A Question of Dates and Terminology

The Whistler wrote: Here's a good one: when did all these terms come into play? That is, when was it called "art rock" or "prog rock" or "progressive." Or jazz fusion. Or whatever. And who? Who said it? Was it the Who? They said "rock opera."   When, where, why and how did these terms evolve? Does anyone know?!?

Remember rock is not such an ancient a term - Joe Boyd in his White Bicycles autobiog suggested 1964 for rock's introduction, when Dylan went electric at the Newport Jazz & Folk Festival? And for all the celebration of rock'n'roll's 50th anniversary last year, jumpin' jive and jitter bug sounds remarkably like R'n'R as early as 1943. However, Jive was more jazz-based while R'n'R a hybrid of blues and country.

Jazz fusion: One of the first examples of the use of fusion was Joe Harriott/John Mayers Indo-jazz Double Quintet fusion group of 1965-7 - although I'm told the word fusion can be found as aprt of the title of an earlier album - I think by Pharoah Saunders. There was a brief use of rock jazz for bands 68-70 which related to pop rock bands using distinctively jazz-based solos, e.g. Nice, Timebox, BST. However, the rock jazz of  BST and then Chicago, Electric Flag, Satisfaction, Heaven, If, Ides Of March soon was to be known as brass rock. Tony Williams Lifetime and then Miles’ Bitches Brew were seen as the first two groups to have a large following (i.e. more than being only known within the boundaries of a city) and were said to be jazz musicians who used rock rhythms and rock's amplification - while Larry Coryell and the Brecker brothers may have been doing something similar as early as 1964. The current obsession to claim Miles' earlier albums (of the late 60's) to be jazz rock is hindsight and most definitely NOT what these albums were called on their original release. Soft Machine came from the opposite direction: rock musicians who incorporated more jazz improv into their performances and then the incorporation of proven jazz musicians into their line-up. Perhaps because of this, and progressive music  can be seen as rock hybridised with virtually any other form of music, then jazz rock has to been seen/heard as one of the earliest forms of prog. Probably by RTF's Hymn and MO's Birds Of Fire, we were generally calling this music jazz rock . (Hence a matter of several months to several years between local use and then the more universal use of terminology). The innovative edge to mainstream jazz rock along with its popularity largely declined from the mid 70's, and belatedly the big record labels (especially Columbia/CBS) interest in signing these bands, meant by 1977/8 jazz rock had been diluted to achieve maximum record sales, hence we were into the age of jazz fusion (minus the rock element). Personally I go for 4 ages of jazz rock to date: pre-Miles Davis, Miles Davis/Soft Machine/Lifetime,  post-Bitches to late 70's, 80s to now (I would cite Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth as solo artists, as examples of the 4th wave). And perhaps there is a 5th wave with jazz fusing with more recent popular music genres: drum'n'bass, turntablism, rap, hip/trip hop, dance( but when did jazz not get involve with dance....). In a separate strand World jazz fusion started with Indo-jazz fusion as early as the mid 60's.

This is my long term perspective on jazz rock fusion.  However, the Jazz Britannia documentary BBC TV 4 ran early 2005, stated in programme 2  that jazz rock was being played in the early 60's in London by the young jazz and blues oriented musicians, e.g. Georgie Fame, Zoot Money, Graham Bond - indeed it was suggested  they were not allowed to play the conventional jazz instruments (e.g. piano) in jazz clubs, because that was for the established jazzers, hence with the influence of Jimmy Smith etc. electric keys etc. for instance were played instead - interesting thought wrt to amplification in jazz earlier than suggested above. Further the programme suggest jazz fusion was being played in the UK in the early 70's ... maybe, maybe not......

Progressive music/progressive rock/prog.

Once upon time rock appeared. As musicians matured, got more proficient in playing their instruments, got better music qualifications, wanted more sophistication, listened to music other than pop, then they were ready to play progressive music. And there was a rather select audience waiting for it: an  audience was the money earning youth movement (often associated with the underground movements in various centres around the world, places to turn in drop out, e.g.  swinging London, Haight-Astbury of SF, LA, Paris and the French Cote de Azur, etc.). Hence the common term was underground music - experimental music/rock and the likes of the West Coast rock movement were playing it and being influential on other centres (with lots of cross-fertilisation) - it has  long been stated that the Beatles looked to the West Coast for their next set of inspirations. Plain daft to suggest that prog suddenly appeared; it derives from early/mid 60's garage, west coast, psychedelia, folk, jazz, Indian raga; in Britain you can add the mod movement, R'n'B, electric blues (The Who are a classic example of a band evolving through these stages).  The Mods were at war with the rockers (rock'n'roll fans), and soon after hippies/freaks into underground music were attacked by the skinheads (who ironically seemed to prefer ska and the decided more gentle early reggae). At one level Dave Brubeck Quartet were influential as John Coltrane on  underground music, DBQ being  exponents of fusing jazz with the classical repertoire and finding unusual time signatures to play it - one of the earliest prog groups Nice, borrowed liberally from DBQ. I do believe underground rock or music was a far more common term than progressive music:  the  example of the Decca Records compilation of 1969: Wowie Zowie: the World Of Progressive Music now appears to be a rare use of the term - btw check out the contents of the album for what was heard as progressive at the time. Underground music encompassed a broad variety of  music, which within a few years became progressive rock, heavy rock, blues rock or AOR and were to follow quite separate paths - until very recently brought back together by the likes of PA!!!!! However, by 1970/1 most rock bands were experimenting with new equipment/sounds, new musical forms, often heard on their first albums  before settling down to perform their music that fell clearly into one of theose categories (e.g. Patto on their first album playing free jazz in the instrumental breaks, not heard on the second, a great goodtime/pub rock album Hold Your Fire).

About six months ago, we had a similar debate which led to me checking my handful of clipping from 1967 to 1977 from Melody Maker, Rolling Stone magazines, etc. and not finding many references to progressive rock. Further a websearch of those older progressive rock bands and their archives with press clippings, and I think I found only one reference to Jethro Tull (of several of the obvious bands) being progressive over a 6 year period 1968-74. Comment at that time: did progressive rock come into come parlance as a term of abuse made by the punk music writers around 1978????

I once asked about the earliest use of Art Rock, and had one American swore that he had used  the term as early as 1966 for the clever, more artistically  adventurous pop/rock of the period. In some respects art rock in UK, maybe traced back to those bands who formed whilst attending art college and would include bands as diverse as the Kinks or Bonzo Dog Do Dah Band or the Yardbirds (and could also include John Lennon!!!), and then one might loosely suggest this to be middle class thing amongst musicians who had a better education......clever lyrics (beyond the moon in June, or love thing), arrangements beyond the basics of rock'n'roll*. By the early 70's art rock was part associated with dressing up/make-up and making more theatre out the music business - hence T Rex, Sweet, Bowie, Queen, Roxy Music were amongst the first wave, Be Bop Deluxe notable exception amongst the 2^nd wave of art rock/pop of Gary Glitter/Glitterband or Mudd. Personally I think there is some difference between the UK and American definition of the term art rock.

*A thought that strike me is that punk pundits keep talking about the raw energy of rock'n'roll as an important element of their 3  or 4 chord music and the Kinks being often cited as influences - however, the Kinks with their mid 60's sophistication were indicating where rock could go (e.g. into prog): I would suggest that punk advocates want that  bit of that cake without having the tasty decoration, which we prog fans enjoy. But consider: you can't have a prog musicians without first those musician learning those first 3 or 4 chords and playing rudimentary music..................