COTM - #232 - Re-Fusion w/Cab and Jansen/Barbieri/Karn

[OverHillandDale(Admin)]

Greetings prog fans.

This week you will be refreshed and re-fused by the show's music.

During the 80's, so many of the musicians of jazz/rock and fusion slipped into the dark side of Jazz: Smooth Jazz. Some under the guise of New Age. Now, don't get me wrong, those genres do have a place and purpose in the world. I even have quite a bit in my collection. It is, however, not the fusion we grew to love so much in the 70's.

By the 90's, along with the resurgence of progressive rock via the Neo-Prog wave, Fusion also began a return with a twist. There are those musicians the you would expect to find in that wave, like Chick Corea and his merry band of musical geniuses. Here, this week, I want to bring to your attention a few folks you might not know, but you'll hear their influences in today's fusion fare.

The first group is a bit of a super group that sprang up in 2000. They are called Cab. The band was formed by bassist Bunny Brunel, Guitarist Tony MacAlpine, and drummer Dennis Chambers. Keyboardists Brian Auger and Patrice Rushen would join later. 2003 brought their 3rd and most popular album Cab 4. Well, I recently discovered they had a more recent album in 2009. It is entitled Theatre du Marionnettes. That will be my 1st feature of the show.

Now, on the other side of the pond was a group of other musicians reshaping fusion. A couple of these artists were Steve Jansen, Richard Barbieri and Mick Karn. The group they formed is best known as Jansen/Barbieri/Karn, but their album logo is JBK. Their first album together can in 1993. It was a breath of fresh air that brought strength and grit (the rock side) back into fusion. And just the decade before these three were part of the New Wave/Art Rock group Japan. Their 1st album was called Beginning To Melt and it was fairly quickly followed up by an EP called The Seed. I will be playing their third release _ism from 1999.

I do hope you enjoy the show and find something new to you.

See you on the radio.

dale