Jazz

I think its fair to say that early Megadeth had a bit of jazz influence.

Stender wrote:

I think its fair to say that early Megadeth had a bit of jazz influence.

Yeah. Chris Poland and Gar Samuelson were accomplished jazz players.

Believer's new CD has some obvious jazz influences.

It's a harder question than it appears on the surface. It all boils down to improvisation eventually. A large portion of rock & metal is written out (especially solos), some improvisation comes into play, but it's not the primary method. Jazz is entirely based on improv and influenced many of the early progressive rock and "jam" bands (King Crimson, Yes, Cream, Santana, Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead).

I think the prog rock bands were more directly influential on metal, but the foundation had already been built by people like Coltrane, Miles, Ornette Coleman whose music was based on soloing over vamp sections.

The neo-classical playing of people like Richie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Jan Akkerman was melded with the jazz aesthetic of improvisation and you ended up with one of the roots of early metal.

The only band that plays close to metal that has jazz influences on some of their songs is Candiria.

Probably a lot of shred guitar players listen to a lot of jazz. And drummers.

xyz wrote:

Probably a lot of shred guitar players listen to a lot of jazz. And drummers.

I believe Alex Skolnick from Testament played/plays in a jazz band.

Quite a few tech-metal bands incorporate jazz stylings into their music. A band like Meshuggah make extensive use of pretty complex poly-rhythms which are commonplace in jazz. The Dillinger Escape Plan shift time-signatures with abandon and use very jazz-like breakdowns much like a good jazz ensemble.

The one thing many of these bands do lack like Detuned has already said is certainly improvisation. This is not to say that many of these bands are not capable of it, just that it doesn't seem to be as generally accepted in metal and rock music.

GrandNational wrote:

xyz wrote:

Probably a lot of shred guitar players listen to a lot of jazz. And drummers.

I believe Alex Skolnick from Testament played/plays in a jazz band.

Indeed he does, The Alex Skolnick Trio. Always fun hearing them cover 'Practice What You Preach'.

Anyway, straight jazz is quite hard to find in metal, but you'll always find jazz fusion influences in prog rock and metal. Cynic are probably one of the best examples of this.

blastbeats come from jazz.

Imo, jazz and metal musicians are the most talented of any genre (jazz being the more talented of the two).

I can't believe no one has mentioned Atheist yet. They pull a huge influence from jazz.

EvyMetal wrote:

I can't believe no one has mentioned Atheist yet. They pull a huge influence from jazz.

Oh yeah forgot them, probably the most qualifying out of whats been said so far.

Opeth tends to have some jazz and blues influence in their harmonies and in the drumming.

I also believe that the reason Nevermore's guitar sound is so thick is from the use of jazz harmonies.

Voivod

Piggy's guitar work was very jazz based (channeled through Robert Fripp). He was playing chords that you just don't normally hear in metal.

Cynic and Pestilence's Spheres had a big jazz influence.

Cynic and Watchtower?

Alex Skolnick from Testament/Ozzy/Savatage/TSO has his own jazz band Alex Skolnick Trio. He's definitely jazz influenced!!