FREE JAZZ – A BRIEF INVOCATION
"Is jazz dead? Well, I guess that all depends on what you know."
-Lester Bowie
"Free jazz reaches back to what jazz was originally, rebelling against the ultra-sophisticated art form it has become."
-Archie Shepp
"I go out onstage, and my intention is to make the first four rows bleed from their ears."
-Sonny Sharrock
Don Cherry
Free jazz—a place of outsize personalities, outrageous stories, and uncompromising music. There’s the performer who plays so hard that keys fly off the piano. A bandleader who claims to be from Saturn and outfits his 20-piece orchestra in space gear. The saxophonist whose ragtag gospel marches were cited by Paul McCartney as a major influence on Sgt. Pepper’s. The world traveler who finds a common ground between the music of Marrakech and Brooklyn. The pianist who creates spectacular glissandi by dragging his knuckles across the keyboard, playing until his hands bleed. The musician whose ear-shattering shows often end in fist fights with the audience. The avant gardist whose recital moved President Jimmy Carter to tears at a White House Jazz Festival. The player many believe was killed by the CIA. The group that dons tribal gear and lab coats, performing music that swings between vaudeville and African chants. And the free jazz legend whose music touched so many lives that a church was founded in his name and uses his music as liturgy.
Albert Ayler
A FEW COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FREE JAZZ
(aka Avant Garde Jazz aka Out Jazz aka That Horrible Racket)
1. IT’S ALL JUST CACOPHONOUS NOISE.
Well yeah, some of it is really noisy. That’s the strain of the music that’s influenced folks such as Sonic Youth, Black Dice, The Boredoms, Wolf Eyes, The Stooges, Lightning Bolt, MC5, and the like. Think of it as ecstatic freak-out music. The sort of thing that will peel back the lid of your skull and rearrange your atoms.
But that’s only one small part of the music. Free Jazz spans 50 years and numerous countries and includes music that’s so delicate it’s practically ambient as well as tunes with a funk beat strong enough to shake the dance floor. Not to mention the pieces that showcase echoes of melodic folk music, Indian rhythms, minimalist repetitions, gutbucket blues, Hendrixian squalls, orchestral grandeur, big band exotica, electronic beats, proto-punk swagger, and much more. It’s an entire continent of sound represented by tens of thousands of albums and approaches. Once you start digging, you’ll be amazed by the sheer variety and vitality. There’s something for just about every taste – all you need is a slightly open mind.
2. I DON’T KNOW HOW TO LISTEN TO FREE JAZZ.
OR: HOW DO YOU TELL THE GOOD STUFF FROM THE BAD?
Relax and trust your instincts. Most people automatically assume that there’s something in Free Jazz they’re not getting. Like you need conservatory training to appreciate what the musicians are doing. Or that there’s some secret content you’re not privy to. Nonsense. It’s just sound. Sometimes complex and abrasive, sometimes funky and buoyant. There’s no code to be broken. Don’t worry. As Gertrude Stein once said: “There’s no there there.”
A newcomer listening to Free Jazz isn’t substantially different than someone who’s just discovering indie rock or electronica or reggae or whatever. The more you listen, the more you explore, the more you expose yourself to different facets of the music, the more likely you are to find what you turns you on. Maybe Ornette Coleman grates on your ears. Fine. Be honest with yourself and keep looking, because maybe Sun Ra or Matthew Shipp will excite you. Ask friends. See what trustworthy critics are recommending. All that.
If you can, try to see some Free Jazz live. Pieces that may demand a fair amount of concentration when they’re coming out of your speakers often seem effortlessly absorbing in person. You may rush to turn off a Cecil Taylor album the first time you hear it, but live you won’t be able to take your eyes off the man. In performance, the passion and exuberance of the music is impossible to miss.
3. IT’S TOO OUT THERE FOR ME.
Maybe. But if you’re already listening to some pretty out shit like Radiohead, Xiu Xiu, Deerhoof, Sonic Youth, Mouse on Mars, Aphex Twin, ambient-era Brian Eno, TV on the Radio, and even some parts of Yo La Tengo, then you’re ready. Without knowing it, you’ve already been listening to Free Jazz filtered through other sensibilities. Some of the classic Free Jazz recordings might even sound too tame!
Sun Ra
LISTENING TO FREE JAZZ: WHERE TO START
Just follow the link to Destination: Out. We’ve got a selection of Free Jazz’s “greatest hits” for you to sample on MP3. For free. Don’t be shy. (* Note from DC: this 'greatest hits' section no longer exists, but the site itself is an astounding resource, so don't let anything stop you.)
www.destination-out.com
The tracks at Destination: Out offer 10 starting points, depending on your tastes. There are songs for those who like heavy funk. Pieces with propulsive electronic grooves. Tunes with a Kraut Rock drone vibe. Haunted ambient soundscapes. Trippy freak-folk workouts. Songs with screaming electric guitars. Gentle Indian-inflected trance music. Proto-punk noise with breakbeats. Pissed-off bluesy torch songs. Etcetera.
Destination: Out is a site I run with a friend that offers rare and out-of-print Free Jazz tracks. If you like what you hear from the “greatest hits,” scroll down and check out the other songs we’re currently hosting: African-jazz by The Brotherhood of Breath, eccentric world-music mash-ups by Don Cherry, heavy metal dirges by Last Exit, pure shredding noise by Japanese speedfreak saxophonist Kaoru Abe, and Julian Priester’s amazing disco-meets-La Dusseldorf space grooves.
Starting next Monday, we’ll return to our usual schedule of posting new tracks twice a week. So there’s plenty more to come. We also have links to other Free Jazz blogs, musician sites, and information about labels, stores, and radio stations.
Derek Bailey
GALLERY
Miles Davis
FREE JAZZ LINKS AND RESOURCES:
Thurston Moore’s Top 10 from the Free Jazz Underground
(originally appeared in Grand Royal magazine). A passionate list and lots more: here
The Real Godfathers of Punk – Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Albert Ayler. What? You thought maybe it was Iggy?: here
Gary Giddins Roadmap to Post-War Jazz. An entertaining history of the music, using one track to represent each year. Gives a good sense of how Free Jazz fits into the so-called tradition: here
The definitive Kozmigroov Index –aka good jazz fusion. “Kozmigroov is a transgressive improvisational music which combines elements of psychedelia, spirituality, jazz, rock, soul, funk, and African, Latin, Brazilian, Indian and Asian influences culminating into an all encompassing cosmic groove.” Righteous: here
The European Free Improvisation Pages picks up the story of Free Jazz as it heads across the Atlantic: here
The Restructures page has links to interviews and discographies of just about every Free Jazz musician you can name: here
Cecil Taylor
A FEW ESSENTIAL BOOKS AND DVDS:
FOUR LIVES IN THE BEBOP BUSINESS
by A.B. Spellman
Forget the Bebop in the title –this book contains long and insightful profiles of Free Jazz luminaries Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor. It also has sections on Jackie McLean, who was doing adventurous work at the time, and neglected genius Herbie Nichols. One of Lester Bangs’ favorite books. Essential reading. here
BLACK MUSIC
by Amiri Baraka
Written when he was still LeRoi Jones, Black Music is an on-the-scene report from the front lines of Free Jazz during the 1960s. It brilliantly highlights the radical politics and racial issues that were often at the core of the music. here
AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE: The Story of the New Jazz
by Valerie Wilmer
Written in the late 1970s, both as Free Jazz was coming into its own and as the musicians were facing increasingly harsh economic struggles. A nice overview of the music and a bristling advocacy of the avant garde aesthetic. For updates on where the music went from there, see the later half of Gary Giddins’s encyclopedic Visions of Jazz. here
NEW YORK IS NOW!
By Phil Freeman
A fresco of the New York Downtown scene circa the late 1990s. Provides useful and occasionally pointed information about key musicians such as Matthew Shipp, Davis S. Ware, William Parker, and Charles Gayle. here
MADE IN AMERICA: A Portrait of Ornette Coleman by Shirley Clarke
DVD
This great documentary by legendary underground filmmaker Shirley Clarke is long out of print. However, Downtown Music Gallery in NYC has DVD copies for sale straight from Clarke herself. Run, don’t walk: here
ALL THE NOTES: Cecil Taylor
DVD
Rather than a conventional overview of Taylor’s life, this quirky doc allows you to hang out with Cecil as he rehearses his big band, listens to music in clubs, and talks at home about his influences and artistic theories. A charming and intimate portrait of a genius. here
THE CRY OF JAZZ
DVD
Filmed in Chicago in 1959, The Cry of Jazz is an essay on the politics of music and race. It predicted the civil unrest of subsequent decades and features rare footage of visionary pianist Sun Ra from his Chicago period. here
Pharaoh Sanders
YOU TUBE: CLIPS OF THE GODS
Witness the incredibly surreal spectacle of Ornette Coleman and Prime Time on SNL – introduced by Milton Berle. Did this really air? Weird and incredibly funky. (* Note from DC: This clip has since been removed due to copyright violation, but here's a great clip of Ornette Coleman live in Germany in 1987.)
A solo performance by piano god Cecil Taylor from Imagine the Sound doc. It starts slow and lyrical then whips into a firestorm. See if you can keep up with his hands.
Miles Davis and his crack electric band performing at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. More of a slow simmer than a full-on bitches brew, but still gives an idea of the man’s power.
Lastly, here’s a series of brief minute-long palette cleaners from John Zorn’s amazing Naked City band, featuring Eye from the Boredoms. Live thrash mayhem from the recent MacArthur “genius” grant recipient. Yes, this is jazz!
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