Free jazz

Free jazz is a movement of jazz music characterized by diminished dependence on formal constraints. Developed in the 1950s and 1960s, it was pioneered by artists such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon and Paul Bley. Some of the best known examples are the later works of John Coltrane.

History

Ornette Coleman is often regarded to have crystallized the free jazz form in the late 1950s, and many consider his first explorative albums to be the beginning of the movement.

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Indeed, the style owes its name to Coleman's 1960 recording Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. He intended it only as an album title, but the term quickly became synonymous with the current adventurous innovations in jazz, and eventually became the name of a movement and style.

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In the 1960s, the loosely-defined movement was sometimes called "Energy Music" or "The New Thing".

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There were earlier precedents, however. Two songs by pianist Lennie Tristano are sometimes cited as the earliest free jazz. "Digression" and "Intuition" were both recorded in 1949; neither had prearranged melody, harmony or rhythm. Both songs maintained a sense of harmonic consonance, however, which is undermined in most free jazz.

Related Topics:
Pianist - Lennie Tristano - 1949 - Melody - Harmony - Rhythm

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Most of Sun Ra's music could be classified as free jazz, although Sun Ra said repeatedly that his music was written and boasted that what he wrote sounded more free than what "the freedom boys" played.

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Some of Charles Mingus's work was also important in establishing free jazz. Of particular note are his early Atlantic albums, such as Pithecanthropus Erectus, The Clown, and Tijuana Moods, in which he employed a compositional technique of humming tunes to his players and allowing them to feel their own melodies.

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Since the mid-1950s, saxophonist Jackie McLean had been exploring a concept he called "The Big Room", where the often strict rules of bebop could be loosened or abandoned at will. Similarly, Cecil Taylor, the most prominent free jazz pianist, began stretching the bop boundaries as early as 1956.

Related Topics:
Jackie McLean - Bebop - Cecil Taylor - 1956

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The trio led by Jimmy Giuffre with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow between 1960 and 1962 received little attention during their original incarnation, but afterwards were regarded as one of the most innovative free jazz ensembles.

Related Topics:
Jimmy Giuffre - Paul Bley - Steve Swallow

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Eric Dolphy's work with Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, and Chico Hamilton, along with his solo work, helped to set the stage for free jazz in the music community.

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