Best fusion albums of all time

[Melodic Dreamer]

[rictroll]

Most of my favorites have been mentioned but I'll add:

[rictroll]

Oh man, this is fun remembering:

[yebdox]

Did anyone mention Billy Cobham's Spectrum? Tommy Bolin's playing, while unschooled, is as tasteful and creative as anyone in that vein. Total groove.

[Thumpalumpacus]

My favorites:

Narada Michael Walden's drumming on "Sophie" and "Play with Me" just kills me. Bloody brilliant:

... and acoustic fusion:

[Boston Joe]

Weather Report - Heavy Weather (my first exposure to fusion as a genre), Black Market
Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow, Wired
Pat Metheney - The Way Up
Miles - BB
RTF - Romantic Warrior
Mahavishnu - Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire
Shakti - A Handfull of Beauty
Jazz is Dead - Blue Light Rain

[Eric Rowland]

[harrymason]

Andy Summers - The Golden Wire. Fantastic album, timeless, can't believe it was released in 1989.
Jeff Beck - There and Back. With my all time favorite, The Pump.
John Scofield - Pick Hits Live.
Larry Carlton - On Solid Ground and Kid Gloves. Uneven albums, I just mention them because of Honey Samba and Where Be Mosada?

[pingu]

Santana ... Caravanserai

[Binyomin]

Something from Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi period?
Spaces by Larry Coryell
Mysterious Traveler by Weather Report

[Binyomin]

Maybe some Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra also.

[Binyomin]

Emergency by Tony Williams Lifetime
Spectrum by Billy Cobham
Escalator over the Hill

[Neer]

Pat Martino - Joyous Lake

[sgcim]

Back in the 70s, the composer, conductor, pianist, wind player from Barcelona, Joan Albert Amargos started a band with the Socialist tenet of composing music 'for the people'(instead of the 20th Century classical music he usually wrote), and called the fusion band, Musica Urbana.

It mixes jazz, rock, classical and Iberian melodies together in a heavily contrapuntal, episodic manner, featuring the great fusion bass player Carles Benevent:

[Average Joe]

I'm enjoying the hell out of Holdsworth's All Night Wrong lately. It's an outstanding album in every way, and the first time I've done some deep listening to AH.

[Greentone]

Herbie Hancock Headhunters

Larry Coryell on Duster

All of the Weather Report albums

All of the Return to Forever albums

[FuseHead]

Visions of The Emerald Beyond is my favorite studio Mahavishnu

One not mentioned? Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar Frank Zappa I have covered a lot of Fusion on guitar in my day and I had bands just give up on playing various selection off of this release.

You almost have to separate live -vs- studio on this list.

Brand X Livestock would go in the live list as well as Di Meola's Tour De Force


I would suggest two lists one live one studio

[rkettner]

I'd have to go with Romantic Warrior. Here's another vote for Herbie's Headhunters. Doesn't get much funkier than that.

[FuseHead]

Not really sure why... But my favorite R2F is Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy. But as others pointed out, any R2F release belongs there. I think it is because I play more like Al, so it is a little easier for me. I remember learning Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy and while playing along, I would be spent, sweating, out of breath and I'd look and I was on song 2 of the release. At the time I could bang out intense guitar for 4 - 5 hours straight.

[neatomic]

doesn't get much better for an (original 70's) fusion quartet....stanley clarke, jan hammer, bill connors and tony williams

cheers

[Doctor Jeff]

Yeah I was really into Abercrombie in the early 80's.

I was thinking of doing a separate thread on pop/rock albums that were really fusion. For example, a lot of Santana--Abraxas, Caravanserai, Moonflower; Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life has a lot of fusion; probably quite a few more I haven't thought of yet. The Phil Manzanera group 801 had a lot of fusion elements.

And of course, Zappa's group in the late 70's with George Duke, etc. was basically a fusion outfit, interestingly being led by a guy who had never played straight-ahead jazz in his life.

[Neer]

Bruford - One of a Kind
George Duke - Faces In Reflection
David Sancious - Just As I Thought (he plays guitar, too, and sounds like Holdsworth to a degree)
George Duke-Billy Cobham Band - Live In Europe

[jbernstein91]

Believe It -- the New Tony Williams Lifetime:

[Bbmaj7#5#9]

Lee Ritenour’s early fusion albums are the best in my opinion, especially ”Captain Fingers” from 1977. This composition is really wonderful!

[P.J.]

I much prefer Bill Connors' work with RTF than DiMeola's. Hymn of the 7th Galaxy is completely awesome and I know Connors was a big influence on Gary Moore's playing when he was dabbling in fusion before he "got the blues".