The musical extremes - free jazz and improvised music

The recent Coltrane thread proves that some people here share my love for the free form jazz and improvised music. Therefore I thought to start this thread, where we can share our experiences about this music on a positive note I hope

If any of the following names ring a bell and sting a heart - please let's hear from you - adding more (and there are so many more) names is not only welcome but even required:

John Coltrane (late period), Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, Eric Dolphy, Alber Ayler, Tony Oxley, Derek Bailey, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Baby Sommer, Peter Brotzmann, Gunter Hampell, Harold Rubin......

 

live medeski martin & wood, jazz mandolin project, michael ray & the cosmic crew

 

I kinda came of age listening to free jazz in the mid 1970's. A friend immersed me in the music, and dragged me into Manhattan to see/hear the music live.Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, David Murray,Warren Smith, Sam Rivers, Arthur Blythe,Sunny Murray, Khan Jamal, so many other names.It was a great time to see music. Small spaces, lofts, galleries, clubs where you got up close and could see the musicians sweat, great memories of some great concerts. Some not so great concerts also but that's par for the course.

 

For some reason, Archie Shepp is often overlooked in these discussions.

 

I enjoy Charles Mingus, though I would never call him free form. He is very melodic and always (almost always?) states the melody line firmly at the beginning of each piece. Outstanding improvisation follows. Much of his work is heavily influenced by the big band sound which is so not free form (he sarted his career in big bands).

I often choose Mingus to introduce people to improvosational jazz. It requires them to stretch, but is hopefully not beyond their capabilities. when introducing friends to less accessable jazz I find it is important (and perhaps imperative) that they hear the music on a nice sounding system. On ipods, for example, the subtleties and rich tember of the instruments are lost and it's often too difficult to enjoy. I sometimes get a hankerin' for hard-core free form (for example Don Cherry), but no longer attempt to introduce others to it unless they insist.

 

Listen to the Art Ensemble of Chicago and Roscoe Mitchell records. Doesn't get much better than that. Also, the recently reissued Bennie Maupin Jewel in the Lotus on ECM, while not exactly avant-garde, certainly doesn't fit neatly into any jazz sub-category.

 

I've listened to this category of music off and on over the years. It isn't my first "go-to" choice of music but there are times when nothing else will do. I guess my overall preference is for music that straddles sections of composition with sections of free improv. I like how Henry Cow managed to balance those in some of their recordings. Fred Frith's Massacre is another good one for that; Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra album is kinda like this too.

When I'm most in the mood for free improv I throw Ascension on for a spin. I have fond memories of going to see Fred Frith and Joey Baron in an improv concert at The Knitting Factory in 1995. I also enjoyed listening to Last Exit...I had their first album and Koln. I also had Sonny Sharrock's Guitar album. I'm really glad he emerged from obscurity before his passing.

Some of Henry Kaiser's work is quite striking...I really like two of his longer improvs: Shadow Line and It's A Wonderful Life. I like some Derek Bailey stuff. I haven't heard it in ages but I used to listen to his concert album with Anthony Braxton. I've been meaning to re-buy Ornette's Song X...used to enjoy that. I have some Nels Cline stuff and he's great.

I couldn't really get into John Zorn's pure improv stuff but his more accessible material with Naked City and the various forms of Masada are great.

I love everything I've heard with Eric Dolphy. I have a couple of Andrew Hill albums which I like a lot - not sure if he fits in this discussion.

I remember watching that movie "Imagine The Sound", mostly for Cecil Taylor's volcanic performances. Speaking of piano, I also enjoy some of Keith Tippet's work.

For this type of music there are some pieces that I like every time I listen to them. And then there are pieces that are really a matter of hit or miss depending on my frame of mind. There are definitely moments where a piece has clicked with me and it really resonates...then I return to it the next day and the connection has vanished and the piece is again impenetrable. I also have similar experiences when listening to some difficult modern orchestral and chamber compositions (eg. by serialists and aleatoric composers). But I don't let this bother me. I consider this genre (if you can call it that) and indispensable part of my music collection.

(Speaking of 'modern' composers, there are some Derek Bailey pieces which sound to me like a deliberate attempt to imitate the work of Anton Webern. He admits that Webern was an influence on him in his terrific book Improvisation.)

 

I stopped listening to free/improvised music for a while but recently I am into it again!!! I particularly like Otomo Yoshihide (including his Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra (ONJO) and New Jazz Quintet (ONJQ)). He has an album taking on the music of Eric Dolphy's Out to Lunch (http://www.doubtmusic.com/dmf-108_e.html) which is worth well having it. If you like it, then you should be interested in his two recent live sets, Series Circuit and Parallel Circuit. Both are 2-CD set.

Supersilent is from Norway and they play fantastic free/improvised music. Their live performanace can be seen on DVD "7" and the latest output is "8", both of which are awesome!

 

The Old New Thing: A Free Jazz Anthology - The History Of ESP-Disk (Abraxas/ ESP Disk, 2007)



It seems to be interesting. Has anyone got it?

 

watched the Keith Jarrett doco The Art of Improvisation on the weekend. must get that Koln Concert pieces sound stunning.

 

Wrong thread I'm afrad No problem

 

I love Minus myself and there is plent of pretty free jazz in some of his pieces, especially when Dolphy played with him - see the Antibes concert. Brilliant composer of course.

Don Cherry played on both side of the line and he was always one of the most open-minded musicians willing to take part in all kinds of situations. Love his highs

 

I hope not - a very important player and some great contributions, although lately he was one of the poeple who gradually returned to more "conventional" playing.

 

I don't but I do have all the ESP releases so I suppose nothing new in this for me?

 

That's probably a good list for people who are interested in persuing this subject. In addition, they might want to read Derek Bailey's book on improvisation. Quite a good read.

Cheers,
Chris

 

Yes I agree - great book! (It was mentioned already BTW by eeglug). So sad he's no longer with us.

 

I'm glad you started this thread. In fact, right now I am listening to Circle's "The Paris Concert". This was my first experience in the free form/improv thing back in the early 70's. This stuff is like escargot to some folks. The concept is initially weird, but dip it in some butter and it's splendid!

 

Oh that's a beauty - early ECM with Chick & Braxton - what a great record - one of my all time favs!

 

Great stuff - all of it. Good that you mentioned the Rock improvisers as well - the entire RIO movement is so interesting. I tried to discuss that earlier here, but so few people ever heard about this...well, here we are to mention it again.

 

Free Jazz and Improvised Music in Israel

Here are a few words on the subject:

Israel is a tiny country (contrary to popular beilef ) and the music scene, although quite active, is sized proportionally.

The main "players" in the field of Free Jazz and Improvised Music are:

1. A group of musicians active under a cooperative created by bass player Jean Claude Jones, called the Kadima Collective and based in Jerusalem. The group includes about 20 players and releases album under their own record label.

www.kadimacollective.com

2. Famous Russian pianist / composer Vacheslav Ganelin (his recordings from his Sovier era are legendary and can be found on the UK Leo Records), who immigrated to Israel, has a group of mostly ex-Russian musicians, performing improv music with them. Ganelin now teaches music at the Tel Aviv music academy.

3. Clarinet player Harold Rubin, one of the greatest improv players in the world, is quite active despite his advanced age and keeps recording, constantly creating new groups with young players, who in time under his influence slowly build up the next generation of free / improv players in this country. Most of Harold's album have been released on my label Jazzis Records.

4. A few other artist, including Albert Beger, the greatest Israeli Free Jazz saxophonist, record for a small independent label called Third Ear Records.

Not that much, but we try....

 

How about a group whose profile appears in jazz, rock and classical reference guides - AMM. I really love their stuff. I just checked my list and I have 14 AMM discs. That doesn't include things like solo releases (or other projects) by Keith Rowe.

In a similar vein is Musica Elettronica Viva (more commonly known as MEV).

Cheers,
Chris

 

Those were the days. http://www.amazon.com/Loft-Jazz-New...d_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1194800146&sr=1-3

 

Wolfgang Dauner Group :Fur

a totally out there album

 

MEV reunited this past summer at Tanglewood as part of a composers born in 1938 program. But no horns. Garrett List and Steve Lacy contributed a lot to their sound and musical direction. Although I like AMM as well, I don't hear much musical commonality between these two groups, aside from the fact that I enjoy listening to both.
Richard Teitlebaum of MEV was an early practitioner of triggered electronic sounds. What happens is that a computer interface notes what the player is doing and responds with its own sounds. This type of sound production has been in use for years by a number of musicians/composers including Pierre Boulez, George Lewis, Neil Leonard and others.

 

Dauner was indeed one of the greatest protagonist of the German / European scene and his early stuff is quite free, but later period was manily Fusion - nothing wrong with it of course - great Fusion

Other great German musician was of course Albert Mangelsdorff, the master of trombone and close associate of Dauner.

Joachim Kuhn was another, as was his brother Rolf.