FREE JAZZ: Pick Only Ten

off the top of my head:

1. cecil taylor unit- it is in the brewing luminous
2. albert ayler-spiritual unity
3. Peter Brotzmann octet- machine gun
4. milford graves- grand unification
5. sonny sharrock- black woman
6. anthony braxton- bo47a (loads of symbols, can't remember)
7. patty waters- sings
8. cecil taylor- silent tongues
9. john coltrane- last concert
10. alice coltrane- universal conciousness

01. Maurice McIntyre "Humility in the Light of Creator" (beautiful AACM album with vocals that sound almost like native american chanting)
02. Bjorkenheim/ Haker Flaten/ Nilssen-love "Scorch Trio"
03. Pharoah Sanders "Karma"
04. Sonny Sharrock "Black Woman"
05. Joe McPhee "Nation Time"
06. Phil Ranelin "The Time is Now"
07. Sun Ra "Space is the Place"
08. Ray Russell "Secret Asylum"
09. John Coltrane "Meditations"
10. Albert Ayler "Spiritual Unity"

oh yeah, The Ear of the Behearer is a great album. i'm pretty sure there are vocals on it too.

albert ayler - spiritual unity
cecil taylor - the eighth
horace tapscott - the dark tree
bley/peacock/motian - not two, not one
die like a dog quartet - little birds have fast hearts
jimmy giuffre - free fall
don cherry - complete communion
ornette coleman - the shape of jazz to come
jemeel moondoc - revolt of the negro lawn jockeys
dave douglas - sanctuary

glad you posted this. I'm feeling myself entering a period of jazz/improv listening, which I've been neglecting recently.

Also, for some interesting stuff on the vocal tip - try to track down Sainkho Namtchylak and Kang Tae Hwan - Live, or Jaap Blonk / Fred Lonberg-Holm / Michael Zerang - First Meeting.

Ornette Coleman - "The Art of the Improvisers" or "Shape of Jazz to Come"
Sun Ra - "Magic City" or "Cosmic Tones For Mental Therapy" or "Heliocentric Worlds Vol. 1"
Albert Ayler - "In Greenwich Village"
Anthony Braxton - "Five Compositions (Quartet) 1986"
Caffeine (Ken Vandermark/Steve Hunt/Jim Baker) - s/t
Junk Genius (Ben Goldberg/John Schott/Trevor Dunn/Kenny Wollesen) - s/t
Nels Cline Trio - "Ground"
Matthew Shipp - "Equilibrium"
Steve Lacy - "Revenue"
Clusone 3 - "Rara Avis"

(Some may dispute the classification of some of the more recent ones, but they're at least influenced by free jazz, if not quintessential free jazz.)

I guess we're all working with different definitions here. I guess I can sort of see the distinction Julio makes but I tend to conflate these strains of playing.

I'm sure Julio is aware that at least the Brotzmann, Braxton, and Waters records on his list feature large bits of composed music :)

...also some of his European live recordings with Mingus sound extremely engaging. Not that those are exactly free jazz.)

2. Spiritual Unity - Albert Ayler

3. Machine Gun - Peter Brotzmann

4. Duo Exchange - Rashied Ali and Frank Lowe

5. Interstellar Space - John Coltrane and Rashied Ali

6. For Alto - Anthony Braxton

7. Atlantis - Sun Ra

8. Nefertiti, the Beautiful One Has Come - Cecil Taylor

9. Hoffman Estates - Loren Mazzacane Connors/Alan Licht

10. Four Compositions - Tony Oxley

Surely you're joking. I dig mazzacane and Licht as much as the next guy, but that record was aping Miles, not Cecil. and, if i may be so bold, not aping very successfully.

Oh but yeah, swap out Leaf Palm Hand on my list for Nefertiti; I did my list off the top of my head and the former was the first Cecil disc that came to mind.

I don't have the energy for 10 (or for arguing about what's free jazz), but here's some that come to mind:

--Wadada Leo Smith, 'Golden Quartet'
--Art Ensemble of Chicago, 'Fanfare for the Warriors'
--New York Art Quartet
--anything with John Butcher
--Fred Anderson 'Quartet vol. 2'

''I'm sure Julio is aware that at least the Brotzmann, Braxton, and Waters records on his list feature large bits of composed music :)''

free jazz= composed with large chunks of improv (I think the one exception is the milford graves record).

improv= fully improvised.

but anyway, its all good ;)

hey I'll try and track down number 9 on andrew's list.

it always pisses me off to see large nos. of ESP releases in such lists, to me more to do with the continued availability of the ESP stuff on ever changing labels, as they are continued to be rolled over with one wonders how much if any money going back to the artists

not that the ESP stuff isn't good, but that there is so much music on a myriad of weird smaller labels that just isn't in print, and including them might give a fairer idea of the total contributions to the "new thing" music by so many often collective or anyway non-central-person entities

david keenan's "fire music" primer in The Wire is hopelessly biased towards the more agressive and verging on political voice-of-black-rage of the "free music"

and, "free" means different things to the musos on ornette coleman's session, members of the various chicago collectives, members of braxton's and taylor's ensembles, and interestingly to Sam Rivers as he discussed it in The Wire recently (and Rivers was the centre of so much activity by others as one of the main people who bothered organising the ny "loft scene")

so what about David Murray's early material for example ? doesn't that count because of the later style shifts ?
and hasn't Coltrane been superceded, more an influence on other sax players who went on to refine 'tranes limited vocabulary than an important composer in 2003 ?

free music, it's the last sort of music you'd expect followers to arrange around icons like 'trane and ayler
but then 'top ten' is an almost impossible question, given that there's no real hierarchy, that the whole scene was ant-hierarchy/ rock star/ concept album -- imposes a 'rockist' value system, records as collectible items with a "hit parade"

pick only one hundred would be slightly fairer

right on, George, for this last post and yr Dead C / Opprobrium post. Agreed.

i refrain from submitting top 10 lists.

give us a few examples maybe.

''pick only one hundred would be slightly fairer''

sure. lists are usually something i don't do bcz they are always unfair and so on but I just 'let it go' once.

(julio you shd have said 11, that's a much more avant garde number)

Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures
Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz
Coltrane - Ascension
Coltrane - Meditations
Coltrane - Interstellar Spaceways
Sun Ra - Atlantis/Magic City
Alice Coltrane - Universal Consciouness
Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity
Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch
Peter Brotzmann - Machine Gun

Frank Wright, Frank Lowe, Noah Howard, SOnny Sharrock, FJF, DKV Trio, Barrage Double Trio, AALY Trio, Marzette Watts, Alan Silva, Test, Willem Breuker, Matthew SHipp, ICP Orchestra, Globe Unity Orchestra, Evan Parker, and numerous others who didn't make my brainstormed list also deserve mention as having done superb stuff.

Coltrane's Meditations, alsop mentioned above, is so extreme when it gets going, I challenge you no to laugh out loud!

A third I'd recommend is Collaboration West - Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne et al ... an album recorded a mere 8 years after World War 2, which sounds 10 years ahead of its time.

In no particular order:
Ayler/New York Eye & Ear Control
Hemphill/Dogon. A.D.
Berne/SAnctified Dreams
DKV Trio/Wels & Chicago
Anderson/On the Run
AEC/Phase One
Aaly Trio wsg/I Wonder if I was Screaming
James Ulmer/Tales of Captain Black
Shepp/Yasmina a Black Woman (cuz somebody already mentioned Magic of Juju)
Ali/Prima Materia/ Bells

crap, that's ten and I didn't even get to Myra Melford or Crispell or Maneri or, or, or....

Another attempt to deliberately avoid the stupefyingly obvious, 'cause everyone KNOWS that Interstellar Space and Out To Lunch and Unit Structures really belong here, right? And, yeah, I know I'm kinda taking liberties with the term "free jazz" - that's for the same reason.

Cecil Taylor Unit - s/t or One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye
Revolutionary Ensemble - The Psyche
Mike Osborne - Border Crossing
Dewey Redman - Tarik
New York Art Quartet - s/t
Grachan Moncur - New Africa
Anthony Braxton - Quartet (London) 1985
Milford Graves - Percussion Ensemble
Han Bennink - Nerve Beats

Sonny Simmons/Prince Lasha--Firebirds

Marion Brown--Sweet Earth Flying

Muhal Richard Abrams--Levels and Degrees of Light

Jacques Coursil Unit--Way 'Head

Clifford Thornton--Ketchaoua

Leo Smith & New Dalta Akhri--Go In Numbers

Andrew Cyrille-Maono

Marilyn Crispell--Spirit Music

Art Ensemble-Les Stances a Sophie (one for you free jazz plus vocals freaks)

I am late to the jazzbo party, but, in no particular order..

Don Cherry & Ed Blackwell "Mu" (treating two LPs as a double, for sake of uh... this list.)
Frank Lowe & Rashied Ali "Duo Exchange"
Roscoe Mitchell "Sound"
Alan Silva "Skillfulness"
Revolutionary Ensemble "The Psyche"
Claude Decloo "Africanasia"
Frank Wright Quintet "Your Prayer"
Pharaoh Sanders "Karma"
Ornette Coleman Trio "Live At The Golden Circle" (see note for "Mu")
Sonny Sharrock "Black Woman"

and so many more.

there's sort of a split here between pure "free" stuff and "new thing" jazz. i wouldn't call "live at the golden circle" free jazz, really.

if we're just talking about pure "out" free-blowing energy music i'd say

dave burrell - echo
alan silva - skillfullness
coltrane - ascension
sonny sharrock - black woman
nels cline - interstellar space
peter brotzmann - nipples (better than machine gun)
marzette watts - backdrop for urban revolution

off the top of my head, i gotta think a little more

"free jazz" = not allowed to be pretty!

leo cuypers - heavy days are here again?

For the pretty stuff I'd go for Marion Brown's "Afternoon of a Georgia Faun", George Lewis "Homage to Charles Parker" and Sirone's "Artistry" (the latter purely bcz it doesn't have any horns while still managing to be pretty corrosive with it). Art Ensemble 'numbers', or at least its opening seconds, are so goofy they're kinda friendly.

okay, so on my list, stuff you would disqualify include, what, the Sanders, Delcloo and Ornette? I think the Cherry/Blackwell records are really pretty, too.

So if I replace all those, how about these:
Giuseppi Logan Quartet LP on ESP
Shepp "Mama Too Tight"
New York Eye & Ear Control
C. Taylor "Unit Structures"

yeah. i mean, i don't mean to be the free jazz police but i really think there's something diff't going on between, say, pharoah / delcloo / alice coltrane on one hand and sun ra / art ensemble / shepp / ayler on the other and coltrane / brotzmann / ornette on the last hand

"new york ear and eye control" = SO dope

delcloo is mega-dope too, though

sun ra is in a category of his own, tho.

also now sure i'd put brotzmann in with tran & ornette, though I'm not super familiar with his work, having heard only Machine Gun.

now = not. i dunno. i ain't no jazzbo, i just like HEAVY JAMMERS/

Brotzmann you'd put with Ayler, esp when you think about that kinda corny tune that closes out 'Machine Gun'.

the thing about brotzmann + coltrane is that it's "energy music" / "fire music" what have you, right? like explosively scribbling out over all the lines. whereas there's other stuff that's about deliberately breaking w/ the western tradition but in a much more controlled way. and i don't mean to say that coltrane's not deliberate or in control of his music, but when ornette coleman is playing w/ the master musicians of joujouka or shepp is playing w/ street musicians it might sound "free" to our ears but that's not to say these african musicians are deliberately pushing into chromaticism the way coltrane and brotzmann were.

also, by vahid's standards i guess wendell harrison's "evening with the devil" or the ju ju records aren't free either? but maybe "spiritual jazz"? xpooooost

i'd throw ayler in with sun ra and shepp and art ensemble though because a big part of their whole thing is this performance and ritual aspect to it, and also deliberately tweaking and reworking pre-jazz african american music

i hate the term "spiritual jazz"

don't you find shepp to be playing in that same energy/sound tradition too? i think ayler fits somewhat in that direction as well, though with a more primitive-yet-refined way of phrasing and less of an all out BLURT kinda feel. xp AGAIN

right now i am listening to Jimmy Lyons "Other Afternoons"--do you consider that to be free jazz, rather than something else? There are definitely melodic lines and somewhat composed structural ideas, but the predominant feel is one of somewhat-reined-in collective improvisation.

i also am not fond of the term spiritual jazz, but it's better than black jazz isn't it?

(unless one is referring to the black jazz label specifically, that is.)

i guess they all do different things at different times. pharoah sanders has that part of "balance" (from izipho zam which is easily his dopest and why hasn't it been reissued?) where it turns into this incredible drown, he and the other 2 saxophonists just produce this unholy ROAR that sounds like you're listening to a field recording of the sun.

the tribe / black jazz stuff maybe i'd lump with things like clifford thornton and pharoah sanders and don cherry. maybe also shepp, too. it's sort of a post-avant garde jazz take on "fourth world" music, isn't it?

haha "drown" maybe i mean DROUWNE, like a drone that drowns everyone else out

taxonomy is important

the predominant feel is one of somewhat-reined-in collective improvisation

i think a good way to describe "live at the golden circle"?

Yes, and I would consider that to be free jazz! Not in an extreme "fire music" type of way, like all those ESP and Actuel albums, but it's a music that is certainly liberated from standard, nineteen fifties conceptions of how jazz music ought to sound and play out.

The whole "Fire Music" is a bit...unfortunate. Braxton's music from the late 60s does throw that off. Explosive, lots of lines that melt in your eardrum yet you feel he is incredibly controlled, tight, proper composerly (='white'?).

Coltrane (and Ayler) there is a 'spirituality' that they are clearly at pains to communicate across, so you are getting this weird tension with what they're getting against what someone like Frank Kofsky was hearing (this is a revolution in sound, at pains to communicate something of its Bolashevism).

many xposts = yes, liberated from structures, but by very different means to achieve that end

yeah i maybe it's better to say that there's different "free jazz"s under the "free jazz" banner and i'd be interested to move toward a taxonomy for free jazz

incredibly controlled, tight, proper composerly (='white'?)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

'Bolshevism', I mean

braxton ain't no gentrifier.

rather sixties-ish vintage white bolveshivsm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_jazz

^^^ have fun, vahid.

Well, I hear a frozeness (as in more tightly plotted solo) to the way Braxton articulates his lines that reminds me of someone like Brian Ferneyhough ("Cassandra's Dream Song"). Not saying its bad or good, but this is what I hear what he's coming up with.

one of my picks -

https://f-a-t-a-k-a.bandcamp.com/album/a-field-perpetually-at-the-edge-of-disorder

Nice that they quoted me on the Bandcamp page. Here's my full review, from four years ago.