Boards

[Serial_Apologist]

A lot of C21st RnB is more akin to Nausea!

"L'enfer de l'R&B, c'est pour les autres"

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

"There's a Phil Spector haunting Europe" - Karl Marx, Das Vinyl, Volumes 1-3

BN.

[Serial_Apologist]

[Ian Thumwood]

NO!!! Ian won't find anything to write about, claiming it's not jazz!!!!!

I am a bit ambivalent about "World Music" as a rule but there are some artists I enjoy such as Fatoumata Diawara. I would also have to add that one of my favourite artists is Angelique Kidjo and have loads of her records as well as having seen her at least twice in concert. It is far to say that some of this music does bleed over in to jazz and I would have to plump for African and South American artists if I was going to listen to this music. I can admire Indian music but don't particularly like it and the European / Cajun / North American Folk traditions that now get considered to be "World Music" have no appeal.

The influence of other cultures in to jazz is interesting because some fusions are more successful than others. South African music almost seemed to be waiting for Jazz to arrive whereas the Norwegian fiddle music that is so beloved of labels like ECM seems to strip jazz of the visceral qualities which make it so appealing. The South African musicians seems so relevant between the 70's and 80's that artists like Abdullah Ibrahim became totally mainstream despite the force if their musical personality and originality. The whole risk of Fusion is that sometimes it takes something away from Jazz as opposed to adding something to it. That is the main problem for me.
You instinctively know when the Fusion works.....