Free Jazz

Overview & Synopsis

The only musical work (of any genre) to have given its name to an entire movement, “Free Jazz” remains shrouded in a halo of contradictions and polemics that has obscured its musical reality and sometimes distorted its analysis. Without disputing its manifesto value or its revolutionary character in many respects, the present book proposes to situate this album - with its unique format and instrumentation - in its time and in the musical journey of Ornette Coleman and his partners. It looks at the finer points (pre-existing themes, individual and collective improvisation) in the light of the two existing takes, and also shows how the album draws on the new technological resources available to recording (particularly stereophony). An overview is also given of the reception of “Free Jazz” and its immediate and more distant consequences. Ultimately, the book invites readers to reflect on how a “historic” album is invented, but also, despite its still puzzling nature today, to risk listening to it fully and attentively.