From music writer Alex Coles, Fusion! From Alice Coltrane to Moor Mother traces the origins and legacy of fusion by focusing on twelve collaborations that pursue it as a creative process. From Alice Coltrane working with Carlos Santana in 1974 to Moor Mother sharing the mic with Wolf Weston in 2022, each collaboration generates a tension essential to fusion.

With sonic fusion being premised on cultural fusion, the tension in the collaborations Coles features finds musicians using the fusion of genres to explore fusions of generations, eras, philosophies, sensibilities, idioms, histories, and even continents. This tension is heightened when the musicians hail from contrasting musical genres, typified by free jazz trumpeter Don Cherry recording with Lou Reed and Kendrick Lamar cutting tracks with saxophonist Kamasi Washington.

Fusion! pushes the music of overlooked musicians—such as post-punk singer and saxophone player Lora Logic and Japanese vocalist Kimiko Kasai—to the fore while emphasizing overlooked aspects of the oeuvres of better-known figures such as Joni Mitchell and Neneh Cherry. Each of the examples Coles selects are driven by a dynamic sonic or compositional principle coined by the musicians themselves, characterizing their unique approach to fusion.