Writing About Free Jazz

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I am listening to tons of stuff on Atavistic's Unheard Music Series & to some Albert Ayler, and writing about what I hear is difficult/challenging/fun! but I wonder: who are the people to read if I want to hear what people have to say about this sort of music?

― J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:26 (twenty-three years ago)

It is difficult when writing about this stuff, for me, not to get even more impressionistic/willfully subjective than is already required by music writing.

― J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Try these:

One Final Note

Signal to Noise

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Dan Warburton occasionally gets lazy and copies press releases, but much of the time he's quite good:

www.paristransatlantic.com

He also writes for Signal to Noise and The Wire.

For books: Val Wilmer's As Serious As Your Life, mostly about '70s American free jazz, and John Swzed's (sp?) book on Sun Ra are good. So is a recent book called The Future Of Jazz, which contains some excellent writing about free jazz, even though I find some of the opinions sort of infuriating.

― charlie va (charlie va), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:44 (twenty-three years ago)

second vote for As Serious as Your Life. Also:

Improvisation by Derek Bailey

Forces in Motion (about Anthony Braxton) by Graham Lock

You could also check Four Lives in the Bebop Business by A.B. Spellman, which, although older, covers some relevant territory (sections on Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor).

― arch Ibog (arch Ibog), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Does Roland Kirk count as Free Jazz?
If so, the biog Bright Corners is good. If he doesn't count as FJ, the book is crap.

― Horace Mann, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:56 (twenty-three years ago)

sheesh! am I a moron, that should be Bright Moments.

― Horace Mann, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 19:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Third vote for Val Wilner, also check out her Jazz People.

Second vote for the Derek Bailey book (although it's about a ton of genres, not just free jazz).

John Litweiler's books are okay (the two I know are his Ornette bio and his free jazz overview Freedom Music).

There's a David Such book on more 1970s/1980s free stuff/players that I'm forgetting the name of right now, but it's okay.

Frank Kofsky's Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music is okay, although from a slightly more sociopolitical standpoint (as you could probably guess by the title).

And of course, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka's stuff, esp. Blues People and Black Music.

Magazines that cover it well I think are Bananafish, Cadence, maybe Broken Face (that's Mats Gustafsson's zine) uh, some other occasional indie zines that I can't think of right now.

Online, there's freejazz.org, blastitude, Opprobrium (can't find the URL), couple more.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 19:29 (twenty-three years ago)

http://web.pitas.com/tashpile/cecilT.html

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 19:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh and Signal to Noise and Resonance and 50 Miles of Elbow Room in the zine category.

Hi jess!

― hstencil, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 19:32 (twenty-three years ago)

(shhh.)

― jess (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 19:37 (twenty-three years ago)

There's some good (and not so good) stuff at Jazz Weekly (free jazz centered), a lot of the good stuff being in the interviews.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:29 (twenty-three years ago)

It is difficult when writing about this stuff, for me, not to get even more impressionistic/willfully subjective than is already required by music writing.
There's a lack of a precise vocabulary with which to talk about this music. I definately find it difficult to explain why I like a particular free record/performance over another (I find the same problem with less tradionally "musical" electro-acoustic/abstract electronic music - they are similar in many ways). Phil talks about this in detail in this thread.
There's a book by Ekkehard Jost called "Free Jazz" that attempts to write about the music in theoretical/analytical terms and it's worth reading. I second the recommendation of Bailey's Improvisation book, too.
Val Wilmer's "As serious as your life" is decent but I found it lacking in the musical criticism department. As I remember it, there was a lot of simplfying things down to avant-garde = "real jazz" = good vs. mainstream jazz = "fake sell-out jazz" = bad. It doesn't want to admit that a lot of free records were total ass. To its credit though, it lets the musicians themselves tell the story in their own words. It's been a while since I've read it, mind you.
hstencil: Is the Such book "Avant-Garde Jazz Musicians: Performing "Out There"? I only skimmed through it but there was a hilarious chapter on the significance of musician's slang. I guess it's worth it for that. I really need to read Blues People...

― James Annett (jlannett), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:32 (twenty-three years ago)

''And of course, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka's stuff, esp. Blues People and Black Music.''

absolutely get some baraka.

val vilmer's book is flawed but it's a ggood source for biogs and it has some interesting (not musical) insights.

didn't max harrison write on jazz but I can't find anything.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:43 (twenty-three years ago)

''Online, there's freejazz.org, blastitude, Opprobrium (can't find the URL), couple more.''

opprobium URL: http://www.info.net.nz/opprobrium/html/eindex.html

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:45 (twenty-three years ago)

''For books: Val Wilmer's As Serious As Your Life, mostly about '70s American free jazz, and John Swzed's (sp?) book on Sun Ra are good.''

the sun ra book is triffic! he has got a biog of miles published and it has got some good reviews. anyone at ILXOR read this?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:47 (twenty-three years ago)

hstencil: Is the Such book "Avant-Garde Jazz Musicians: Performing "Out There"?

Yeah, that's the one.

Wilmer's book is probably more interesting from a "this is how these musicians live" perspective, which for me is important too.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I really recommend the Litweiler Freedom Jazz. Yes, the writing can be stilted and he is a bit of a tool in person, but if you want a quick & dirty primer this is a great place to start. It takes a chronological approach, starting with the roots in the modal jazz movement and winding up in the European scene, and devotes chapters to the major historical figures along the way (Coleman, Coltrane, Ayler, Taylor).

I would read this and then the Wilmer, which reads more as a communique from the front-lines. It devotes chapters to many of the less publicized figures (Graves, Sharrock, others I'm forgetting and I can't find my book) from the time, and is written in a more passionate personal/anecdotal style. This can at times be grating (woe is the plight of the poor free jazz musician).

maybe Broken Face (that's Mats Gustafsson's zine)

True, but that's not the Mats Gustafsson (the reedist); it's another fellow with the same name and the coverage veers more towards the indie/psych realm.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:10 (twenty-three years ago)

weird, I always assumed it was the same guy.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:11 (twenty-three years ago)

''True, but that's not the Mats Gustafsson (the reedist); it's another fellow with the same name and the coverage veers more towards the indie/psych realm.''

yes, the broken face guy does post on drone on: whenever a new issue comes out he posts the contents: list of psych stuff...i always wanted to email him abt whether he was THAT mats gustafsson but of course I didn't. thanks for clearing it up.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I dunno though. I've seen some things by Mats the saxist in various magazines, and it lines up pretty well with what Broken Face covers.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:51 (twenty-three years ago)

damn it hstencil! now you come back to confuse this 'issue' again!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:55 (twenty-three years ago)

well hey I didn't see any definitive proof. Mats is a "diskaholic" after all, why couldn't he be into tons of shit besides free jazz?

― hstencil, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:00 (twenty-three years ago)

heh, OK.

but being on the road, cutting a few discs himself a year and then having time to organize a fanzine abt these lovely obscurities as well...must be a bit of a stretch (maybe not).

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:07 (twenty-three years ago)

I was on a mailing list where he posts, and someone did ask him if indeed he was "that" Mats. He replied that he wasn't but gets asked that often; in fact he said he hoped to arrange an interview between them at some point!

Also, I just noticed that the correct title of the Litweiler is "Freedom Principle".

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe not. He doesn't seem as lazy as Thurston Moore...

; )

Thanks for the clarification Mr. Diamond.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:10 (twenty-three years ago)

heh...

thanx diamond.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:11 (twenty-three years ago)

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