Free Jazz: Creative Originality, Controlled Surprise

As the Cold War and the McCarthy witch hunt continued relentlessly in the late fifties, a group of bold musicians abandoned bebop and challenged the limits of improvised music. While some critics and elder established stars called them frauds, bogus and charlatans, the trailblazers pressed on in their quest, with icons—pianist Cecil Taylor, saxophonists John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman assuming leadership status in this music called free jazz or “The New Thing.”

The spectacular images of the music’s essential albums reproduced in this buying guide are presented to the consumer seeking to make free jazz a part of their listening library. Free jazz was courageous, mesmerizing, and took risks. As Ornette Coleman, one of the music’s leading rebels, said—there are no boundaries to music. Leaf through the guide carefully. Weigh the categories of experimental, cultural, political, and spiritual. Suspend all doubt and embrace the music.