Throughout the 1960s, classical and jazz influences shaped pop and rock music. There was a whole range of varied material, from the orchestrated mystical grandeur of The Moody Blues to the flippant pastiche of The Move, who spiked their psychedelia with classical quotes. Love Sculpture’s recording of Khatchaturian's “Sabre Dance” (1967) with Dave Edmunds (b. 1944), and US guitarist Mason Williams' "Classical Gas" (1968) both became hit singles. A band without a guitarist, The Nice (with Keith Emerson on keyboards), was one of the most significant groups to forge a classical rock hybrid. Rock bands also experimented with the orchestral sound: in 1970, Deep Purple recorded Concerto for Group and Orchestra with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Robert Fripp

Robert Fripp (b. 1946) is the most innovative guitarist to emerge from progressive rock. He was a founder member of King Crimson. Their first album, The Court of The Crimson King (1969), features the sophisticated and musically complex "Twenty-First Century Schizoid Man." Fripp's solo uses long sustain and he plays unison ensemble parts to create one of the most original guitar pieces in rock music. The contrasting "Moonchild" opens ethereally, and the rounded tone of the guitar in free form open passages contrasts with reflective arpeggiated chords. On subsequent albums, Fripp continued to put together dynamic structural devices and original lines, sometimes in the context of unusual time signatures.

One of Fripp's instrumental highlights is "Sailor's Tale" from Islands (1971), but it is on Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973) that his structural organization of time elements comes into the ascendent. For example, the album's title track (Part 1) juxtaposes a combination of menacing fuzzy rock riffs, a solo with a continuous stream of intervallic atonal motifs, and a frenzied rhythmic passage against classically based violin sections. The album shows off a variety of original approaches: Fripp using a plectrum on electric and steel guitar to play parts that sound like classical guitar; the hissing, rasping guitar sound that opens the mocking "Easy Money;" and an exploration of rhythmic rock-guitar figures on the title track (Part 2).

Two albums were made with "non-musician" Brian Eno, No Pussyfootin' (1972) and Evening Star (1976). On both these recordings, Fripp plays in conjunction with tape machines and synthesizers to create ambient sounds. He devised "Frippertronics" using tape recorders and effects to play live and to record further musical experiments. A number of pop singers, including David Bowie on Heroes (1977), booked Fripp to work on their sessions, and he often added unexpected elements to their tracks.

Michael Karoli

In avant-garde Germany, guitarists such as Michael Karoli (b. 1948) of the group Can were adopting electronics and an experimental approach. Members of the band had studied with the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen and been influenced by Berio and Ligeti. Can's first album, Monster Movie, was recorded in 1968 and their conceptual framework often offsets the guitar against the background of a rigid rhythm section playing cyclical elements with synthesizer and electronics. On Tago Mago (1971), Karoli plays in a blues-based style on "Paperhouse" and "Halleluhwah," yet familiar elements sound strange in a setting based around long, free-improvised passages, and he often puts in surprising elements to produce an alienating effect. On the extended "Aumgn," the opening effects lead into a cohesive soundscape that avoids pastiche. With an improvised group-interplay system and what was termed instant composition, Karoli tried to sidestep the standard guitar vocabulary and create new soundscapes different from the Anglo-American popular-music paradigm. Can's music became an influence on later ambient and progressive compositional thinking.

Steve Hackett

Steve Hackett (b. 1950) played with Genesis from 1970 until 1977. A great deal of his recording with the group consists of harmonic layers and textures with the keyboards. Hackett used guitar synthesizers in the early 1970s, and many of his guitar lines feature sound processing, including fuzz. He plays harmonized parts, with dropped-in backward tapes of solos. Away from his use of 12-string, he is one of the few guitarists in popular music who uses a nylon-string guitar with a normal-sounding classical technique that shows a range of influences, including J.S. Bach. "Blood on the Rooftops" on Wind and Withering (1977) opens with a well-executed passage of classical guitar and the song has extensive arpeggiated parts that work very effectively with the vocals.

Pink Floyd

David Gilmour (b. 1944) joined Pink Floyd in January 1968 and worked alongside Syd Barrett (see page 141) during his last few months with the group. Gilmour is a blues-influenced, melodic player with a concise and tasteful compositional approach that uses space and long, sustained lines. His solos are often powerful and intense with expressive upper-register playing using bending and vibrato. Pink Floyd's original approach to rock developed partly through live-performance settings and writing film soundtracks and Gilmour's guitar is often placed in the context of gently paced extended pieces. On Meddle (1971), the group creates a continuum of sound and the guitar provides one of the bands of color. Among his best work is "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" from wish you were here (1976); in the context of sustained keyboard harmonies, Gilmour's opening phrases are played in a strong blues style with a sweet, full sound leading to his plangent solo. "Comfortably Numb" on The Wall (1979) is another track with powerful soloing, and on this album Gilmour creates high acoustic tunings. He sometimes works by laying down a number of solos and then taking the best parts from each and merging them into one.

Dark side of the moon

Recorded between June 1972 and January 1973 at Abbey Road Studios, London, Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most popular albums ever made by any group. Tracks segue into each other, and the full, vibrant sound, given extra richness and depth by engineer Alan Parsons, conveys a powerful sense of atmosphere and presence.

Dave Gilmour spent a lot of time setting up sounds for the guitar. Apart from expanding the dynamic range, the textures and timbres developed in the studio help to create contrasts in mood. There are effects on a number of tracks, including tremolo, Leslie, and a Uni-Vibe. The guitar is used for arpeggiated chords in combination with such effects, as can be heard on "Any Color You Like." There is fuzz and echo on "Time," backward chords on "Speak To Me," and "On The Run" uses train and explosion effects created with synthesizers and guitar feedback. "Breathe" features slide on magnificently powerful lap steel, with a volume pedal and a number of guitar overdubs to give separate colors.

One of the best-known tracks, "Money," adopts a 7/4  time signature and the guitar with a tremolo sound plays the riff with the bass. There are effective echo and dry, flat sounds. The track moves into 4/4 for the driving guitar solo that features a Stratocaster followed by a Lewis guitar with a two-octave neck for high notes

Jazz influences

Toward the end of the 1960s, jazz increasingly came to be appreciated for its technical content and rich vocabulary compared to blues. Miles Davis was breaking down the stylistic barriers between jazz and rock in America. The work of British guitarist John McLaughlin in America, fusing jazz with rock and modal ethnic music with Lifetime and The Mahavishnu Orchestra, had a profound effect on the way guitarists improvised and worked with instrumental composition and form.

Guitarists who had leanings toward a more sophisticated style of improvisation based on jazz were able to work in progressive rock, and they started to emerge at the beginning of the 1970s. The group if featured jazz-guitarist
Smith, who adapted his style to combine bebop phrasing with notes using more sustain at a higher-volume level. One of the most overlooked talents of this era was Ollie Halsall (b. 1949), an outstandingly fluent and inventive guitarist who combined blues with jazz playing in Patto and with Kevin Ayers. A whole host of groups appeared with jazz-influenced guitarists working in a particularly English style of melodic progressive rock; it included Pye Hastings with Caravan, Andy Latimer of Camel and Phil Miller with Hatfield and The North. In 1970, Gong was formed in France with Australian guitarist Daevid Allen (b. 1941) and they developed an original type of psychedelic fusion. Steve Hillage (b. 1951) joined the group in 1972 and played on the album Flying Teapot (1973) before releasing his own album Fish Rising (1975). Fred Frith (b.1949) on Henry Cow's debut album Legend (1973) is far more experimental, drawing on the pioneering work of musicians on the free side of jazz and avant-garde techniques.

Alan Holdsworth, perhaps the most influential improviser to emerge in Britain during the 1970s, joined Soft Machine and recorded Bundles in 1975. He went on to work on Bill Bruford's solo album Feels Good To Me (1977) and the with jazz-rock fusion group UK. On the album UK (1978), his tremendous solo on "In The Dead Of Night" brought him to the attention of mainstream audiences. Around this time, Brand X, one of the most successful British fusion groups, were formed. Their debut album Unorthodox Behaviour (1976) features John Goodsall, who plays with a fast jazz-rock style and a brittle tone.

Some rock players who had jazz leanings moved across to fusion bands. In the mid 1970s, Gary Moore (see page 166) played with a tangled density and a highly individual harmonic flavor with Colosseum II. On his solo album back on the Streets (1979), he plays instrumental jazz-rock fusion on the track "Hurricane" with effervescent linear speed.

Jazz-influenced soloing in rock largely disappeared from the mainstream in Britain with changes in pop fashion and the decline in the role of the guitarist as a high-powered soloist. One talented player was Alan Murphy (1954-89) whose style drew from blues, rock and the innovative sound of Alan Holdsworth. He appeared at the end of the 1970s with the group SFX, but went largely unrecognized.

New structures

At the beginning of the 1980s, Robert Fripp formed a new King Crimson and recorded the groundbreaking Discipline (1981) with American guitarist Adrian Belew. The overall sound is close to jazz rock, and some of the core motifs owe their origin to fusion lines and classical minimalist composers. The music has highly arranged interweaving guitar parts with unusual time signatures in strictly organized pieces that appear repetitive yet move forward through a subtle shifting, of patterns. There is a mechanical torsion in the strophic ostinato figures, and accents fall in unusual places, producing fast, rippling effects and shifting sheets of sound.

Steve Howe

The best-known player in rock to use jazz influences in the 1970s was Steve Howe (b. 1947) who joined Yes in 1971. He stands apart from most high-profile rock players in this period through his frequent use of undistorted sound and a markedly eclectic approach, incorporating virtually every type of guitar style. Throughout the 1970s he recorded and performed sophisticated arrangements that called for a wide range of techniques. Howe's versatility is demonstrated on his first album with the group, The Yes Album (1970), on which he uses effects and different types f electric and acoustic guitar to generate a range of sounds. The solo fingerpicking on the steel-string acoustic instrumental piece "Clap" combines country, ragtime and folk elements. Howe is inventive, with an individual style and a liquid tone that fuses jazz with other areas of influence. On extended solos his rhythm and structural phrasing has a European feel and sounds classically influenced, and his colorful addition to songs can be heard on the harmonics on the opening to "Roundabout" (1972).Yes recorded long instrumental passages both live and in the studio. On the live Yessongs (1973), Howe has room to stretch out and solos on "Siberian Khatru", "Close To the Edge" and "Yours Is No Disgrace". In this context he uses classically influenced arpeggios and plays a torrent of seamless, fast scales, often propelled by his right-hand technique.

"Yours is no disgrace"

"Yours Is No Disgrace" on The Yes Album (1971) is a stylistic tour deforce. It opens with Howe playing riffs with the controlled distortion typical of his style with the group. The track next has a distinctive passage of attractive, flowing arpeggio lines, moving to harder-edged sounds and passages of steel-guitar fade-up background effects. The guitar plays a lone rhythmic metallic blues-rock break before the band comes back in and there is melodic chordal vamping before a short section of nylon-string riffs. An exotic fuzzy guitar line enters, then Howe plays a jazz-guitar solo, switching to steel-string backing for part of the song before restating earlier sections. The track ends on an ascending glissando, dominated by keyboards, that fades to silence.
 
Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck's albums Blow-By-Blow (197S) and Wired (1976) are among the freshest and most melodic instrumental albums to be recorded with a jazz-rock rhythm section. Beck stamps his personality on the genre, partly because he works to his strengths as a rock improviser. With Beck's strong thematic playing and the help of producer George Martin, Blow By Blow became a best seller. In this period, Beck produced a variety of sounds by using different touch techniques to give the electric guitar an intensely musical quality. His guitar ranges from a vocal immediacy to sounds that conjure up other instruments. Volume effects create a woodwind sound and Beck simulates synth-wheel "keyboard bends." He tends not to use heavy block voicing, instead laying down light, funk-influenced rhythm parts.

Beck takes a lyrical approach to Lennon and McCartney's "She's A Woman" and uses a voice-box effect to give strange, synthetic resonance to his words. His solo on "Scatterbrain" is bubbly and positive with glistening runs, and contrasts with one of his finest and most popular solos on Stevie Wonder's composition "Cause We've Ended as Lovers." This has an opening with sustained, keening calling notes followed by a delicate solo that builds up to an effusive climax featuring trills, sustained notes and bending, and call-and-response phrasing. On Wired, Beck continued in the same vein, with tracks such as "Sophie" displaying his abilities as a virtuoso rock-influenced improviser in exuberant exchanges with the keyboards. Following these albums, Jeff Beck has gone on to produce other highlights on albums such as There And Back (1980) in a guitar career that has seen continual evolution.