The idea started in the summer of 2008 when bassist Jonas Reingold and guitarist Roine Stolt got together to develop some ideas that were under the unfashionable label of "fusion".

For those of you who are not familiar with the phrase "fusion", or are too young to remember the wild & vivid 70's of bellbottom denims, Shure SM 58 haircuts, Rhodes pianos with fuzz-wha, ring modulator & drum kits bigger than a school bus. It's a music form that fuses jazz, rock, african, electronics, folk or any other music form known to man or animal.

The bands that were at the forefront some 30 years ago were the masters Weather Report, Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, Billy Cobham & George Duke Band etc. They were known to play faster than the NASDAQ drops and were all fearsome gunslingers, but by late 70's a lethal cocktail of record company greed, lounge jazz, 3 minute synthpop with big boobs, lame haircuts and the Deadly Linndrum(!) made them all less popular, or in some cases obsolete.

But as any fan of good music knows they just went away from mainstream & the limelight cause the media and corporate music-biz lawyers couldn't see any commercial potential in it anymore.

Anyway to carry on... When our two heroes Reingold & Stolt, of a considerably later vintage, decided to break some new ground, it all started with Stolt playing a few tunes he considered to be his tribute to the late, great Joe Zawinul to Mr Reingold and within hours the duo had jumpstarted to arrange these tunes and some of Jonas' material. Hey, this sounded fresh and up to date, fusion wasn't dead, what a relief!!! Time to restore the Rhodes piano & Minimoog!!

The intention of this new combo was to explore a more rootsy and "with a bit of grit" fusion with a groove, we hope for a funkier, more electric, like a bastard son of Band of Gypsies and early Weather Report or Headhunters afrofunk & fusion.

.....and we're hoping to bring it to you LIVE in a not so distant future.

Ready to groove?

Roine Stolt & Jonas Reingold

August 2009

(Source: http://www.myspace.com/3rdworldelectric)

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