True, there were a few jazz cats who moved into fusion for aesthetic reasons, but the vast majority did it for baser motives – a chance at a bigger payday or a larger dose of fame. The jazz musicians who took on rock-and-roll rarely had such high and mighty notions. Embracing jazz was their way of aspiring to a higher degree of artistry. When rock or pop musicians tackled jazz, they usually believed they were raising the level of their music. Perhaps it was only a psychological advantage, but (as Yogi Berra once said) the mental half is ninety percent of the game. And though it is easy to dismiss the long-haired hippie types who dared mess with jazz, the fact is that the rockers had at least one big advantage. For every Grover Washington, there was a Joni Mitchell. For every Weather Report, there was a Blood, Sweat and Tears. Yet for every Miles Davis, there was a Frank Zappa. They remember the jazz musicians who crossed over to the rock and pop charts, but they forget the other side of the equation - the rock and pop acts who embraced the jazz idiom. When jazz fans look back at the fusion music of the late 1960s and 1970s, they tend to see only half of the picture.
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