Other conceptions in free jazz

On the one hand-On the other hand: Albert Ayler (1936-1970, sax)- Energy and Black Tradition

- comes from an Afro-American middle class family, played in RnB bands and in the army, stationed
in the

EU, first records recorded here

- hardly any success in USA, only in 1964 with Cherry, Gary Peacock, Sunny Murray on ESP; although
promoted by

promotion by Coltrane, but hardly any performances.

- Attempt from 1967 on Impulse! to connect with contemporary Afro-American pop music.

- In 1970 Ayler was found dead for unexplained reasons.

- On the one hand, Ayler plays with the concept of sound arcs: deformation of the melody line into
waves of overblown notes.

waves of overblown notes, which do not allow any assignment to definite pitches => contour of the
sound arch emerges

the contour of the sound arc comes to the fore

- on the other hand his playing is strongly connected with Black Music (Gospel, Blues, RnB), the
sound is

the tone soft, pathos-laden with a wide vibrato ("I want to play something that people can hum
along to") or also

humming along to") or also based on marches.

- Expression is important (more than virtuosity)

- Ex: "Ghosts First Variation", "Truth Is Marching In", "Prophets" ("Catapult Theme"), "Message

from Albert/New Grass" and "New Generation".

Other Conceptions in Free Jazz

Criticism, empowerment and utopia of Afrofuturism: Sun Ra (1914-1993, p, synth, comp)

- born Herman "Sonny" Blount in Birmingham, where he saw many African-American jazz bands;

early talent on the piano, playing primavista and writing down arrangements from

memory

- 1945 Moves to Chicago, first recordings with Wynonie Harris "Dig This Boogie" (1946),

works with Fletcher Henderson, Coleman Hawkins

- 1952 he officially takes the name Le Sony'r Ra and founds the Space Trio.

Fifties he performs in Space/Egypt costumes; psychic experience (unclear whether in 1930s,

40s or shortly before) and the experience of racism:

- "Everything possible has been done and the world didn't change" (Sun Ra) =>.

Development of an Astra Black Mythology (Lock 1999): "alternative mythic future (outer

space) and past (ancient Egypt) for African Americans".

- In the mid-1950s he founded the indie label Saturn Records with manager Abraham.

from then on an almost unmanageable number of recordings are released.

Other concepts in free jazz

Criticism, empowerment and utopia of Afrofuturism: Sun Ra (1914-1993, p, synth, comp)

- Move to New York in 1961 opens up a new phase that goes beyond the big band swing or RnB
sound of the Chicago period: opening up of the big band format to free jazz concepts in the Arkestra
(continued by Marshall Allan after Sun Ra's death):

- Musical and economic problem solved through intensive rehearsals and communal living

living together in commune

- Other free jazz big band attempts of the time e.g. Jazz Composers' Orchestra (1968)

led by Mike Mantler, Carla Bley (among others Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Ph.

Cherry, Roswell Rudd, Pharaoh Sanders, Gato Barbieri); Globe Unity Orchestra,

conducted by Alexander von Schlippenbach (1966); London Jazz Composers

Orchestra, conducted by Barry Guy 1970

- Ex.: "Brainville" and "Future" (1957); "Dreaming" The Cosmic Rays (1960), "Music from the

world tomorrow" (rec. 1960); "Nebulae" and "Heliocentric" from The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra

(1966), "Space is the place" (1973 => film Space is the Place from 1974, https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=7iAQCPmpSUI, beginning and from 22:05 min.

White on white canvas: John Coltranes Ascension (1965)

- Coltranes dritte Phase der klanglichen Exploration

- „We did two takes, and they both had that kind of thing in them that makes people

scream. The people who were in the studio were screaming. I don‘t know how the

engineers kept the screams out of the record. Spontaneity was the thing“ (Marion

Brown, zit. nach David Wild im Booklet, S. 6).

- „The emphasis was on textures rather than the making of an organizational unity. There
was unity, but it was a unity of sounds and textures rather than, like, an A B A approach“

(Archie Shepp, zit. nach David Wild im Booklet, S. 6).

- tp - Dewey Johnson, Freddie Hubbard; as - Marion Brown, John Tchicai; ts – John Coltrane,

Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp; p – McCoy Tyner; b – Art Davis, Jimmy Garrison; dr – Elvin

Jones

- Modalität in Kollektivimprovisationen (b-äolisch - d-phrygisch - f-phrygisch) und Spiel mit

instrumentaler Klangfarbe

Ascension und die Folgen: Neue Konzeptionen im Free Jazz

- „After you paint a canvas that’s completely white and hang it up in a museum, you’ve gone as far

as you can go ... what are you going to put on it? That’s what happened with the avant-garde:

Coltrane got to the white canvas with Ascension, and after that in Chicago you had guys like

Lester Bowie and Muhal Richard Abrams who came out of free jazz but were playing a whole

different way – they were using melody, they were using rhythm-and-blues rhythms, whatever

they wanted. Coltrane had given us a new canvas and we could begin on that again” (Giddins,

zit. n. Shipton 2007: 587).

Art Ensemble of Chicago

- Gegründet 1968 (1969 lt. Grove) in Chicago durch

• Lester Bowie (1941-1999, tp), Roscoe Mitchell (sax, 1940), Joseph Jarman (sax, 1937),

Malachi Favors (b, 1927-2004); Famoudou Don Moye ab 1970

- produktiver Frankreich-Aufenthalt mit Touren durch Europa

- „Great Black Music - ancient to the future“ als Motto => eklektizistischer Mix

- Spiel mit Klangflächen „um ihrer selbst Willen“

- Integration von Sprache fortgeschritten, Nähe zu zeitgenössischem Musiktheater: Gesang,

Rezitation von Poesie, Wort als Signal und Symbol, Worte als Mittel der Verfremdung - oder

einfach nur als Gag, Kostümierungen

- Bsp.: „Jackson in your house“, „Get in line“, „Ja“

The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM)

- AACM founded in 1965 in Chicago, emerged from the Experimental Band around Muhal
Richard Abrams

Purpose of the AACM

The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians is a tax exempt, non-profit organisation

founded in 1965 in the state of Illinois. The organisation has a nine-point mission that has been

has remained constant throughout the association's existence.

AACM mission

1) To encourage young musicians and to create music of a high artistic standard through
programmes

aimed at promoting creative music.

2) To create an atmosphere that provides opportunities for the artistically inclined.

3) To provide free training for disadvantaged youth in the city.

4) Promoting employment opportunities for musicians.

5) To set an example of high moral standards for musicians and improve the image of creative
musicians.

musicians.

6)To increase respect between creative musicians and music makers.

7)To uphold the tradition of cultured musicians handed down from the past.

8)To encourage the spiritual growth of musicians.

9)To support other complementary charitable organisations.

So why are so many collectives emerging in free jazz?

- Reasons:

- Economic lack of success

- Experience of powerlessness

- Politicisation through the Black Power Movement

- => new understanding of the role of the jazz musician:

- Taking control over all areas of "musicking" (Small 1998) => DIY

- Solidarity as a means (and political goal)

- Politicisation of one's own role and expansion of the sphere of influence in school,

cultural, music-industrial spheres

- Stages:

- Alternative Newport Festival 1960: Mingus and Roach

- October Revolution in Jazz 1964: Bill Dixon (tp)

- Founding of the Jazz Composers' Guild and other organisations

Examples of collectives in free jazz: USA

- Black Artists Group (BAG)

- Black Arts Movement

- Boston Society for the Creatively Concerned

- Collective Black Artists, Inc.

- Detroit Artists Workshop

- Jazz and the People's Movement

- Jazz Artists Guild

- Jazz Composers' Collective

- Jazz Composers' Guild (Composers' Association)

- Jazz Composers' Orchestra Association (Jazz Composers' Association)

- Workshop for Jazz Composers

- Jazzmobile

- STRATA

- Tribe

- Union of God's Musicians and Artists Ascension (UGMAA)

- Union of Underground Musicians (UGMA)

Examples of collectives in free jazz - Europe

- Europe:

- Association pour la Recherche d'un Folklore Imaginaire (ARFI, 1969 Lyon),

- the "Professional Association of Improvising Musicians" (BIM, 1971 Amsterdam)

- "JazzHausInitiative" (1979, Cologne).

- German Jazz Federation (DJF, for journalists, musicians, promoters), from 1952, then

split-off of jazz musicians to form the UDJ, only active again since 1996

- UDJ (Union of German Jazz Musicians, founded in 1973 in Marburg); only renamed in 2019 to
Deutsche

Jazz Union. Voice of jazz musicians in Germany

- Federal Jazz Conference as an umbrella body for national associations, organised by the DJF.

organised by the DJF

- Austria: e.g. Jazz Werkstatt Wien, Graz (cf. Bruckner-Haring/Kahr 2015)

Band collectives

Exemplary selection

- Charles Mingus Jazz Workshop

- Jazz Composers' Workshop => Jazz Composers' Orchestra

- Carla Bley, Michael Mantler, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Roswell Rodd, Pharoah Sanders,

Larry Coryell, Gato Barbieri

- Sun Ra Cosmic Arkestra

- Globe Unity Orchestra

- London Jazz Composers' Orchestra

- Anthony Braxton's Creative Music Orchestra

- Karl Berger's Woodstock Workshop Orchestra

- Willem Breuker Collective

- Misha Mengelberg's Instant Composers Pool Tentet (ICP Orcherstra)

- Ulrich Gumpert's Workshop Band

Charlie Haden: Liberation Music

Orchestra (1970, recorded April

1969):

Perry Robinson - clarinet

Gato Barbieri - tenor saxophone,

clarinet

Dewey Redman - alto saxophone,

tenor saxophone

Don Cherry - cornet, flute, Indian

wood & bamboo flutes

Michael Mantler - trumpet

Roswell Rudd - trombone

Bob Northern - French horn, hand

wood blocks, crow call, bells, military

whistle

Howard Johnson - tuba

Sam Brown - guitar, Tanganyikan

guitar, thumb piano

Carla Bley - piano, tambourine

Charlie Haden - bass

Paul Motian - drums, percussion

Andrew Cyrille - drums, percussion