The Loft Generation

During this time innumerable artists settle in the warehouses and abandoned studios of certain areas of New York City and transformed them into living quarters, spaces for work and centers for distributing their records. In these places, the musicians were able to express themselves and produce their work without having to be concerned about the commercial aspects of the traditional clubs or disturbing their neighbors. Interdependent with the elders of free jazz, they were pre-occupied with the isolation of the free movement and gladly publicized their concern about returning to a rhythmic and melodic legibility. Thus, when they listened to Albert Ayler or David Murray, they made every effort to extract the lyrical dimension of the music.
 

David Murray

The new excitement - which corresponded to a similar feeling in all the arts - facilitated exchanges between the heirs to free jazz and bop. Nevertheless, Ornette Coleman then opened his 'harmolodic' universe in an entirely different direction. His funk quartet made a direct reference to the harshness of popular black music, inherited from James Brown.

James Brown

 ____________________

Accessories and Paroxysms

One hallmark of free jazz is that it rarely left any instrument out. In fact, its practitioners liked to play instruments other than the ones they specialized in.

Ornette Coleman plays violin during recording session for his album, 1966 (photo: F. Wolff)

Ornette Coleman, for example, decided to begin to play the violin and trumpet - despite a most rudimentary technique. Accidental sounds (squawks,squeaks,gurgles, bumps, bangs and so on) were integrated into the music.
 Drummers such as Sunny Murray decided to put the traditional notion of keeping time aside, choosing to vibrate, murmur and rustle instead.

Drummer Sunny Murray (left), with Gary Peacock, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry
Golden Circle, Stockholm, 1964

© Nils Edstrom/Ayler Records

   Blazing important trails for the future, free jazz was the answer to the concerns of a black community -and, more widely, an entire generation- in crisis. However, when the Beatles burst forth and rock music came to the fore, everything came together in a new way, relegating jazz to the periphery.

____________________

The Tenor Saxophone, Mouthpiece Of The Black Community In Revolt

John Coltrane exerted an unequaled fascination on the young generation. His predominant instrument, the tenor saxophone, was particularly meaningful to them. In the fifties, 'the howling' saxophones  of rhythm and blues had reinforced the virile image of the tenor; this image allowed for the most direct expression,from the low, violent-tempered register to the exasperation expressed by the shrill.

Archie Shepp

 
During the period of free jazz, three other instrumentalist in particular used it for the requirements of their respective projects. Pharoah Sanders continued the work of John Coltrane, with whom he had been associated for some time. He developed an extremely mystical and incantatory approach and borrowed exotic musical forms and instrument from many non-Western musical sources. Archie Shepp turned himself into a historian of African-American music through his emotional re-readings of John Coltrane, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, and soul, blues and gospel music. Albert Ayler dared to scream. Mixing the most naive melodies for children with densely resonant fabrics, he placed conventional language beyond expression, favoring the immediacy of feeling.

Albert Ayler

____________________