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free jazz
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What is free jazz?
Free jazz emerged in the late 1950s as an approach to jazz improvisation that reached its height in the 60s and has remained a major development since then. The main characteristic of free jazz is that there are no rules. Musicians don’t adhere to a fixed harmonic structure as they improvise; instead, they modulate at will.
Free jazz performers often improvise without observing fixed metres or tempos, and solo and accompaniment roles tend to be fluid. Effectively, free jazz began with the small groups led in 1958–59 by alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, from whose album Free Jazz (1960) the idiom received its name.
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How is free jazz different from other types of jazz?
Free jazz distinguishes itself from other jazz forms through its rejection of fixed structures. Unlike traditional jazz, free jazz musicians do not adhere to predetermined chord progressions or time signatures. Improvisation is central, with musicians modulating keys at will and phrasing in chromatic intervals and harmonies, sometimes achieving atonality.
Roles are fluid, and the balance between composition and improvisation shifts. Free improvisation, the ultimate form of free jazz, abandons fixed instrumental roles and harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic structures, eliminating composition altogether. Ornette Coleman's work in the late 1950s and early 1960s significantly influenced this movement, with his album Free Jazz (1960) giving the idiom its name.
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Who were some important musicians in free jazz?
Free jazz emphasizes improvisation without fixed rules, allowing musicians to freely modulate keys and tempos.
Key figures include Ornette Coleman, whose album Free Jazz (1960) gave the movement its name, and who developed the "harmolodic theory" that released jazz from fixed harmonic structures. John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy also created individual versions of free jazz. Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler were also innovators in free jazz.
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What instruments are commonly used in free jazz?
Free jazz emphasizes improvisation without fixed rules, and any instrument can be used. Common instruments include saxophones, especially alto and tenor saxophones, as exemplified by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, who were pioneers in the genre.
Other instruments frequently used are the trumpet, clarinet, trombone, piano, and drums. Some free jazz groups may exclude rhythm section instruments entirely.
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How do musicians improvise in free jazz?
In free jazz, improvisation throws out the rule book, freeing musicians from fixed harmonic structures and predetermined chord progressions. Instead, they can modulate keys at will, using chromatic intervals and harmonies, sometimes even exploring atonality through microtones, overtones, multiphonics, and tone clusters.
Improvisation in free jazz also often disregards fixed meters or tempos, with solo and accompaniment roles becoming fluid, as does the balance between composition and improvisation. This leads to free improvisation, which abandons fixed instrumental roles, harmonic, rhythmic, or melodic structures, and even composition itself.
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How did free jazz influence later styles of music?
Free jazz, which emerged in the late 1950s, has significantly impacted later music styles by breaking traditional jazz rules. This genre, characterized by the absence of fixed harmonic structures, allows musicians to modulate keys freely and improvise without adhering to set meters or tempos.
One notable influence of free jazz is its contribution to the development of jazz-rock, where the improvisation of modern jazz combines with rock music's instrumentation, drumming, and bass lines. Free jazz also stimulated composers to explore new sounds and melodic expressions, enriching ensemble music. However, the recurring patterns of rock tended to dominate, reducing jazz improvisation.
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free jazz, an approach to jazz improvisation that emerged during the late 1950s, reached its height in the ’60s, and remained a major development in jazz thereafter.
The main characteristic of free jazz is that there are no rules. Musicians do not adhere to a fixed harmonic structure (predetermined chord progressions) as they improvise; instead, they modulate (i.e., change keys) at will. Free jazz improvisers typically phrase in chromatic intervals and harmonies, and some achieve atonality while playing in microtones, overtones, multiphonics (simultaneous notes played on one horn), and tone clusters. Free jazz performers often improvise without observing fixed metres or tempos. Solo and accompaniment roles tend to be fluid, as does the balance of composition and improvisation in a performance. The ultimate development of free jazz is free improvisation, which combines all these qualities—using no fixed instrumental roles or harmonic, rhythmic, or melodic structures and abandoning composition altogether.
As early as the 1940s, jazz musicians, most notably pianist Lennie Tristano and composer Bob Graettinger, created a handful of works using free jazz elements. Effectively, free jazz began with the small groups led in 1958–59 by alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, from whose album Free Jazz (1960) the idiom received its name. Shortly afterward, saxophonists John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy and pianist Cecil Taylor began creating individual versions of free jazz. “Energy music,” later called “noise,” became an identifying label for high-energy, collective improvisations in which dense sound textures were created from furiously generated note sequences. In the mid-1960s Coltrane and fellow saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders adopted styles using soaring runs and distorted wails and shrieks, and Albert Ayler played saxophone solos using indeterminate pitches, multiphonic honks, and overtone screams. Such drummers as Sunny Murray and Andrew Cyrille accompanied these improvisations with pure accent and without direct reference to tempo or metre. Sun Ra’s Arkestra, with instrumentalists, singers, and dancers, enriched free jazz with a colourful sense of spectacle, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago and other musicians affiliated with that city’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians explored new sound colours and melodic expressions that returned an emphasis on lyricism to free jazz.
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There were other innovations as well: saxophonists Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy, and Evan Parker performed unaccompanied improvisations at their solo concerts, and unprecedented groups began to appear that had no rhythm section instruments whatsoever. Free improvisation also flourished in Europe and Great Britain, where native musical traditions often influenced the players as much as did traditional jazz. The Ganelin Trio from the Soviet Union improvised on Russian folk songs, and exiles from South Africa in the Brotherhood of Breath fused free jazz with kivela (kwela) music. The free-jazz idiom proved to be a stimulus to composers for large and small ensembles, resulting in a remarkable variety of composed music by Coleman, Barry Guy, Leo Smith, Henry Threadgill, Alex Schlippenbach, David Murray, Pierre Dørge, John Zorn, and Roscoe Mitchell, among others.