Jazz-Rock? Rock-Jazz? Stylistic Crossover in Late-1970s American Progressive Rock |
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John Covach |
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A version of this article originally appeared in Expressions in Pop-Rock Music, ed. Walter Everett (New York: Garland, 2000), 113-34.
Introduction: Crossing Over The
term "crossover" arises frequently in writing about
post-World-War-II popular music; it is perhaps most familiar from
discussions of the early years of Rock and Roll, in which crossover is an
important phenomenon that helps account for the rise Rock and Roll in the
1950s out of a combination of Rhythm and Blues, Country and Western, and
mainstream Pop elements. In
this common usage, crossover refers to the marketing of recordings as
reflected by charts published in music-industry magazines, and especially Billboard.[1]
These charts rank hit records (Billboard's Top 40, for
instance) and were originally designed to help business people at record
labels, radio stations, record stores, and distribution centers assess
current trends with an eye toward anticipating future opportunity and
demand. The charts thus
attempted to represent which songs are popular while providing a rough
sense of the kind of listener to which a record appealed.
For this second purpose, listeners were--and to some extent
continue to be--divided along economic, geographic, and racial lines.
Pop charts tracked records directed at a middle-class white
audience, while the Rhythm and Blues charts followed records intended for
urban black audiences and Country and Western charts followed those made
for rural white listeners. Whenever
a record appears on more than one of these charts--on both the Pop and
R&B charts, for instance--one says that it "crosses over." This is, strictly speaking, only a fact in regard to the
consumption aspect of the music in question (as much as charts ever
reflect facts, that is); a crossover hit may be assumed to appeal to two
distinguishable listening audiences.
Chart crossover is not necessarily a reliable indicator in matters
of musical style, however; a record can certainly cross over on the charts
while remaining absolutely true to a single style, and the earliest
R&B crossovers in the mid 1950s a good example of this.
Little Richard, for instance, was not straddling a stylistic border
between R&B and Pop with tunes like "Tutti Frutti" and
"Lucille"; he was, however, crossing audience borders when his
songs appealed to both black (R&B) and middle-class white (Pop)
audiences.
Thus, it makes sense to distinguish
between crossover in the domain of marketing ("chart
crossover"), and crossover in the domain of musical style
("stylistic crossover"). Crossover
hits can work to change the style into which they cross over--as
did Richard's hits--but they need not always cross over in a stylistic
sense. In fact, here lies an important distinction between a cover
version and a crossover: the cover version (a song that is re-recorded by
another artist) does tend to be more likely to feature stylistic
crossover, since the idea of a cover is often to assimilate a song from
one style into another. As
much sport as there may be in picking on Pat Boone's covers of Little
Richard and Fats Domino songs, his versions do blend Rhythm and Blues into
the mainstream Pop style of the 1950s.
Boone's covers clearly straddle the two styles far more than
Richard's or Fats' originals do, effecting stylistic crossover where no
real chart crossover was present (since Boone's records were always
targeted at a Pop audience).
This study focuses on the second kind of
crossover discussed above, stylistic crossover, and explores how pieces
can refer simultaneously to at least two styles that are usually thought
to be distinct from one another--a situation that often makes stylistic
identification a slippery but at the same time fascinating task.
The two styles with which I will be especially concerned in what
follows are 1970s progressive rock ("prog") and 1970s jazz-rock
(or "fusion"). After
providing a brief summary of these two styles, I will focus on the music
of two late-1970s American groups, Happy the Man and the Dixie Dregs.
I will argue that the music of each group is a stylistic hybrid:
Happy the Man is easier to situate stylistically (their music is
progressive rock with pronounced fusion characteristics), while the Dregs'
music is such an eclectic blend as to defy easy categorization
("progressive-fusion-country-chamber rock"?).
Both groups emerge out of a distinctively American scene in the mid
1970s that celebrates instrumental prowess and virtuosity, and it is this
characteristic that allows for a blending of jazz rock with progressive
rock. In this sense, then, I
will argue that the music of both groups can be seen as crossing over
stylistically.[2] Progressive
Rock and Jazz Rock Before
taking up the music of these two American bands, let us first briefly
consider the history of progressive rock and jazz fusion.
Progressive rock, sometimes called "art rock" or
"classical rock," was developed mostly by British groups in the
late 1960s and early-to-mid 1970s--groups like Yes, Genesis, King Crimson,
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Jethro Tull, and Gentle Giant.[3]
This music is characterized by a pronounced attempt to blend
European classical music with rock. Emerging out of the music of the late Beatles, and their Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) especially, progressive rock
celebrated virtuosity, musical complexity, and an engagement with big
philosophical and religious ideas as topics for ambitious concept albums
like Yes' Tales from Topographic Oceans (1973), Jethro Tull's Thick
as a Brick (1972), Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery
(1973), and Genesis' A Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974).
In fact, it is this very kind of musical and poetic ambition that
both attracted young musicians to the style and caused certain critics to
hate the style with a passion; rock-critic Lester Bangs, for instance,
once called for Emerson, Lake & Palmer to be tried as war criminals (Macan
1997, 167). Prog musicians
Steve Howe and Robert Fripp on guitar, Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, and
Patrick Moraz on keyboards, Chris Squire on bass, and Phil Collins and
Bill Bruford on drums enjoyed tremendous respect among a slightly younger
generation of budding rock instrumentalists, especially in the United
States; and this is borne out by readers' polls in various magazines such
as Guitar Player, for instance, in which Yes' Steve Howe quickly
won in the Best Overall Guitarist category five years in a row (1977-81),
being retired to the magazine's Gallery of Greats in 1981 where his name
currently resides along with those of Andrés Segovia, Chet Atkins, Eric
Clapton, and others of such legendary stature.[4]
For many young musicians in the early
1970s, prog rock was viewed as a style that encouraged a player to become
the most accomplished instrumentalist he or she could.
An important characteristic of most prog was at least some focus on
singing, and vocal arrangements at times could be very elaborate; this
music was, after all, often built up around post-Beatles-type rock songs.
For musicians who were not particularly concerned with the vocal
aspect of music, jazz rock offered a style that was exclusively dedicated
to instrumental playing itself--no back-up vocal harmonies to worry about
and no temperamental lead singers writing lyrics about starship hobbits
from the south side of the sky. It
is, in fact, hardly coincidental that as prog was emerging out of the
psychedelic haze of the late 1960s, Miles Davis was developing a fusion of
rock and jazz. Miles's In
a Silent Way (1969) and Bitches Brew (1970) LPs launched the
jazz-rock fusion style, as Miles band members like John McLaughlin, Chick
Corea, Joe Zawinul, and Tony Williams went on to form the most influential
fusion ensembles of the decade: the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to
Forever, Weather Report, and Lifetime.[5]
And in a parallel manner to the progressive-rock musicians, fusion
guitarists John McLaughlin, Larry Coryell, and Al DiMiola, keyboardists
Chick Corea and Jan Hammer, bassists Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius,
and drummer Billy Cobham were celebrated in the jazz categories of the
same magazines that featured the progressive-rock musicians.
Like Steve Howe, for instance, Al DiMeola was voted in Guitar
Player's Gallery of Greats 1981 after winning first place in the best
jazz guitarist category five years in a row.[6]
And like the progressive rockers, the fusion musicians endured
attacks from hostile critics who thought that these musicians had sold out
a basic tenet of their style; if the progressive rockers were accused of
selling out the visceral thrill of good ol' rock and roll, the fusion
players were accused of not swinging--after all, what were all these odd
meters and straight eighths doing in jazz anyway?[7]
Thus, while progressive rock and fusion
are often discussed in isolation from one another, the two styles shared
many of the same kinds of aspirations as well as endured similar types of
criticism.[8]
These parallels generally had a greater effect on the younger
generation of musicians who modeled themselves on the principal figures of
the two styles than it did on the founders themselves, however: while it
is unlikely that John McLaughlin would have cared to replace Steve Howe in
Yes and even more unlikely that Howe would have played in the Mahavishnu
Orchestra or Return to Forever, it was fairly common for young guitarists
to emulate both Howe and McLaughlin, or say, emulate both Chick Corea and
Keith Emerson.[9]
There were, of course, many players who did not cross party lines
from jazz to rock, but still, there was plenty of common ground among the
listenership of the two styles.[10]
It is also important to acknowledge that there were in fact
significant differences between the two styles, lest anyone get the idea
that 1970s prog and jazz rock were pretty much the same music--one with
vocals and one without. In
terms of the issue of stylistic crossover, it is indeed essential that
there be clear distinguishing characteristics between the two styles; for
if the styles cannot be distinguished from one another, it is impossible
for any single passage or piece to cross between them.
Perhaps we might imagine fusion and prog stylistically as two
circles that intersect (in the manner of a Venn diagram): it is in the
area of intersection that crossover occurs, and in any consideration of
stylistic crossover it is important to determine both the characteristics
of each circle as well as those at the point of intersection, and it is to
those moments of stylistic intersection that we will now turn. Return
to Forever, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Yes The
kinds of general stylistic similarities that can be found between jazz
rock and progressive rock are reinforced when certain specific passages,
pieces, or entire albums from the leading groups in both prog rock and
fusion seem to cross over. A
good example of this is "Medieval Overture," the opening track
on the 1976 Return to Forever LP, Romantic Warrior, which finds
jazz-rockers Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola, and Lenny White
crossing over into progressive rock in a marked manner.[11]
The piece is composed by Chick Corea and built up from a number
strongly contrasting sections that create an episodic formal structure.
The first of these sections (0:00-0:49, see figure 1) features a
brisk ostinato pattern established by Corea on the synthesizer that might
be notated rhythmically as two measures of 10/8 (2 + 2 + 3 + 3) followed
by a measure of 16/8 (2 + 2+ 3 + 3 + 3 + 3).
After twice through this pattern the electric guitar, bass, and
drums enter, with the guitar and bass playing a series of riffs that are
rhythmically aligned yet melodically contrasting to Corea's ostinato and
establish the key of a minor. Corea
then initiates a brief transition on synthesizer--four measures in 4/4
time based in part on a stepwise whole-tone descent (in thirds) from Bb to
D followed by an ascending return to Bb and played twice (0:50-1:01).
This passage contrasts strongly with the material that has preceded
it, as well as with the next important section that begins at 1:12 (White
provides eight measures of 4/4 on the drums to drive toward this arrival
point [1:01-1:12]). The new
section (1:12-1:36) features a return to A minor with melodic riffs played
by the keyboards, guitar, and bass that are answered by drum fills in a
call-and-response manner. 0:00-0:49
A section ostinato
in kybd.; riffs in gtr/bs
A minor 0:50-1:12
transition whole tone kybd then drums
whole tone
on Bb 1:12-1:36
B section kybd,
gtr, bs riffs vs drums
A
minor 1:36-2:01
transition "church organ" and
synth
A minor to E minor 2:02-2:30
C section chromatic gtr and bs in
counterpoint chromatic
around E 2:30-4:16
D section theme
and bs solo
A mixolydian 4:17-4:49
A' section ostinato
in kybd; riffs in gtr/bs
A minor 4:49-5:10
Codetta features reprise of
first transition
A minor Figure
1: Formal design of Return to Forever's "Medieval Overture" Already in the first 96 seconds of this track, then, Return to Forever has presented the listener with three contrasting and carefully arranged sections in rapid-fire succession. Following on the heels of this comes yet a fourth section (1:36-2:01), this one featuring Corea playing a soaring, angular melody on the synthesizer to the accompaniment of a synthetic organ patch, modulating from A minor to E minor while employing a rubato feel and creating an eerie affect that makes an unmistakable reference to classical organ music (though perhaps the reference is more to a Phantom-of-the-Opera-like caricature of "spooky" organ music). The section that follows (2:02-2:30) features DiMeola's fuzz-box guitar meandering chromatically in a Bartók-esque manner to the accompaniment of a creeping bass line by Clarke. The rest of the piece does not continue to present new music as quickly as this first two-and-a-half minutes does; there is a Stanley Clarke bass solo over a theme that is first introduced melodically at 2:30 and this section extends to 4:16. At 4:17 the group brings back the first section in a revised form, and this and a brief coda bring the track to an end at 5:10.[12]
While the references to classical
music--and especially to a vague sense of orchestral grandeur--might be
enough in themselves to make for stylistic crossover, the juxtaposition of
complex, "composed" sections are the key ingredient that pushes
"Medieval Overture" to the stylistic boundary that might be
thought to separate jazz rock and progressive rock.
Except for Clarke's bass solo, the piece is tightly arranged with
the musicians playing fixed parts that are not likely to change from
performance to performance, and this highly arranged aspect of the music
is drawn from prog, where almost any passage from Yes, Gentle Giant, King
Crimson and many others could be brought forward as an example.
In fact, Stuart Nicholson (1998, 202) views much of Return to
Forever's music from the mid 1970s as influenced by progressive rock,
citing features such as "pompous themes, a preoccupation with speed
and execution for its own sake, a reliance on the latest electronic
equipment, and a shared spiritual and/or cosmic preoccupation."
He even suggests that Romantic Warrior as a whole is "a
riposte to Rick Wakeman's Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table of 1975" (202).[13]
The album does employ the concept-album approach by keeping with
the medieval theme (in which the album art--a knight in armor on
horseback--also participates); subsequent tracks are titled
"Sorceress," "The Romantic Warrior," "Majestic
Dance," "The Magician," and "Duel of the Jester and
the Tyrant." Despite
such obvious similarities between the two records, Nicholson may overstate
his case somewhat. Stylistically
speaking, there are an abundance of passages on Romantic Warrior
that would never be mistaken for prog (including most of the two tracks
that immediately follow "Medieval Overture"), making the album
as a whole a fusion LP that at times crosses over into prog.
The music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra is
also central to the 1970s fusion scene. As a guitarist, John McLaughlin was known for his great speed
and agility in soloing, often employing pentatonic scales that fit
comfortably under the hand within single-position fingerings. As a composer, the McLaughlin of the 1970s worked at
integrating materials drawn from Indian music into jazz, as well as
building up pieces from synthetic scales.
The result is a kind of Ravi Shankar meets John Coltrane hybrid,
and the 1971 track "Dance of Maya" is a representative example
of this approach. The piece
is built up from a lengthy arpeggiated chord progression; the sonorities
found in this progression are based a simpler two-chord model that
features two tritones a half step apart (see figure 2a).
These two tritones can be seen as implying dominant-seventh-type
chords ascending by the interval of a perfect fourth, with a G pedal tone
that is dissonant within the first sonority but consonant within the
second. This two-chord
succession is then sequenced at various pitch levels to create a kind of
creeping chromaticism in the bass and upper voice (figure 2b).
This passage is set in a meter of 10/8, and McLaughlin uses
distortion and wah-wah pedal on the electric guitar in a way that is more
likely to conjure up images of Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton than of Tal
Farlow or Barney Kessel. It
is interesting to note that in his published full-score version of this
piece, McLaughlin describes the "Dance of Maya" as being based
on super-Locrian and octatonic scales based around E; the use of the
octatonic scale is especially noteworthy here, since this symmetrical
scale crosses many stylistic boundaries in twentieth-century music. Figure
2: a) two-chord model; b) the first six chords of the piece's chord
progression
Unlike the music of Return to Forever discussed above, the music of
McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra does not really crossover into prog in a
marked fashion. It is, rather, a strong influence on certain prog musicians
and helps to account for many moments when prog crosses over into fusion.
An example of this can be found in a number of passages from the
1975 Yes album, Relayer, especially the track entitled "Sound
Chaser." At 3:01, for
instance, guitarist Steve Howe tears into an aggressive and angular
electric-guitar cadenza, employing the
symmetrical character of the octatonic scale to create a non-tonal musical
environment that is not very far removed from the one created by John
McLaughlin on "The Dance of Maya" or on similar tracks such as
"Meeting of the Spirits." While
Howe's solo is ultimately a kind of psychedelic, post-tonal, Flamenco
hybrid stylistically, the general harmonic and melodic language he employs
creates a similar musical affect to the one created frequently by
McLaughlin through his use of synthetic and exotic scales.[14]
A Patrick Moraz Moog synthesizer solo at
7:46 seems to draw heavily on Jan Hammer's MiniMoog style, and perhaps to
a certain extent that of Chick Corea.
Moraz plays a quick succession of fast runs, "bending"
and modulating the pitch of certain held notes to create an emulation of a
string bend and vibrato on the electric guitar.
It is noteworthy how different this Moraz solo is stylistically
from anything Rick Wakeman ever played with Yes, or even anything that
came from Genesis' Tony Banks, and this marked departure from the
progressive-rock norm further underscores the stylistic crossover present
here. In fact, the opening
moments of this track prominently feature Moraz playing a series of fast
runs and dramatic chords on the Fender Rhodes piano--the electric piano of
choice for almost all fusion keyboardists at the time but an instrument
almost completely absent from most progressive rock.
In the discussion above there is perhaps
a danger in exaggerating the similarities between fusion and prog; it
would certainly be possible, for example, to present another collection of
excerpts from Romantic Warrior, The Inner Mounting Flame, and Relayer
that would emphasize the clear differences between the two styles (and
that such examples could be readily produced explains to some degree why
many writers have not thought to link the two styles more than they have
to date). The main purpose in
highlighting these particular examples, however, is to suggest how young
musicians listening to both kinds of records could have imagined a style
that crosses over more thoroughly than these models do--a style which is
more securely poised between prog and fusion.
In fact, the members of Happy the Man and the Dixie Dregs were just
such musicians; these were a younger group of players who did not see any
need to choose between the two styles and their music reflects this.
Let us first turn our attention to Happy the Man.
Happy
the Man and The Dixie Dregs The
Washington, D.C.-based Happy the Man released two albums during their time
together (see fig. 3 below).[15]
The first, Happy the Man, appeared in 1977 and the second, Crafty
Hands, was released in 1978. After
being dropped by their label, Arista, the group recorded a final demo LP
in late 1979, which was released as Happy the Man Third, "Better
Late . . ." in 1983 on a label (Azimuth) run by the group's
keyboardist Kit Watkins. The
beginnings of the Happy the Man story go back to the early 1970s.[16]
Guitarist Stanley Whitaker and bassist Rick Kennell met on a US
Army base in West Germany in 1972. Whitaker,
then a high-school student and member of the group Shady Grove, had
developed an interest in the European prog groups.
From his location in Europe, Whitaker was exposed not only to the
music of Genesis, Yes, and ELP, but also to groups that were not very well
known in the States at the time, among them Gentle Giant, Van der Graaf
Generator, and Gong. Whitaker graduated high school and began as a student at
James Madison University in Virginia in the fall of 1972. Soon Kennell relocated to Harrisonburg, and Whitaker,
keyboardist David Bach, and Kennell joined forces with drummer Mike Beck
and singer Cliff Fortney. By
January of 1973 Bach had decided to leave the newly formed group to focus
on his music studies, and keyboardists Kit Watkins and Frank Wyatt joined
the group; with this latest personnel adjustment, the first Happy the Man
line-up was in place. Fortney
would leave the group before the first Arista LP, to be replaced by Dan
Owen, who would likewise depart before the group's first commercial
release.
Albums:
Happy the Man.
Arista AL 4120, 1977. (Michael Beck, drums)
Crafty Hands.
Arista AB 4191, 1978. (Ron Riddle, drums)
Happy the Man 3rd: "Better Late . . ."
Azimuth AZ 1003, 1983. (Coco Roussel, drums)
Tapes:
Beginnings.
Cuneiform Records 55003, 1990. (Demo tapes from 1974-75.)
Live.
Linden Music LM 2021, 1994. (Live tape from 1978 using third line-up.)
Death's Crown
(1974). Cuneiform Records 55015, 1999. (live tape of a multi-media piece
featuring Happy the Man line-up with Dan Owen but without Stanley
Whitaker.) Group
formed in Harrisonburg, Virginia in 1972, and disbanded in 1979.
Rick Kennel (bass), Kit Watkins (keyboards), Stanley Whitaker
(guitar), Frank Wyatt (keyboards/sax); drummers indicated above in
parentheses. Figure
3: Happy the Man albums, tapes, and personnel
Tapes of the early versions of Happy the
Man reveal that the group was very much influenced by the British
progressive-rock groups; there are many moments that could even pass for
Genesis out-takes. It is
interesting in this regard that Happy the Man auditioned as Peter
Gabriel's back-up band in the period after Gabriel left Genesis, but,
according to guitarist Whitaker, the overall sound was a little to close
to that of Genesis for everybody's comfort.[17]
By the time the group recorded their first LP, they had decided
against having a singer front the group, concentrating instead on
instrumental music. Whitaker
was subsequently drafted as the group's singer during the recording of the
first album, but only on a couple of tracks (the hope was that vocals
might get the band a little more radio play).
The group's music is thus mostly instrumental, and in this regard
more like fusion than prog.
Three members of Happy the Man wrote
material for the group: guitarist Whitaker, keyboardist Watkins, and
keyboardist and sax player Frank Wyatt.
"Steaming Pipes," from the group's second LP, provides a
representative example of Stanley Whitaker's compositional style.
The piece is in 11/8,
the beats falling in a 4 + 3 + 4 pattern.
The rhythmic feel of the 11/8 this section is contrasted by a
second section in 6/8. Particularly
notable on this track is the way Kit Watkins' characteristic Mini-Moog
lines play off Whitaker's angular and Mahavishnu-styled arpeggios on the
guitar, doubled by electric harpsichord.
Figure 4 shows the chords that form the basis for the 11/8 section.
Note that the tritone, noted earlier in the "Dance of
Maya," is present in the upper two voices of Whitaker's chord
progression; while in McLaughlin's two-chord model the tritone moves
downward by half step, here the tritone descends by whole step.
The bass alternates between the tritone A - D# in the first chord,
the perfect fourth in the second, and the perfect fifth in the third,
creating a much less chromatic bass that can be found in "The Dance
of Maya." The band's
arrangement of "Steaming Pipes," like much progressive rock, is
highly structured: while both Whitaker and Watkins solo over both the 11/8
and 6/8 sections, the accompanying parts are set and unlikely to change
from performance to performance. I
will return below to a consideration of how live versions of this and
other Happy the Man works help mark an important distinction between the
band and thie fusion mentors, the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
For present purposes it will be enough to note a blending of
stylistic characteristics often associated with both fusion and prog.
Figure
4: Basic chords from the 11/8 section of "Steaming Pipes"
"Morning Sun" (also from the
group's second album) is a beautiful and haunting Kit Watkins number that
provides a representative example of his compositional tendencies.
Since I have discussed the technical aspects of this piece
elsewhere (Covach 1999, 29-31), I will only briefly touch on the aspects
of crossover in regard to this track.
The most obvious reference to fusion in this case is the prominence
of the arpeggios in the Fender Rhodes piano (doubled by the guitar).
The sustained synthetic orchestral-string backdrop creates a
delicate atmosphere that highlights the music's reference to Debussy's
music, especially in the use of augmented triads throughout the song and
in the free use of diatonic combinations.
The arrangement of "Morning Sun" consists mostly of
layered keyboards, with Watkins soloing over a repeated iterations of the
basic song structure, though there is also a section of the song
(2:31-3:00) in which Whitaker plays an acoustic steel-string guitar solo
against the orchestral keyboard textures.
As the guitar solo comes to a close, the drums make a dramatic
entrance and the song moves towards its close in a very measured, almost
stately manner. Here again, fusion elements are drawn into a prog context to
create a marked instance of stylistic crossover.
In regard to the form of the Whitaker and
Watkins tracks, these pieces follow a common fusion practice: after the
principal sections of the pieces are performed once or twice through, the
remainder of the track consists of soloing over these sections, sometimes
with a return to the "head" to conclude. In Happy the Man's music, there may be composed transitions
as well as endings that take the place of the standard return to the head
at the end of the tune, but it is still often the case that the tunes are
vehicles for soloing. The
music of the third composer in the group, Frank Wyatt, is less often
structured this way; Wyatt tended to write longer and more complicated
multi-sectional works. While
there is some soloing in these pieces, the parts are almost entirely
worked out to be performed the same way in each performance.
Wyatt's harmonic and melodic practice owes much to fusion, but he
is perhaps the group composer most indebted to progressive rock in his
"composerly" attitude towards his arrangements.
Let us now turn from the music of Happy
the Man to that of the Dixie Dregs; the Dregs offer a nice comparison to
Happy the Man in a number of ways. While
Happy the Man was initially modeled on the British progressive rock
groups, the Dregs were from the start modeled on the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
The instrumentation betrays this: like McLaughlin's band, the Dregs
employ guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and electric violin.
The group actually began as a rock combo in the University of
Miami's jazz program in 1973. According
to drummer Rod Morgenstein, "I was just living and breathing the
Mahavishnu Orchestra, and here I found Steve Morse, who was actually
writing in that style."[18]
Steve Morse wrote most of the group's material through the 1970s
and into the 1980s, and his debt to John McLaughlin can be heard clearly
in a number of Dregs tracks. But Morse also admits to a deep admiration for the playing of
Yes guitarist Steve Howe (who actually plays on a Dregs track, "Up in
the Air" from Industry Standard), making Morse the very kind
of crossover listener that was posited above.[19]
Albums:
Freefall.
Capricorn Records CPN 0189, 1977. (Steve Davidowski, kybds)
What If.
Capricorn Records CPN 0203, 1978. (Mark Parrish, keyboards)
Night of the Living Dregs.
Capricorn Records CPN 0216, 1979. (MP, kybds)
Dregs of the Earth.
Arista AL 9528, 1980. (T. Lavitz, keyboards)
Unsung Heroes.
Arista AL 9548, 1981. (TL, kybds)
Industry Standard.
Arista AL 9588, 1982. (TL, kybds; Mark O'Connor, vln)
Bring 'Em Back Alive.
Capricorn Records 9 42005-2, 1992. (Dave LaRue, bass; T. Lavitz, kybds;
Allen Sloan, vln)
Full Circle.
Capricorn Records 2-42021, 1994. (Jerry Goodman, vln; Dave LaRue, bass; T.
Lavitz, kybds)
Tapes:
Dixie Dregs.
King Biscuit Flower Hour Records 70710-88031-2, 1997.
(Live broadcast recorded 17 June 1979; T. Lavitz, kybds., Allen
Sloan, vln.) Group
formed in Miami, Florida in 1973, disbanded in 1982, and reformed in 1992.
Rod Morgenstein (drums), Steve Morse (guitar), Allen Sloan
(electric violin), Andy West (bass); all deviations from this line-up are
indicated above in parentheses. Figure
5: Dixie Dregs' albums, tapes, and personnel
In the context of the present discussion,
an important feature of Dixie Dregs music is that it blends together
aspects of prog and fusion. It
is important to note as well that there are more styles than these two
present in the band's music, and the wide range of styles to be found on
the group's 1978 release, What If, provides a representative
example. The influence of
both fusion and progressive rock can be heard in the album's second track,
Morse's "Odyssey." The
piece begins with a Mahavishnu-esque weaving chromatic melody that employs
dramatic chromatic-third-related chord pairs--A major to F major and G
major to Eb major (0:00-0:34). This
lyrical section gives way to a faster section in 13/8 (counted 7 + 6),
driven by a perpetual-motion bass and guitar line that modulates
constantly as a more sustained melodic line is layered above (0:35-1:28).
At 1:29-3:54, a section based on acoustic-guitar arpeggios that
play on a harmonic shift from C# minor seventh to A minor ninth (in the
context of E major) provide a repeated pattern over which an extended
violin solo occurs. This
solo is interrupted (2:56-3:11), however, with a strongly contrasting
passage employing "composed" parts for the band, before giving
way to a return to the more relaxed and improvisitory continuation of the
violin solo. While the piece
lasts almost eight minutes, these opening four minutes already evince a
close blending of prog and fusion elements: the "composed"
sections contrast with the looser solo (in a way reminiscent of
"Medieval Overture"), and the McLaughlin-esque angularity of the
opening contrasts with the harder driving power chords found in the
section that follows.
The influence of fusion is especially
evident in the LP's title track, "What If."
This piece directly adopts the Mahavishnu Orchestra sound, as it
also approaches the lyrical, slow ballad according to a familiar jazz
practice. After a brief
introduction, the 16-bar melody is stated by the violin and guitar in
unison, with the Rhodes, drums, and fretless electric bass accompanying
(0:16-1:15). A four-bar
transition leads to the return of the harmonic framework of the 16-bar
tune, over which Morse solos (1:31-2:32).
The third time through (2:48-3:49) features a synthesizer solo over
the first eight bars, with the "head" returning for the last
eight bars as the synth solo continues.
After the four-bar transition, the head continues as the track
fades out. By contrast, the
album's first track, "Take It Off the Top," is an up-tempo rock
number that would not likely have appeared on a John McLaughlin or Chick
Corea record. With a
complicated arrangement and sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic features,
the track has more in common with Kansas--the American progressive-rock
group with whom Morse played in the 1980s--than with most fusion of the
1970s. The band's connection
to progressive rock is further reinforced by "Little Kids,"
which features Morse on two tracks of classical guitar together with Allen
Sloan's acoustic violin. This
short piece makes a clear reference to classical music--so much so that it
seems more suited to a classical-guitar recital than to the rock stage.
It is clearly indebted to the many classical-guitar passages found
on Yes and Genesis albums from earlier in the 1970s (played by Steve Howe
and Steve Hackett respectively).
The music of the Dixie Dregs, like that
of Happy the Man, often resides in that area of intersection between
progressive rock and jazz rock referred to above. Rather than being centered in one style and only venturing
over to the other occasionally (as in the music of Return to Forever and
Yes discussed above), the music of both bands is more centered in this
in-between ground. The
situation in regard to the Dixie Dregs is more complicated than for Happy
the Man, since the Dregs also cross over into country and funk at times as
well (consider "Gina Lola Breakdown" and "Ice Cakes"
from What If for examples of each).
The question of stylistic crossover is
further complicated by the role of improvization in the music of each
group. Live tapes of the
Mahavishnu Orchestra from the 1972-4 period, for instance, reveal that
album tracks were extended in performance and solos tend not to be
duplicated, either from the record or from performance to performance.
This is, of course, entirely consistent with jazz practice
generally; no matter how arranged the tune is, the solos are always open
to fresh interpretation. The
practice in progressive rock is more constrained.
Live versions of Yes tracks tend to keep close to the recorded
versions; solos may change from performance to performance, but they
sometimes also follow the album version fairly closely.
For the most part, Genesis performances are even closer to the
recorded version than those of Yes or Jethro Tull.
In the case of Happy the Man, tapes from the late 1970s reveal that
live versions of the album tracks were almost identical to their studio
versions; even solos, however improvised they might sound on the record,
are reproduced relatively faithfully.
The Dixie Dregs are somewhat freer in their solos, though these
tend not to be extended beyond the length of the studio versions.
Broadly speaking, the contrasting relationship between studio and
live versions of pieces in prog and fusion might be cast as follows:
fusion musicians attempt to capture a live performance on the record,
while prog musicians attempt to reproduce the record live. If this is the case, then both Happy the Man and the Dixie
Dregs fall much more into the prog camp than into the fusion one.[20] Stylistic
Crossover I
have argued that crossover occurs in the music of Happy the Man and the
Dixie Dregs because the members of these bands developed in a musical
culture that privileged instrumental prowess and virtuosity.
In the mid 1970s, a rock player had two stylistic options if s/he
aspired to the highest level of technical proficiency; progressive rock
and jazz-rock fusion. There
were, of course, other options as well; one could turn to classical music
or to traditional jazz, for instance.
But for those who wanted to continue playing some form of rock
music, the two choices were prog and fusion.
In the mid 1970s the British progressive-rock bands were at the
peak of their popularity. Fusion
artists were enjoying commercial success as well; the Mahavishnu
Orchestra's Birds of Fire, for example, rose as high as number 15
on the Top-40 Album chart in 1973. Considering
the American reception of British progressive rock and American fusion, it
is perhaps not so surprising that two American groups each developed a
distinctive sound that straddled the stylistic boundary between jazz
fusion and progressive rock.
But there were problems with the
distinctiveness of the stylistic crossover in each case: neither group
experienced much commercial success, and this is certainly due in large
part to the fact that each group was difficult to market. As instrumental bands, each was incompatible with late-1970s
rock radio formats. As rock
bands, each was also incompatible with most jazz formats, since even the
avowedly fusion groups tended to be viewed with a certain disdain by the
jazz purists. But the kind of
aspiring musicians who had supported the original prog and fusion
musicians in the 1970s came to embrace at least a few of this new
generation. While the
musicians in Happy the Man remained generally unknown, Guitar Player
readers voted Steve Morse Best Overall five years in a row (1982-82), and
voted the Dregs Industry Standard LP the Best Guitar Album of 1982.[21]
Had more readers in these guitar, bass, percussion, and keyboard
communities been aware of the Happy the Man LPs, it seems likely that
these musicians would have been celebrated as well.
To conclude this study, let us return to
the distinction that was made at the outset between chart crossover and
stylistic crossover. It is
clear that, in the case of most of the bands we have examined here, chart
crossover has no real application. One
could point to the Mahavishnu Orchestra crossing over into the Top-40
Album chart as indicated above, but that is about all that the charts can
tell us. Stylistic crossover
is more helpful but at the same time a far more interpretive operation. Consider that we begin with two distinct styles that are
themselves hybrids: progressive rock blends rock with classical music and
fusion blends jazz with rock. Next
we insert into this context music that might also be seen to be a
stylistic hybrid, but in this case a hybrid of two hybrids. How is this second hybrid different from the first two?
Can such distinctions ultimately be helpful?
The first step in understanding this
situation is in seeing an important difference between prog and fusion on
one hand and the music of Happy the Man and the Dregs on the other.
We can think of both fusion and prog as distinguishable styles
because there are many works that can be classified--if sometimes only
roughly--under each stylistic label. There is, in short, a prog repertoire and a fusion
repertoire. But aside from
the albums under discussion, it would be difficult to produce a similar
repertoire for American prog-fusion crossover music.
Thus, if we return to the Venn diagram suggested above, each of the
intersecting circles is a collection of features derived from across some
repertoire, while in the area of intersection are features shared by some
pieces, but these pieces do not in themselves constitute a repertoire of
comparable size and variety. When
there are enough pieces that reside in this intersecting space, one can no
longer speak as profitably about crossover, but instead may need to
consider the possibility of a distinct hybrid style.
Thus crossover always involves holding two repertories
simultaneously in view with the idea that the piece (or pieces) under
scrutiny would not fit cleanly into a single repertoire.
Such an operation is markedly interpretive in the sense that it is
the music scholar who invokes the styles in force in any given case. And such an interpretive operation is relative in the sense
that one could also construct a pair of Venn diagrams in which one circle
represents jazz and the other rock, with fusion at the intersection, or a
pair in which one circle represents rock and the other classical with prog
in the middle. In this case,
"crossover" might be applied in a much more general sense than
the one used for the present study.
Recordings
Cited (not including
those listed in figs. 3 and 4) The Beatles, Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Capitol 2653, 1967. Miles Davis, In
A Silent Way. Columbia, 1969. ________, Bitches
Brew. Columbia PG 26, 1970. Emerson, Lake &
Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery.
Atlantic SD 19124, 1973. Genesis, A
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Atlantic SD2-401, 1974. Jethro Tull, Thick
As A Brick. Reprise MS 2072, 1972. The Mahavishnu Orchestra,
The Inner Mounting Flame.
Columbia 31067, 1971. Return
to Forever, Romantic Warrior.
Columbia PC 34076. CD re-issue: Columbia CK 46109, 1976. Yes, The
Yes Album. Atlantic SD 19131, 1971. ________, Close
to the Edge. Atlantic SD 19133, 1972. ________, Tales
from Topographic Oceans. Atlantic SD2-908., 1973 ________, Relayer.
Atlantic 18122, 1974. [1].
In his Yesterdays:
Popular Song in America
(New York: Norton, 1983), pp. 391-424, musicologist Charles Hamm
provides a clear explanation
of the role played by crossover hits in the early years of rock and
roll, as well as the role played by cover versions during this period.
The classic study of the American popular-music business is
Russell Sanjek's three-volume history, the third volume of which deals
with the twentieth century and is reprinted and expanded by his son
David Sanjek; see Pennies
from Heaven: The American Popular Music Business in the Twentieth
Century,
rev. and updated ed. New York: Da Capo, 1996). For consideration of some of the political dimensions of
crossover, see Steve
Perry,"'Ain't No Mountain High Enough': The Politics of
Crossover," in Facing the
Music, ed. Simon Frith (New York: Pantheon, 1988), 51-87. [2].
It is probably proper to admit from the start that, strictly speaking,
the question of chart crossover never really arises in regard to the
groups under consideration, since neither the Dixie Dregs nor Happy
the Man ever had a Top-40 album or single on any chart. [3].
I offer condensed historical overviews of progressive rock in
"Progressive
Rock, 'Close to the Edge,' and the Boundaries of Style" in Understanding
Rock: Essay in Musical Analysis, ed. John Covach and Graeme Boone
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 3-31; and "Echolyn and
American Progressive Rock," in American Rock and the Classical Music Tradition, ed. John Covach and
Walter Everett (special issue of Contemporary
Music Review 18/4 [2000]), 13-61.
More
detailed accounts of 1970s progressive rock can be found in
Edward
Macan,
Rockin' the Classics: English
Progressive Rock and the Counterculture
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997); and Paul
Stump,
The Music's All That Matters: A
History of Progressive Rock
(London: Quartet Books, 1997).
Bill
Martin's
Listening to the Future: The
Time of Progressive Rock, 1968-78 (Chicago and La Salle: Open
Court, 1997) also offers much detailed information on this music, but, owing
to its informal and often idiosyncratic character, must be consulted
with caution. [4]
Poll results for the 1977-81 period can be found in the following
issues of Guitar Player: 11/12 (December 1977), 30-1; 12/12
(December 1978), 40-1; 13/12 (December 1979), 72-3; 14/12 (December
1980), 24-5; and 15/12 (December 1981), 56-7.
During these years in which Steve Howe won the Best Overall
category, his bandmate Chris Squire took first in the Bass category in
1980, and second in the other four years. Guitar Player introduced a sister publication, Contemporary
Keyboard, in September 1975.
In the new magazine's first reader's poll (3/1 [January 1977],
24-5), Keith Emerson took first place in five categories: Best
Overall, Rock Piano, Synthesizer, Rock Organ, Multi-Keyboard.
In 1978 he repeated this feat, adding Best Keyboard Album as
his sixth honor (3/12 [December 1977], 20-1).
In 1977, then Yes keyboardist Patrick Moraz won Best New Talent
and Best Keyboard Album as well.
In the first reader's poll conducted by Modern Drummer (3/3
[May/June 1979], 26-8), Carl Palmer and Bill Bruford placed second and
third behind Carmen Appice in the Rock category. [5].
Stuart Nicholson's
Jazz Rock: A History
(New York: Schirmer,
1998) offers a detailed history of jazz rock, with extended
discussion of each of the groups mentioned here.
Mark Gridley (Jazz Styles: History and Analysis, 6th ed. [Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1997], pp. 324-54) provides a briefer but more
music-technical discussion, while Ted Gioia (The
History of Jazz
[New
York: Oxford University Press, 1997], 364-81) places jazz rock
within the context of other stylistic fusions in regard to jazz. [6]
Before DiMeola's streak, John McLaughlin had placed first in the Jazz
category of the Guitar Player reader's poll in three
consecutive years (7/4 [May/June 1973], 8/12 [December 1974], 22-3,
and 9/12 [December 1975], 22-3).
In the 1975-79 polls, Stanley Clarke placed first in the bass
category, being retired to the Gallery of Greats in 1979. In the first Contemporary Keyboard poll (for 1976) in
which Keith Emerson took first in five categories, Chick Corea placed
first in Electric Piano, which he repeated along with Jazz Piano the
next year. In the first Modern
Drummer poll, Billy Cobham placed second in the Best Overall
category behind Steve Gadd, while Tony Williams won in the Jazz
category. [7].
For an account of the attacks to which progressive rock has been
subjected along these lines, see Macan, Rockin' the Classics, 167-78.
For an account of the parallel phenomenon in jazz-rock, see
Nicholson, Jazz-Rock, xiii-xviii. [8].
The separation of these styles continues even in some of the best
recent scholarship: Nicholson only occasionally mentions
progressive rock, and then mostly offers negative assessments; Macan devotes some attention to jazz-rock, but mostly in the context of
the British Canterbury scene. [9]. There was some crossing over of personnel among the big-name players in the two styles in the late 1970s. Genesis drummer Phil Collins played in the English fusion band Brand X in the late 1970s; when Collins took over as lead vocalist from Peter Gabriel, jazz-rocker American Chester Thompson (drums) joined the band for all live performances, as did Daryl Stuermer (guitar/bass) after guitarist Steve Hackett's departure from the group. The late-1970s prog supergroup UK featured guitarist Allan Holdsworth, who subsequently became one of the most admired guitarists in jazz rock. Some of this crossover is explained by the presence of a jazz rock fusion in England within the Canterbury scene, of which 1970s Soft Machine is perhaps the best example; while most Canterbury music is not very well known in North America, its roots are in the same mid- to late-1960s scene that spawned the British prog bands. Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, and Tomorrow (featuring Steve Howe), for instance, were the most influential bands in the London psychedelic underground of the 1966-69 period. Nicholson provides a useful account of the late-60s British scene with an eye toward the development of jazz rock; see Jazz-Rock, 14-28. [10]
While this seems obvious from even a cursory perusal of periodicals
from the 1970s directed at musicians (and these periodicals are cited
throughout this study), I can attest that this was certainly
consistent with my experience during this period as a young developing
guitarist playing and teaching in the Detroit area. [11].
The music-analytical descriptions that follows relies on CD timings to
locate points of reference. The
CD re-issue used in each is provided in the Recordings list appended
to this chapter. [12] While this track's title refers to the overture in a
classical-music sense, the themes it presents do not prefigure those
that follow on the album in any obvious way. [13]. For Nicholson the influence of progressive rock on Chick Corea's music during the mid 1970s was unfortunate, and Nicholson's position on this point is indicative of aesthetic attitudes that continue to separate fans (and writers) of the two styles, even if these attitudes are not shared by the musicians themselves. Progressive rock bands are dismissed for their "empty virtuosity," with Corea as well "guilty of exploiting his technique at the expense of meaning," producing music that is ultimately "cute and pretentious" (Jazz-Rock, 202). [14]
Howe's opening solo to the group's "Close to the Edge" (1972) seems also inspired in part by McLaughlin.
Other Howe solos betray the influence of jazz on his playing as
well, especially on The Yes Album (1971).
Howe was something of an exception in the late-1960s and
early-1970s in his use of a large-body Gibson ES-175 guitar--an
instrument more often used by traditional jazzers. [15]
I discuss Happy the Man in "Echolyn and American Progressive
Rock," where my principal concern is
situating the band within the context of American progressive rock in
the 1970s. They are considered there along with Kansas, Starcastle, and
dozens of other groups. In
that study I focused on demonstrating the ways in which the group's
music integrates features drawn from classical music into a rock
context (a basic feature of almost all progressive rock). [16]
The following account of the band's history is drawn from the liner
notes to the band's compilation CD, Retrospective (East Side
Digital ESD 80292, 1989), many of the details of which were confirmed
in a telephone conversation with Stanley Whitaker, 8 November 1995. [17]
Telephone conversation, 8 November 1995. [18]
Morgenstern's remarks are drawn from the liner notes to the live CD, Dixie
Dregs, which also contains a band history.
For additional accounts of the Dregs' history and influences,
see Jas Obrecht,
"Steve Morse and Andy
West: Forging A New Southern Sound." Guitar Player 12/12 (December 1978), 34+; and "Steve Morse:
Electric Guitar Master Class." Guitar
Player 16/8 (August 1982), 59+. [19]
In 1982 Steve Morse was featured in Guitar Player's
"Essential Listening" column (Guitar
Player 16/6 [June], 58+),
a regular column in which a well-known
guitarist shares the albums he or she thinks were most influential in
the development of his or her playing. Of the nine guitarists he discusses, both McLaughlin and Howe
rank very high for Morse. The
feeling seems to be mutual, at least as far as Howe is concerned; in
an interview with the author on 25 June 1998, the Yes guitarist
mentioned that he and Morse are hoping to tour together in the near
future. [20]
This issue is not made any easier by considering the way the albums
considered in this study were recorded.
Tracks on Yes' Relayer, for instance, were composed by
splicing together short stretches of recorded material; the group
sometimes had to learn the tracks after they were recorded in order to
perform them live. Mahavishnu
Orchestra tracks seem to project a sense that they were done in real
time as complete takes, though I do not know if this is the case or
not. An important figure
in all this might be engineer and producer Ken Scott.
Scott worked on a number of records for a wide variety of
artists, including the Beatles. He
worked with the Mahavishnu Orchestra (as did Beatles producer George
Martin) and produced albums for Happy the Man and the Dixie Dregs.
The role of the recording process in this music is an area yet
to be examined in any scholarly depth. [21]
Poll results can be found in the following issues of Guitar Player:
16/12 (December 1982), 52-54; 18/1 (January 1984), 34-37; 19/1
(January 1985), 42-44; 19/12 (Decemner 1985), 52-57; and 20/12
(December 1986), 64-65. Dregs
bassist Andy West placed second in 1982 and third in 1983 and 1984.
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