz metal. Later Atheist albums and Cynic had a major fusion influence.

Saw John Zorn in Leeds in 1989 (I think) doing his thrash/speed jazz with the 'Naked City' band (inc. Bill Frisell and Fred Frith - I didn't know at the time what a range of talent was on the stage before me). Lots of small pieces, some less than a minute, played at blistering speed. To be honest I think most of the audience hated it. I was trying to appreciate it as something arty and different but I was having some trouble, too. Funniest part of the evening was the encore. After the sonic assault they had resolutely stuck to for the entire eveening (and props to Zorn for having the courage to do so in the face of a very lukewarm audience), he cheekily played the theme to "You Only Live Twice", at normal speed, and with great beauty. Not sure whther it was a big iroinic 'fuck you' to the audience or just a way to say 'see we can play melodies, too' but it was a surreal and serence moment.

@Moominpapa - I was at that gig! Leeds Trades Hall I think? They were, IIRC, doing Zorn's thing where he has all these segments of music written on cards, and then they pick cards at random and put them together, and perform the result. So you'd get 20 seconds of country, followed by a burst of thrash metal, followed by some disco etc. etc. I did enjoy the gig myself, and Frisell was brilliant, although I wouldn't say it was my favourite thing in particular. My mate actually recorded the gig on a portable high-quality Walkman he had, and I still have a copy of the resulting tape - I guess it's long enough after the event that I won't get prosecuted for saying that.

Moominpapa

Megii said:

Moominpapa said:

Reverend said:

John Zorn has done a fair bit of jazz metal. Later Atheist albums and Cynic had a major fusion influence.

Saw John Zorn in Leeds in 1989 (I think) doing his thrash/speed jazz with the 'Naked City' band (inc. Bill Frisell and Fred Frith - I didn't know at the time what a range of talent was on the stage before me). Lots of small pieces, some less than a minute, played at blistering speed. To be honest I think most of the audience hated it. I was trying to appreciate it as something arty and different but I was having some trouble, too. Funniest part of the evening was the encore. After the sonic assault they had resolutely stuck to for the entire eveening (and props to Zorn for having the courage to do so in the face of a very lukewarm audience), he cheekily played the theme to "You Only Live Twice", at normal speed, and with great beauty. Not sure whther it was a big iroinic 'fuck you' to the audience or just a way to say 'see we can play melodies, too' but it was a surreal and serence moment.

@Moominpapa - I was at that gig! Leeds Trades Hall I think? They were, IIRC, doing Zorn's thing where he has all these segments of music written on cards, and then they pick cards at random and put them together, and perform the result. So you'd get 20 seconds of country, followed by a burst of thrash metal, followed by some disco etc. etc. I did enjoy the gig myself, and Frisell was brilliant, although I wouldn't say it was my favourite thing in particular. My mate actually recorded the gig on a portable high-quality Walkman he had, and I still have a copy of the resulting tape - I guess it's long enough after the event that I won't get prosecuted for saying that.

Yes, you're right about the cards - I'd forgotten about those: a sort of William Burroughs approach to songwriting. I also seem to recall that the gig started a little late because Zorn had come up with some new numbers and was having the band run through them for the first time just before the concert! He had the musicians to do that, though.

Moominpapa

Megii said:

Moominpapa said:

Reverend said:

John Zorn has done a fair bit of jazz metal. Later Atheist albums and Cynic had a major fusion influence.

Saw John Zorn in Leeds in 1989 (I think) doing his thrash/speed jazz with the 'Naked City' band (inc. Bill Frisell and Fred Frith - I didn't know at the time what a range of talent was on the stage before me). Lots of small pieces, some less than a minute, played at blistering speed. To be honest I think most of the audience hated it. I was trying to appreciate it as something arty and different but I was having some trouble, too. Funniest part of the evening was the encore. After the sonic assault they had resolutely stuck to for the entire eveening (and props to Zorn for having the courage to do so in the face of a very lukewarm audience), he cheekily played the theme to "You Only Live Twice", at normal speed, and with great beauty. Not sure whther it was a big iroinic 'fuck you' to the audience or just a way to say 'see we can play melodies, too' but it was a surreal and serence moment.

@Moominpapa - I was at that gig! Leeds Trades Hall I think? They were, IIRC, doing Zorn's thing where he has all these segments of music written on cards, and then they pick cards at random and put them together, and perform the result. So you'd get 20 seconds of country, followed by a burst of thrash metal, followed by some disco etc. etc. I did enjoy the gig myself, and Frisell was brilliant, although I wouldn't say it was my favourite thing in particular. My mate actually recorded the gig on a portable high-quality Walkman he had, and I still have a copy of the resulting tape - I guess it's long enough after the event that I won't get prosecuted for saying that.

Yes, you're right about the cards - I'd forgotten about those: a sort of William Burroughs approach to songwriting. I also seem to recall that the gig started a little late because Zorn had come up with some new numbers and was having the band run through them for the first time just before the concert! He had the musicians to do that, though.

Megii

Moominpapa said:

Megii said:

Moominpapa said:

Reverend said:

John Zorn has done a fair bit of jazz metal. Later Atheist albums and Cynic had a major fusion influence.

Saw John Zorn in Leeds in 1989 (I think) doing his thrash/speed jazz with the 'Naked City' band (inc. Bill Frisell and Fred Frith - I didn't know at the time what a range of talent was on the stage before me). Lots of small pieces, some less than a minute, played at blistering speed. To be honest I think most of the audience hated it. I was trying to appreciate it as something arty and different but I was having some trouble, too. Funniest part of the evening was the encore. After the sonic assault they had resolutely stuck to for the entire eveening (and props to Zorn for having the courage to do so in the face of a very lukewarm audience), he cheekily played the theme to "You Only Live Twice", at normal speed, and with great beauty. Not sure whther it was a big iroinic 'fuck you' to the audience or just a way to say 'see we can play melodies, too' but it was a surreal and serence moment.

@Moominpapa - I was at that gig! Leeds Trades Hall I think? They were, IIRC, doing Zorn's thing where he has all these segments of music written on cards, and then they pick cards at random and put them together, and perform the result. So you'd get 20 seconds of country, followed by a burst of thrash metal, followed by some disco etc. etc. I did enjoy the gig myself, and Frisell was brilliant, although I wouldn't say it was my favourite thing in particular. My mate actually recorded the gig on a portable high-quality Walkman he had, and I still have a copy of the resulting tape - I guess it's long enough after the event that I won't get prosecuted for saying that.

Yes, you're right about the cards - I'd forgotten about those: a sort of William Burroughs approach to songwriting. I also seem to recall that the gig started a little late because Zorn had come up with some new numbers and was having the band run through them for the first time just before the concert! He had the musicians to do that, though.

Apologies @Moominpapa - I didn't get a notification, so didn't realise you'd replied. Funny to remember back to that gig though - my pal and me were both at Leeds College of Music at the time, doing the jazz course, and he was doing his final year project on Bill Frisell - so he'd also been granted an interview with BF earlier in the day - I remember him playing me the resulting tape, which was kind of excruciating to listen to, because a) he asked quite a few stupid questions, and b) Bill Frisell is a man of very few words, and would sometimes pause for a minute or so to consider his replies. I also remember my mate asked me if I could take a photo of Bill's effects setup, so at the end of the gig I  jumped up on stage, rushed over and took a pic of a few Boss pedals (which came out all blurred) and then got unceremoniously booted off by a rather intimidating, and angry roady.

Around the same time I can also remember going to see gigs for Mike Stern, and John Scofield, at the same venue - fantastic stuff. I still have a signed vinyl copy of Scofield's "Loud Jazz" from then.

Teetonetal

randomhandclaps said:

Fretwired said:

axisus said:

I bought Shaun Baxter's Jazz Metal when it came out. Excellent record. Seen him live as well.

Too bad he hasn't released more stuff (well, I don't think he has??)

He was involved in a serious car accident - as I recall he stationary at a set of traffic lights when a car smashed into the back of him. It derailed his guitar playing. I've not heard from him for years.

I think he ended up with acute tinnitus so wasn't able to tour or record due to noise aggravation.  I assume/hope he was still able to physically play so probably spent the type brushing up one his already amazing technique. 

Was one of his students at GIT, so I got to see him and Dave K play on a regular basis, his critique was fearsome

Saw him perform the Jazz Metal stuff at a guitar show at Earls Court in 96 I think. Seriously extraordinary player. 

Doesn't he own and run a guitar school chain these days? Not sure if he still writes for GT as I've not read that in years.

GuyBoden

GuyBoden

Thanks, I've checked out Shaun Baxter.

GuyBoden

This?