Free Jazz

A Research and Information Guide

Jeff Schwartz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780367734459
• eBook ISBN: 9781315311753
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Jazz Music

Free Jazz: A Research and Information Guide offers carefully selected and annotated sources on free jazz, with comprehensive coverage of English-language academic books, journal articles, and dissertations, and selective coverage of trade books, popular periodicals, documentary films, scores, Masters' theses, online texts, and materials in other languages.

Free Jazz will be a major reference tool for students, faculty, librarians, artists, scholars, critics, and serious fans navigating this literature.

1
General and Topical Works

General Works

1. Anderson, Iain. This is Our Music: Free Jazz, the Sixties, and American Culture. Philadelphia: U of PA P, 2007. 254 p.

Critical history of the superstructure of free jazz, tracing the formation of a jazz establishment in the 1950s, then the challenges that Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and their advocates presented to its musical postulates, those Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sanders, and their advocates presented to its organizational ones, and intersections of these challenges with Civil Rights and Black liberation movements. Subsequent chapters discuss Black nationalism and the music, centered on LeRoi Jones and the Black Arts theater, attempts to organize alternative performance situations, particularly by the Jazz Composers Guild and AACM, and to remove the music from market pressures through academic and nonprofit support.

2. Backus, Rob. Fire Music: A Political History of Jazz. Chicago: Vanguard, 1976. vii, 104 p.

Primarily quotations, largely drawn from Downbeat, presenting a narrative of Black music as radical critique, culminating in free jazz. Archie Shepp is the dominant voice, with Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Ornette Coleman, and Horace Tapscott also prominent. Particular attention is given to exploitation by club owners and record companies and to musicians’ collectives and independent labels as responses. While each musician has their own experience and analysis, Backus’ general framework is Marxist, understanding African-America and the Black Belt of the South in particular as internal colonies.

3. Bakriges, Christopher G. African American Musical Avant-Gardism. Ph.D. dissertation. North York, Ontario: York U, 2001. xiii, 421 p. www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk4/etd/NQ67904.PDF

Discusses the coding of the bebop-era vanguard as “hot” and “cool,” then applies Poggioli’s theory of the avant-garde to African-American creative music, before considering specific examples: the October Revolution and Jazz Composers’ Guild, then the music and texts of George Russell, Yusef Lateef, Leo Smith, Marion Brown, Glenn Spearman, and William Parker. Bill Dixon runs through both sets of examples and his collaboration with Judith Dunn receives its own chapter. Bakriges concludes with the European reception of the music, African-American artists becoming expatriates, European independent labels becoming the major recording outlet for African-American creative music, and European musicians developing their own improvisational art music, with the Dutch his example. Original interviews were conducted in person and by mail with Brown, Dixon, Lateef, Parker, Russell, and Spearmann, as well as with Roswell Rudd, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, and John Tchicai.

4. Borgo, David. “Negotiating Freedom: Values and Practices in Contemporary Improvised Music.” Black Music Research Journal. 22:2 (2002). 165–88.

The concurrent emergence of free jazz and of open forms in European composed music are traced in parallel for assumptions about freedom. George Lewis’ Afrological/Eurological division is applied and tested, and a number of major issues, including the value of recordings of free improvisations, the relevance of criticism, and the role of gender, are presented in what is, in large part, a literature review of theoretical work.

5. Carles, Philippe, and Alexandre Pierrepont, eds. Polyfree: La Jazzosphère, et Ailleurs (1970–2015). Paris: Éditions Outre Mesure, 2016. 352 p.

Steve Lacy’s description of his work as “polyfree” frames an anthology on the expansion and decentering of jazz after the 1960s. There are four groups of articles. The first explores jazz’s intersections with “traditional musics” (meaning non-Western) “contemporary musics” (extensions of the European notated tradition), electronics, rap, and rock. The second focuses on various American scenes and artists, and the third scenes outside the US. Items from these two sections are listed separately (702, 1063, 1333, 1740, 1743, 1832, 1850). The final group of essays is topical: collective improvisation, photography, genre, nonidiomatic improvisation, silence, percussion, vocalists, the status of women in the music, and jazz education in France. A timeline and selected bibliography and discography are included. All texts are in French.

6. Cerchiari, Luca, ed. Il Jazz Degli Anni Settanta. Milano: Gammalibri, 1980. 260 p.

Italian-langauge survey of 1970s jazz, with articles surveying the 1970s recordings of Anthony Braxton, “The American Avant-Garde,” which includes Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Sam Rivers, Gato Barbieri, Steve Lacy, Archie Shepp,—the members of the AACM and BAG, and David Murray and Arthur Blythe, and European free improvisers. There is also an article on Italy, consisting of interviews with Giorgio Gaslini and Black Saint/Soul Note Records head Giovanni Bonandrini and several chapters not dealing with free jazz.

7. Corbett, John. A Listener’s Guide to Free Improvisation. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2016. xvii, 172 p.

Advice for newcomers, organized in part as a field guide, such as birders might use, this text can also challenge fans and artists to approach the music differently and serves as a statement of Corbett’s aesthetics. He addresses interaction, form, duration, musical vocabulary, and the social experience of venues, and includes lists of recommended albums, books, and performers.

8. Delcourt, Maxime. Free Jazz. Marseille: Le Mot et le Reste, 2016. 279 p.

An introduction focused on the French and American scenes, with an introductory essay followed by artist entries arranged chronologically from Charles Mingus and Cecil Taylor to Colin Stetson and Kamasi Washington. Each includes a career overview and lists of recommended recordings. In French.

9. Giddins, Gary, and Scott DeVeaux. Jazz. New York: Norton, 2009. xx, 553 p.

Jazz history textbook featuring play-by-play accounts of selected pieces, with descriptions of musical events with timing and structural markers to guide listeners, such as “0:30, first solo chorus, bass begins walking.” For free jazz, it discusses the first section of Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” Coleman’s “Lonely Woman,” Cecil Taylor’s “Bulbs” and “Willisau Concert, Part 3,” Albert Ayler’s “Ghosts,” David Murray’s “El Matador,” Anthony Braxton’s “Composition 58,” and Ronald Shannon Jackson’s version of “Now’s the Time.”

10. Heister, Hanns-Werner. Musik Aktuell: Analysen, Beispele, Kommentare. Vol. 5: Jazz. Basel: Bärenreiter Kassel, 1983. 120 p.

Jazz survey text with musical examples, concluding with Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz (the analysis here is largely drawn from 162) and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra (with two of the source themes provided in their original versions). In German.

11. Hodier, André. “Free Jazz.” The World of Music. 10:3 (1968). 20–29.

Hodier sees free jazz as defined by the break with standard repertoire: popular songs or original compositions which emulated their forms. He looks in vain for an artist who can transcend the negation of old structures and values.

12. Jarrett, Michael. Pressed for All Time: Producing the Great Jazz Albums from Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday to Miles Davis and Diana Krall. Chapel Hill: U of NC P, 2016. xxiv, 303 p.

Primarily based on interviews with recording engineers, producers, and other industry figures, as well as artists, this selective survey of jazz recordings includes a significant number of free jazz albums by Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Eric Dolphy, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sam Rivers, Sun Ra, Dave Holland, Anthony Braxton, Alice Coltrane, Charlie Haden, James “Blood” Ulmer, Henry Threadgill, Wayne Horvitz, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, Bobby Previte, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Hal Russell, Bern Nix, Evan Parker, Paul Bley, Barre Phillips, Marilyn Crispell, the Italian Instabile Orchestra, the Ganelin Trio, and Arcana (a Bill Laswell project including Sanders and Byard Lancaster, among many others). Anecdotes range from a paragraph to several pages per album.

13. Jenkins, Todd S. Free Jazz and Free Improvisation: An Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 2004. lxxxv, 468 p.

Composed primarily of biographical entries ranging from a few sentences to a dozen pages, also covering ensembles, record labels, collectives, festivals, venues, and concepts. Entries are unsourced and are primarily commentary on selected recordings. An introduction, two prefatory essays, and a chronology provide historical and musicological context for the encyclopedic portion.

14. Klopotek, Felix. How They Do It: Free Jazz, Improvisation und Niemandsmusik. Mainz: Ventil, 2002. 221 p.

The free jazz section includes a brief theoretical preface and essays on Cecil Taylor, Fred Anderson, Hamid Drake, Milford Graves, Charles Gayle, Peter Brötzmann, and Franz Hautzinger; the postserialism one pieces on AMM and Keith Rowe, and one entitled “Guitar Renaissance” an interview of Derek Bailey plus profiles of Eugene Chadbourne and Olaf Rupp. In German.

15. Litweiler, John. The Freedom Principle: Jazz After 1958. New York: Quill, 1984. 324 p.

History of free jazz with chapters on Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, the AACM, Cecil Taylor, fusion, and European improvisation. Each primarily describes selected albums, framed by biographical and historical material from journalistic sources and original interviews.

16. Martin, Henry. Enjoying Jazz. New York: Schirmer, 1986. xv. 302 p.

Introductory textbook with historical and music theory chapters prefacing annotations of key recordings, from Louis Armstrong to Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters. Free jazz is represented by Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” and Cecil Taylor’s “Enter Evening,” with an excerpt from the leader’s solo on each transcribed and briefly analyzed.

17. Morris, Joe. Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music. Stony Creek, CT: Riti, 2012. 180 p.

Partially a manifesto and partially selections from the lecture notes/syllabus/outline for Morris’ courses on the history, theory, and practice of free music, it moves from the general to the specific: an abstract introduction, then a map of issues addressed in free musics (pulse, interaction, form, etc.); followed by studies of four major approaches: Unit Structures (Cecil Taylor), Harmolodics (Ornette Coleman), Tri-Axiom Theory (Anthony Braxton), and European Free Improvisation; and concluding with answers to a questionnaire from fifteen improvisers, including Marilyn Crispell, Charles Downs, Simon H. Fell, Mary Halvorson, Joe McPhee, Nicole Mitchell, William Parker, Jamie Saft, Matthew Shipp, Ken Vandermark, and others.

18. Nicholson, Stuart. Jazz: The 1980s Resurgence. New York: Da Capo, 1995. ix, 402 p.

A record guide organized by subgenre. The chapter “Wither Freedom?” groups artists around their mentors: Ornette Coleman’s cluster includes Don Cherry, Dewey Redman, Bobby Bradford and John Carter, James “Blood” Ulmer, and Ronald Shannon Jackson, Cecil Taylor’s Marilyn Crispell and Steve Lacy, and Coltrane’s Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders. The AACM and BAG share a category, incorporating Henry Threadgill with and without Air, Anthony Braxton, Chico Freeman, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Lester Bowie solo. Arthur Blythe fits into this group through his association with Horace Tapscott’s UGMAA collective, and Bob Stewart becaus...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 General and Topical Works
• 2 Pioneers and Predecessors
• 3 New York 1—the New Thing
• 4 Chicago, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Other US Scenes
• 5 International
• 6 New York 2—Loft Jazz, Downtown, and Beyond
• Author Index
• Subject Index