A Compendium of "Classic Era" Jazz-Rock Fusion Albums

  With the arrival of the new year of 2024 I made a conscious decision to make a "deep dive" into the world and history of Jazz-Rock Fusion. Before this decision, I had in my possession only a few albums from the sub-genre: some Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, a lot of Jean-Luc Ponty, Al Di Meola, and Bob James, and a few from the likes of Freddy Hubbard, Ronnie Laws, Jeff Beck, Area, Santana, SBB, Weather Report, and other Italian one-offs. Little did I realize that this project was to include the discovery and hearing of hundreds of bands and albums that were completely new to me. Who knew there was such amazing Jazz-Rock Fusion coming out of Sweden, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Turkmenistan[!], Poland, Belgium, Germany, and France at the same time as those coming from the UK, USA and Canada? (all of which leads me to ponder the serious question of: Why are we all so Anglo-centric?)   As I've begun to compile this growing list of albums, I've made th