help i need more jazz fusion in my life. any recommendations? and how do you find new (or old but new-to-you) records?
It's one of those things that gets easier the more of it you know, honestly.
Having friends who have similar tastes helps a lot; I've learned about plenty of stuff just from sharing recs with friends. (Which, you know, is what this ask is!)
Weirdly, the Youtube algorithm is really good at this. It seems like music is the one place where it identifying rabbitholes is good and not, you know, horrifying. You have to listen to enough on there for it to start picking up on it though.
Not sure what record stores in your area are like, but over here almost every used record store has open-use turntables with headphones you can use to sample anything you like. Browsing the stacks for cool-looking obscure stuff has worked out well for me before - that's why I post about so much local Vancouver-area stuff and CBC Jazzimage.
Oh, and if you find the right forums, like the Russian forum where people trade out-of-print Soviet vinyl rips1, going from one artist you know can lead to a bunch more.
As for recommendations, here's a bunch of stuff in different styles:
Dimension - There's a chance you've heard some j-fusion before, and the most common stuff people share tends to be on the bright, smooth side. Dimension are heavier on the rock side, which I also like. Their album that goes heaviest in that direction is probably Sixth Dimension Live from 1996.
One of my other fave j-fusion artists is Himiko Kikuchi, a keyboard player and bandleader who released a bunch of albums in the 80s and 90s.
I've been into Psychic Temple lately thanks to Hypnospace (they're the real band behind Klyfta). Their "Music for Bus Stops" is a really great prog jazz take on Music for Airports, a meandering 18-minute track I've listened to a ton.
Speaking of prog jazz, Soviet artist Anatoly Vapirov's Misteria is one of my all time favourites:
Another fun one is Superfluous Motor's Trifecta series. His music is usually focused on a mix of fusion, funk and prog, and for this one he released three albums focused on one of those three genres. Here's the fusion one:
-
Just ask me
