While most people are fixated on the holidays, the Dec. 20 edition of Greasy Tracks focused on fusion, especially music incorporating the Fender Rhodes.
If you missed it, here’s the archive, while a playlist is here.
It may not have the same legendary status as the Hammond B-3 with Leslie speakers, but the Rhodes was a key piece of the fusion sound.
The hybrid of improvisational jazz that collided with rock, funk and R&B, fusion emerged in the late 1960s and was full-blown in its glory period of the 1970s with the Rhodes playing a major role.
The Rhodes is an electro-mechanical piano known for its warm, bell-like tone. Invented by Harold Rhodes and popularized in the 1960s and 70s, it uses metal tines struck by hammers and amplified by pickups.
It shaped recordings by artists like Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Stevie Wonder and Billy Preston, to name but a few.