Do you Free Jazz?
I do and have done since the 1980s and being in close proximity to Bill Dixon’s Black Music Department during my time at Bennington College (1983-85) moved things into high gear. Record labels like ESP-Disk’, FMP, Impulse!, Soul Note, and BYG Actuel introduced me to what seemed like a near endless world of radically new music splintering off into sub-genres like some great wild river. I had the good fortune of seeing Bill Dixon and Milford Graves perform a number of times both on and off campus as well as other practitioners of the art including Peter Brötzmann, John Zorn, Cecil Taylor, and Matthew Shipp to name a few.
While it felt as if I was swimming in that river, I’ve come to learn I barely dipped a toe and I know this because of a book titled Free Jazz and Improvisation on LP and CD 1965 – 2024 by Johannes Rød that recently came out in a second expanded edition from Norway’s independent record label Smalltown Supersound.
Here’s Johannes Rød on the new edition:
This book is both a revised new edition, and a continuous extension of my book published by Rune Grammoon in 2014: Free Jazz and Improvisation on Vinyl 1965-1985. The timespan dealt with has expanded from 20 to 49 years (1965 – 2024); the number of labels has grown from 60 to 185. All the records presented here were either originally released on vinyl or originally in the CD format. As a music lover, the two formats have always been equally interesting. As a collector, the vinyl format used to be more interesting. After my research for this new and revised edition, for me the two formats tend to balance equally. There is a musical treasure hidden in the last 30 years of CD production that tends to be forgotten in today’s trend to focus on vinyl. It is one of the main purposes with this book, to forward this information to all of you.
I agree with and embrace Rød’s open arms approach to music formats for one big obvious reason—it’s inclusive! As far as I’m concerned the more music the merrier, format be damned.
I only recently received my copy but I’ve already marveled at the sheer number of musicians, labels, and records that are new to me and if you know anything about me, you know that discovering new music and reading are among my favorite things and of course looking at pictures and there’s a small treasure of wonderful album covers to devour as well.
Anyone interested in this fascinating, rich, and wild world of music should consider Free Jazz and Improvisation on LP and CD 1965 – 2024 a necessary addition to your library.
I’ll let Swedish free jazz saxophone player Mats Gustafsson have the last words:
Here you have it. The Book. The Guide. To a better living. A very cool and definite guide to find free jazz and related behaviours and matters. Improvised music in all kinds of shapes and forms. Geographical, gender and cultural related perspectives. Historical and ideological focuses, It is all in here.
I go daily to my record collection, my archive, for both information AND inspiration. It is a SLOW process. It has to be slow. To really go deep. To really mean something to me. Online search is too fast for me. I need the analogue way. The slow way. Where the beautiful chain reaction of creative associations is allowed to be at play. One thing leads to the other. Which leads you in unexpected ways and paths. Changing the way you look at the world. The way you hear the world around you.
DIG IN, enjoy and start your own research. It is all in front of you! Johannes Red has created a unique possibility for all of us. It is a deep well of knowledge and music. It is the most FUN ride you can make: into the (un)known world of improvised music!
Get Free Jazz and Improvisation on LP and CD 1965 – 2024 from Boomkat.
10 Favorite ‘Free Jazz’ Records (an intro)
Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic Records, 1959)
Alberty Ayler: Spiritual Unity (ESP-Disk’, 1964)
Cecil Taylor: Unit Structures (Blue Note, 1966)
The Bill Dixon Orchestra: Intents and Purposes (RCA Victor, 1967)
Peter Brötzmann Octet: Machine Gun (BRÖ, 1968)
Lowell Davidson: Lowell Davidson Trio (ESP-Disk’, 1969)
Archie Shepp: Blasé (BYG Actuel, 1969)
Pharoah Sanders: Deaf Dumb Blind (Summun Bukmun Umyun) (Impulse!, 1970)
Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda (Impulse!, 1971)
Don Cherry: Brown Rice (EMI, 1975)