ornette coleman was regarded as the first free jazz musician.
ornette coleman was regarded as the first free jazz musician.
who was regarded as the first free jazz musician?
ornette coleman
free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. although the music produced by free jazz composers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s. each in their own way, free jazz musicians attempted to alter, extend, or break down the conventions of jazz, often by discarding hitherto invariable features of jazz, such as fixed chord changes or tempos. while usually considered experimental and avant-garde, free jazz has also oppositely been conceived as an attempt to return jazz to its "primitive", often religious roots, and emphasis on collective improvisation. free jazz is strongly associated with the 1950s innovations of ornette coleman and cecil taylor and the later works of saxophonist john coltrane. other important pioneers included charles mingus, eric dolphy, albert ayler, archie shepp, joe maneri and sun ra. although today "free jazz" is the generally used term, many other terms were used to describe the loosely defined movement, including "avant-garde", "energy music" and "the new thing". during its early and mid-60s heyday, much free jazz was released by established labels such as prestige, blue note and impulse, as well as independents such as esp disk and byg actuel. free improvisation or "free music" is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician(s) involved. the term can refer to both a technique (employed by any musician in any genre) and as a recognizable genre in its own right. free improvisation, as a genre of music, developed in the u.s. and europe in the mid to late 1960s, largely as an outgrowth of free jazz and modern classical musics. none of its primary exponents can be said to be famous within mainstream; however, in experimental circles, a number of free musicians are well known, including saxophonists evan parker, anthony braxton, peter brötzmann and john zorn, drummer christian lillinger, trombonist george lewis, guitarists derek bailey, henry kaiser and fred frith and the improvising groups the art ensemble of chicago and amm.
counterculture of the 1960s
as free jazz, or 'improvised music' grew and developed as a popular genre of music in europe, so did its supporters – both casual and scholarly. while there had always been a close association between free jazz and political and social strife in europe, many supporters of the genre began pushing to depoliticize the music, urging listeners to consider free jazz as an art form rather than simply a provocative statement on society bereft of any actual musicality. many listeners of the time believed that, "free jazz was as much a political as a musical phenomenon". during this time, there were fears that if free jazz was only considered as a mechanism for political commentary, that it would lose its validity as an art form, or at worst, be subject to censorship by european governments. due to this possibility, there was a surge amongst the free jazz community to dissociate the word "free" with the political environment it is so commonly associated with. in addition to the depoliticizing of this genre of music, other critics asserted that,"were jazz to be valued henceforth according to its capacity to reveal something of the social conditions under which it was produced or the political beliefs that its producers espoused, then its relevance for those outside the particular community from which it issues would be limited. in other words, by only associating jazz or free jazz with a particular ideology or thought process, in effect only those of a similar thought process can understand or appreciate it fully. rather, if the free jazz genre was dissociated from the view that it is simply a vehicle for political commentary, and instead it was viewed objectively as a form of art, it would not only would be accessible to a larger audience, but it would allow itself to be judged as an art rather than the political statement it may or may not be attempting to make.
european free jazz