Jazz has inspired countless musicians through the years, including those you might not necessarily expect. Let’s look at just a few rock stars who have explicitly said that they were inspired by jazz through the years!
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1. Lou Reed
Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground was quite a fan of jazz. In fact, he enjoyed the unique perspective of jazz and its freedom. Free-form jazz, specifically, could have easily inspired unique (and controversial) albums like Reed’s Metal Music Machine from 1975.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t think I heard the show from in the club,” he once said of seeing Ornette Coleman perform in Manhatten in 1959. “I didn’t have enough money, so I heard it from outside. Having said that, Ornette [Coleman]’s free jazz made me think, ‘What a great thing to do on electric guitar!’ I thought a distorted electric guitar sounded like a sax or a sax section.”
2. Derek Trucks
The Allman Brothers Band was packed with talented instrumentalists, one of which being Derek Trucks. For him, jazz was one reason he got started in music; and it serves as a nostalgic reminder of why he does what he does as a guitarist. He even went as far as to say that all musicians should look to the classics for inspiration.
“If you’re serious about music, you have to search back to when it was really honest, whether it’s Delta blues by Bukka White and Son House or jazz,” said Trucks. “You have to go to the source.”
3. David Bowie
Some might find this entry on our list of rock stars who were inspired by jazz a little surprising. However, it really does make sense that David Bowie loved jazz and was inspired by it. He seemed to believe that both jazz and rock were of the same cut, and he also happened to be a pretty underrated saxophonist in his early years. His first exposure to jazz came from his brother, who had him listen to John Coltrane and Miles Davis.
“Jazz was a music that seriously paralleled rock music for me when I was young, between 8 and 12,” Bowie once reflected. “I don’t know why, but I really felt at home with modern jazz. […] I feel jazz may have set me off on this idea that ‘planned accidents’ are truly wonderful experiences in music.”
Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns
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