Free jazz

Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians during this period believed that the bebop and modal jazz that had been played before them was too limiting, and became preoccupied with creating something new. The term "free jazz" was drawn from the 1960 Ornette Coleman recording Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. Europeans tend to favor the term "free improvisation". Others have used "modern jazz", "creative music", and "art music".

Quotes about free jazz

• The change of pace in the jazz world accelerated during the middle decades of the twentieth century , almost as if music were a kind of science that could only justify itself by relentlessly superseding old paradigms and establishing new ones. The mandate of the day was to overcome obstacles, burst through the barriers, rewrite the laws of jazz, or even throw the whole rule book out the window. By the late 1950s, the final barriers in jazz were the music's continued allegiance to metrical rhythms, phrasing within the constraints of the chord, and maintenance of a tonal center. But within a few short years, these last precepts were challenged and rejected. In a very real sense, anything now seemed possible within the jazz idiom, the music's scope limited only by the imagination and bravado of its most visionary performers. This avant-garde movement, dubbed "free" jazz, asserted its proud independence from all traditions that had that had previously imparted structure to the music and ensured its commercial viability. For its most fervent advocates, the music was not just another style but the inescapable destiny of the art form.
  • Ted Gioia, How to Listen to Jazz. page 133-134. Basic Books.