Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Black Sabbath

They bore me, but from their music you can see just how much heavy metal music springs out of jazz. But was it really an advantage to banish the polyrhythms?

3 comments:

Mr. Smith said...

You're never going to get heavy from a genre like jazz where the cymbols carry the beat.

It's taking that jazz influence and straight-jacketing it between the kick and snare that gives rock its appeal.

Think of a bunch of people dancing around in a field for jazz, and then that same number of people dancing around in the exact same way, but now in a closet for rock, with the drums acting as the walls that gather all that energy together into a violent mass.

Eric D. Dixon said...

Try listening to "21st Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson, for an even better glimpse of the path from jazz to metal.

Then pick up the Crimson Jazz Trio CD:

http://tinyurl.com/yqub8u

Metal transformed back to jazz again!

Eric D. Dixon

MikeK said...

You might be interested in checking out the Norwegian band Shining (particularly their album In the Kingdom of Kitsch You Will Be a Monster) which plays very heavy jazz mixed with metal influences (they're all classically trained jazz musicians) and the American band Gutbucket (named after the instrument, not an actual bucket of guts) who play a sort of punk-influenced Jazz. Both bands are quite superb!