Transitioning to (and from) free jazz

I came to jazz in the late 1960’s. What hooked me-and still does- was my first exposure to recordings of Miles, Bird and Monk. For a brief period In the late 60’s and early seventies free jazz along with home grown fusion and jazz rock were the dominant strains in jazz- classic modern jazz struggled to get a hearing in those years. Free jazz was everywhere, and I was, briefly it has to be said, excited by it and sat at the feet of such UK free jazz luminaries as Mike Osborne, Keith Tippett, John Stevens, Elton Dean & Evan Parker listening to their exploratory improvisations. What excited me at these live performances in tiny venues around London was the cacophony, the daring, the risk taking and the intense listening that characterized the best free jazz ensembles of that period.

Probably the most effective advocate for free improvisation in this area was the sensational drummer John Stevens (1940-1994) whose formal musical training was in national service army bands and was a first call drummer to such jazz stars as Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott in the late 50’s and early 60’s. Stevens established the Little Theatre Club in Covent Garden as a haven for free jazzers and used it as basis for his tireless advocacy for un-constrained jazz forms. But he never forgot his roots and often turned up as a driving force in UK big bands, not least the large orchestra funded and led by Charlie Watts.

Stan Tracey the great pianist and composer who I have frequently referenced in my articles threw himself into the free jazz world following his self-imposed sabbatical following six punishing years as the house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s. His specifically free jazz playing only lasted a couple of years. Ultimately, he found it too chaotic, loud and unstructured, as did I. But he still found many opportunities to burn the rule book in his improvisations in his subsequent 40 years of recordings and performances. So, his brief immersion in free jazz seemed to have a lasting value.

What I now realize is that all the artists in both Europe (where Free Jazz has had a much longer lifespan) and the USA who embraced free jazz came up through a variety of mainstream jazz routes- studying and playing with the jazz masters, early groundings in church music, mastering the jazz repertoire including the great American songbook, deep understanding of jazz harmonies.

As an example, the pianist Cecil Taylor (1929-2018) the pre-eminent American master of free improvisation had a comprehensive understanding of jazz standards and the blues, evidenced by his early albums and these moorings are still evident throughout his 50 years of recordings from the point at which his repertoire became purely improvisatory by which I mean doing without music without song titles, structured harmonies, recognisable keys or time signatures. Saxophonists Pharaoh Sanders (1940-2022) and Albert Ayler (1936-1970) both came to jazz deeply immersed in the church music of their early years and those echoes are clearly audible in their extemporary playing. As an example, listen to Pharaoh Sanders’ The Creator Has a Master Plan which sold in huge quantities and continues to be sampled to this day.

Turning to the States I can identify three overlapping trends that fed into the fairly brief dominance of free jazz in the late 60’s and early 70’s

1. The Legacy of John Coltrane

Coltrane’s 20 year career continues to dominate contemporary jazz. In his last couple of years after he disbanded his classic quartet comprising McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison Coltrane set himself on a spiritual quest during which he played with an un-matched intensity and freedom. The album titles that he chose for that final period clearly signal the journey that he was on-Sun Ship, Living Space, Transition, Meditations. Archie Shepp, John Tchicai, Pharaoh Sanders, Rashied Ali and of course Alice Coltrane all of whom played with Trane in that period essentially became his legatees and disciples after his death.

2. Responses to the external political environment

Throughout the 50’s and 60’s jazz reflected the civil rights struggles of that era. Jazz musicians recorded tunes and whole albums that directly engaged with those struggles. The anger and frustration felt by contemporary black musicians were frequently expressed in freer compositions often with titles that directly referenced and challenged the ongoing struggles for equal rights. The Art Ensemble of Chicago and saxophonist Archie Shepp provided links between late Coltrane and specifically politicized jazz forms.

3. The European Avant- Garde

Connections between American jazz and modern European music go back to the 1930’s, and the influence worked in both directions. Charlie Parker had plans to study with Darius Milhaud in Paris. Milhaud, Stravinsky and even late Schoenberg were profoundly influenced by Jazz. The remarkable Birth of the Cool sessions recorded under the leadership of Miles Davis as early as 1949 while not technically free were certainly avant-garde in form and intention. These sessions were seen as revolutionary when they appeared if not by the musicians who produced them, all of them were profoundly marked by this experience, particularly I would say Lee Konitz and Gerry Mulligan and, of course Gil Evans whose hidden hand influenced the arrangements.

The Playlist

My guess is that I would not be thanked for putting our two plus hours of pure free jazz! Do let me know if you think this assumption is misplaced. However, if you do want to dive deep into the deepest American Free Jazz of that era, I could recommend Free Jazz (appropriately named) by Ornette Coleman, Thembi by Pharaoh Sanders, Albert Ayler’s Spiritual Unity or anything by the Jazz Composers Orchestra under Michael Mantler. The cover art on Ornette’s Free Jazz is, appropriately by Jackson Pollock

What I have chosen to explore are tracks by American jazz masters at a time when they were experimenting and open to a wider range of influences than might have been the case earlier in their careers. So, a favourite piano-less trio track from Lee Konitz is based on a reharmonized version of a standard-I Remember You, the tune is only hinted at the very end and it’s an extraordinarily free interpretation dating back to the mid-50’s.

Coltrane’s Ascension sits at the cusp of his final phase and Max Roach’s Triptych is a sometimes chaotic and violent response to the contemporaneous  political and racial environment. The closest to pure free jazz is a fascinating late 70’s collaboration between Ornette Coleman and Pat Metheny.

And I finish with East Broadway Run Down by my all time favourite sax master Sonny Rollins. Recorded shortly after his 2 year sabbatical on the Bridge with his musical antennae very much attuned to Ornette. Check out my earlier post on Sonny Rollins after the bridge here – www.mylifeinjazz.co.uk/episode/sonny-rollins-before-and-after-the-bridge/.