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Thurston Moore’s Top Ten Free Jazz Underground<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a list i’m sure plenty of you have seen around..just thought I would round up as many of these records as I could and put them in one place. Most of this stuff is from the fantastic Nothing Is v2.0<\/a> blog.<\/p>\n ——<\/p>\n 1. DAVE BURRELL – Echo (BYG 529.320\/Actuel Volume 20)<\/p>\n In the fall of 1969 Free Jazz was reaching a kind of nadir\/nexus. zip<\/a> 2. MILFORD GRAVES & DON PULLEN – Nommo (S.R.P. LP-290)<\/p>\n Milford may be one of the most important players in the Free Jazz zip<\/a> 3. ARTHUR DOYLE Plus 4 – Alabama Feeling (AK-BA AK-1030)<\/p>\n Arthur is a strange cat. Not too many people know where he’s from zip<\/a> 4. SONNY MURRAY – Sonny’s Time Now (Jihad 663)<\/p>\n Sonny was the drummer considered to be the first to realize and zip<\/a> 5. THE RIC COLBECK QUARTET – The Sun Is Coming Up (Fontana 6383 001)<\/p>\n Issued in the UK only in 1970. Ric was an interesting white cat who rar<\/a><\/p>\n 6. JOHN TCHICAI AND CADENTIA NOVA DANICA – Afrodisiaca (MPS CRM711)<\/p>\n Tchicai is a 6’6″ Danish\/Congolese tenor sax player who, in the early zip<\/a> 7. RASHIED ALI and FRANK LOWE – Duo Exchange (Survival SR101)<\/p>\n Frank Lowe has been studying and playing a consistently developing rar<\/a><\/p>\n 8. THE PETER BROTZMANN SEXTET\/QUARTET – Nipples (Calig – CAL30604)<\/p>\n The influence of Free Jazz-era Coltrane, Ayler, Esp-disk, Shepp, etc. zip<\/a> 9. THE MARZETTE WATTS ENSEMBLE – (Savoy MG-12193)<\/p>\n Marzette was a serious black art cat who resided in downtown NYC when This recording I list because of all its obvious loaded references but zip<\/a> 10. MARION BROWN – In Sommerhausen (Calig 30 605) Five way tie for last? Well, seeing as there’s no “beginning” or “end” Marion Brown was\/is an alto player who made an incredible LP with Tony Marion Brown zip<\/a> via Nothing Is v2.0<\/a><\/p>\n The Black Artists Group was an unit not unlike that of The Art The Black Artists Group zip<\/a> via Nothing Is v2.0<\/a><\/p>\n Tenor saxist Frank Wright may be (previous to Charles Gayle’s current Frank Wright – rar<\/a><\/p>\n FREE JAZZ of course made a strong impression on the more No luck whatsoever finding this one…<\/p>\n I suppose we should wind things up with the king of FREE MUSIC then
\nWithin the industry it was controversial. Classic traditionalists
\n(beboppers included) were outraged by men in dashikis and sandals
\njumping on stage and just BLOWING their guts out creating screaming
\ntorrents of action. Most musicians involved with this crying anarchy
\ncould get no bookings beyond the New York loft set. The French lovers
\nof the avant-garde embraced this African-American scene wholly. This
\nrecording is one of many in a series of LP’s with consistent design.
\nBYG released classic Free Jazz documents by Archie Shepp (at his
\nwildest), Clifford Thornton, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Grachan Moncur
\nIII, Sunny Murray, Alan Silva, Arthur Jones, Dewey Redman and many
\nothers. A lot of these cats are present on this recording where from
\nthe first groove it sounds like an acoustic tidal wave exploding into
\nshards of dynamite. If you can locate Alan Silva’s “Lunar Surface” LP
\n(BYG 529.312\/Actuel Vol. 12) you’ll find a world even that much more
\nOUT.<\/p>\n
\nVia Nothing Is v2.0<\/a><\/p>\n
\nunderground. He enforces the sense of community as a primary exponent
\nof his freely improvised music. His drumkit is home-made and he rarely
\nperforms outside of his neighborhood. When he does perform he plays
\nhis kit like no other. Wild, slapping, bashing, tribal freak-outs
\ninterplexed with silence, serenity and enlightened meditation. This LP
\nwas manufactured by the artists in 1967 and is recorded live at Yale
\nUniversity. The interplay between Milford and Don (piano) is
\nremarkable and very free. There’s a second volume which also is as
\nrare as hen’s teeth.<\/p>\n
\nvia Nothing Is v2.0<\/a><\/p>\n
\n(Alabama is a good guess). He resided in New York City in the 70’s and
\nshowed up in loftspaces spitting out incredible post-Aylerisms. Mystic
\nmusic which took on the air of chasing ghosts and spirits through
\nhalls of mirrors (!). He hooked up with noise\/action guitarist Rudolph
\nGrey who was making the current No-Wave scene and with Beaver Harris
\n(drums) they played gigs in front of unsuspecting art creeps
\napparently not “hip” enough to dig, let alone document, the history
\nblasting their brains. Arthur did release this lo-fi masterpiece and
\nit’s a spiraling cry of freedom and fury. AKBA Records released a
\nnumber of classic NYC loft-jazz sessions, most notably those of label
\nboss Charles Tyler, a screaming tenor player who also blew with
\nRudolph in the late 70’s\/early 80’s. Arthur continues to play\/teach
\netc. in Binghamton, N.Y. and recently released in 1993 “More Alabama
\nFeeling” on yours truly’s Ecstatic Peace label (available from Forced
\nExposure\/POB 9102\/Waltham, MA 02254)<\/p>\n
\nvia Nothing Is v2.0<\/a><\/p>\n
\nrecognize and perform, on drums, pure FREE jazz. He played behind and
\nalong with Ayler early on and Cecil Taylor. He constructed groups
\nwhich always flew and raged with spiritual abandon. He took time as an
\nabstract and turned it into free motion. This recording is super-lo-fi
\nand is awesome. On it play Ayler(tenor) and Don Cherry (trumpet) as
\nwell as Leroi Jones (now known as Amiri Baraka) reading a killer poem
\ncalled “Black Art”. This music is very Ayler but more fractured and
\nodd. Like a lot of these records there is only a front cover with the
\nback of the jacket blank. Whether this was done for economic or
\nartistic reasons is unclear. Jihad was a concern of Leroi Jones and
\nanything released on this label is utterly obscure. The only other
\ntitle I’ve seen is one just called “BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL” from the
\nmid-60’s which is Leroi and friends sitting on the stoops of Harlem
\nchanting, beating drums and celebrating Leroi’s “poems” (“The white
\nman\/at best\/is..corny!”) There was an ad for Jihad in an old issue of
\nJazz & Pop magazine which announced a Don Ayler (Albert’s amazing
\ntrumpet-playing bro) LP but I’ve yet to meet anyone who’s actually
\nseen this. “Sonny’s Time Now” was reissued a few years ago in Japan
\n(DIW-25002) on CD and LP (with an enclosed 7″ of two extra scratchy
\ntracks!) but even that is near impossible to locate. Recorded in 1965.<\/p>\n
\nvia Nothing Is 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n
\ncame to the U.S. to blow some free e-motion with NYC loft dwellers.
\nHe’s most well known for his amazing playing on the great Noah
\nHoward’s first ESP-Disk release (ESP 1031). The whole 1000 series of
\nESP is critical & crucial to anybody wanting to explore this era of
\nFree Jazz featuring recordings by Ayler, Ornette, Sonny Simmons, Sun
\nRa, Henry Grimes, Steve Lacy, Sunny Murray, Marzette Watts, Patty
\nWaters, et al. I’m not including any of these in this list as they’re
\nall available on CD now (from Forced Exposure, address above). The
\npicture of Ric on the Noah Howard LP shows a man with race-car shades
\nand a “cool” haircut playing his horn while a ciggie burns
\nnonchalantly from his relaxed grip. A very hip dude. And very FREE.
\nHis only solo recording is this Fontana LP which he recorded while
\ncruising through Europe. He connected with South African drummer
\nSelwyn Lissack (whatever happened to…) and the UK’s famous
\navant-altoist Mike Osborne and bassist J.F. ‘Jenny’ Clark (student of
\n20th century compositionists Lucian Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen)
\nto create this exceptional and complex masterpiece<\/p>\n
\n60’s, started blowing minds all across the Netherlands with his
\nradical “music for the future”. Archie Shepp encouraged him to come to
\nNYC and join like-minded souls of avant-guardia. Tchicai came over and
\nkicked everybodys ass. Leroi Jones shouted his name and talent loudly
\nas Tchicai hooked up with Shepp and Don Cherry for the New York
\nContemporary Five and later an even heavier ensemble with Milford
\nGraves and Roswell Rudd called the New York Art Quartet. The NYAQ
\nrecorded one of the most crucial sessions for ESP-Disk (esp1004) which
\nhad Leroi reciting his infamous BLACK DADA NIHILISMUS (available on CD
\nfrom Forced Exposure). AFRODISIACA was released in Germany (and in
\nother re-release configurations…supposedly) and is Tchicai gathered
\nwith 25 other local-Euro musicians playing a hurricane of a piece by
\ntrumpet\/composer Hugh Steinmetz. This music gets way way out and has
\nthe real ability to take you “there”. The echo effect on some of this
\nshit is quite ill in a very analog way. And the way the shit gets that
\ndirty-needled distortion at the end of side one (all 25 cats GOING AT
\nIT!) is beautiful, baby, BEAUTIFUL!!<\/p>\n
\nThanks GD!<\/p>\n
\ntenor sax style for a few decades now. At present he’s been swinging
\nthrough a Lester Young trip which can be heard majestically on his
\nEcstatic Peace recording (E#19..from Forced Exp.) In the early 70’s,
\nhowever, he was a firebrande who snarled and blew hot lava skronk from
\nloft to loft. He played with Alice Coltrane on some of her more out
\nsessions. Rashied Ali was the free-yet-disciplined drummer whom
\nColtrane enlisted to play alongside Elvin Jones and Pharaoh Sanders
\n(and Alice) in his last mind-bending, space-maniacal recordings (check
\nout surely the Coltrane\/Ali duet CD Interstellar Space). Elvin quit
\nthe group cuz Rashied was too hardcore. Those were the fuckin’ days.
\nAnd Rashied had his own club downtown NYC called Ali’s Alley! Duo
\nExchange is Rashied and Frank completely going at it and just burning
\nnotes and chords where ever they can find ’em. Totally sick. Survival
\nwas Rashied’s record label which had cool b&w matte sleeves and some
\ncrucial releases mostly with his quartet\/quintet and a duo session
\nwith violinist LeRoy Jenkins.<\/p>\n
\non hard drinking, knuckle-biting European white cats is formidable.
\nThese guys didn’t care so much about plaing “jazz” as just totally
\nripping their guts out with high-energy, brain-plowing NOISE.
\nBrotzmann (sax, German), Evan Parker (sax, UK), Derek Bailey (guitar,
\nUK), and Han Bennink (drums, Dutch) are a few of the spearheaders of
\nthis Free-Euro scene and are caught on this insanely rare early
\ndocument. The b&w cover has a fold-out accordion post card set of
\npersonal images of the musicians glued and paperclipped to its front.
\nBrotzmann went on to help further the critical documentation of the
\nEuro-Free-Jazz scene with FMP (Free Music Productions) Records which
\nstill exists to this day. There are over a 100 releases on this label
\nof pure Euro-improv and they all offer remarkable moments. Derek
\nBailey went on to create his own categorically similar Incus Records
\nin the UK which is also still extant. As is the Han Bennink associated
\nI.C.P. (Instant Composers Pool) Records. The most mind-blasting of
\nthese recordings may be MACHINE GUN (FMP 24 CD available from
\nNorthCountry Distr.\/Cadence Bldg.\/Redwood, NY 13679) where Brotzmann
\nleads an octet through a smashing clanging wonderland of noise.
\nImprovisation and classic western musics are seriously tended to by a
\nlarge Euro community and it’s all pretty fascinating. Check out the
\nworks of Alexander von Schlippenbach, Barry Guy & The London Jazz
\nComposers Orchestra, Misha Mengleberg, Peter Kowald, Andre Jaume,
\nAndrea Centazzo, Lol Coxhill and just about anybody who plays with
\nthem.<\/p>\n
\nvia Lamaraba<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFree Jazz as a NEW cultural revolution was in full gear. He painted
\nand composed wonderful music where some of the coolest locals could
\nflow their flavor. One of the heaviest ESP-disk recordings is
\nMarzette’s MARZETTE AND COMPANY (On CD from Forced Exposure) which has
\nthe incredible talents of saxist Byard Lancaster (who released an
\nearly indie b&w Free Jazz classic out of Philly called LIVE AT
\nMCALLISTER COLLEGE – find it and send it to me..) and guitarist Sonny
\nSharrock (check his wild influence on Pharaoh Sanders’ TAUHID Impulse
\nCD and his own obscure noise guitar masterpiece BLACK WOMAN on Vortex)
\nand cornetist Clifford Thornton (academic NEW MUSIC\/Free Jazz
\n“teacher” who released a few crucial sides such as COMMUNICATIONS
\nNETWORK on Third World and THE PANTHER AND THE LASH on America) and
\nthe amazing free vocalist Patty Waters (who recorded two infamous
\nhair-raising platters on ESP-Disc). This recording on Savoy was one of
\na series produced by Bill Dixon, an early associate of Archie Shepp’s,
\nwho was an incredible composer in his own right. I’ve heard tapes of
\nDixon leading Free-Jazz orchestras into sonic symphonic heavens. Very
\nhardcore.<\/p>\n
\nit’s also quite happening and anything with Marzette, Dixon
\n(especially INTENTS AND PURPOSES on RCA Victor), Byard (careful,
\nthere’s some clinkers) and Clifford is extremely worthwhile.<\/p>\n
\nvia Nothing Is v2.0<\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/a>BLACK ARTISTS GROUP – In Paris, Aries 1973 (BAG 324 000)
\nFRANK WRIGHT QUARTET – Uhuru Na Umoja (America 30 AM 6104)
\nDR. UMEZU-SEIKATSU KOJYO IINKAI – (SKI NO. 1)
\nCECIL TAYLOR – Indent, part 2 (Unit Core 30555)<\/p>\n
\nto this shit I have to list as many items as possible just to
\nreiterate the fact that there was (indeed) a ton o’ groovy artifactual
\nevidence to support the reality of the existence of FREE MUSIC. Dig?
\nThere’s used record stores all over the country (the world!) and they
\nall have the potential to be hiding some of these curios amongst the
\nbins and most peeps just ain’t sure of their worth and sometimes you
\ncan find ’em really cheap. It’s definitely a marketplace of the
\nrarefied so when peeps are “hip” to it expect this shit to be way
\npricey.<\/p>\n
\nOxley and Maarten Altena called “Porto Novo” that just twists and
\nburns start to finish. Marion could really get on OUT as well as just
\nplay straight up. Shepp dug him and got him to do some great LP’s on
\nImpulse. He had a septet at one point that was especially remarkable
\nfeaturing Beaver Harris (drums), Dave Burrell (piano), Grachan Moncur
\nIII (bone), and Alan Shorter (trumpet). Alan being Wayne Shorter’s
\n(Miles Davis sideman\/classicist) brother. Where Wayne was fairly
\ncontemporary (though eclectic as a muh’fuck) Alan was strictly ill and
\nhas two obscuro LP’s worth hunting down: “Orgasm” (Verve V6 8768) and
\n“Tes Estat” (America AM 6118). “In Sommerhausen” is Marion in late
\n60’s exploratory fashion and is quite freaky with the vocal whoops of
\nJeanne Lee. There’s another LP from this period called
\n“Gesprachsfetzen” (Calig CAL 30601) which really lays down the scorch.<\/p>\n
\nEnsemble of Chicago. Except they only recorded this one document and
\nit only came out in France on a label named after the group. This is
\nsqueaky, spindly stuff and very OPEN and a good indication of what was
\nhappening in the early 70’s with members Oliver Lake (later of the
\ninfamous World Saxophone Quartet) and Joseph Bowie (Art Ensemble’s
\nLester Bowie’s bro, later to start Defunkt).<\/p>\n
\nreign) the heir apparent to both Trane and Ayler. Unfortunately he had
\na heart attack a few years back while rockin’ the bandstand. All his
\nrecordings are more than worthwhile especially his BYG outing “One For
\nJohn” (529.336\/Actuel Vol. 36), his two ESP sessions (on CD from
\nForced Exposure) and his Center-of-the-World series of trio recordings
\nwith Alan Silva (bass) and Muhammed Ali (drums – Rashied’s brother,
\nnot the pugilist) on the French label Sun. This LP “Uhuru..” is
\nnothing short of killer with the great Noah Howard (alto), Bobby Few
\n(pianist of Steve Lacy fame) and Art Taylor (heavy old-school drummer
\nin free mode) going OUT and AT IT in stunning reverie.<\/p>\n
\nexistential-sensitive populace of Japan. Some real masters came out of
\nthe Japanese scene and were influential to some of the more renowned
\nnoise artists of today (Boredoms, Haino Keiji). One such Jap-cat is
\nalt-saxist Dr. Umezu who has mixed it up with NYC loft-dwellers on
\nmore than one occasion. On this completely obscure, underground
\nrelease he unleashed some pretty free shit with the likes of William
\nParker (bass), Ahmed Abdullah (trumpet), and Rashid Shinan (drums).
\nParker is possibly one of the most important FREE musicians working in
\nNYC. He’s got his own constant writing\/performing schedule as well as
\ngigs with anyone from Cecil Taylor to Charles Gayle. He recorded one
\nsolo LP in the 70’s called “Through Acceptance of the Mystery Peace”
\n(Centering Records 1001) which is, as you might’ve guessed, “good”.<\/p>\n
\nand now: Cecil Taylor. Cecil started experimenting with sound, new
\nconcepts of “swing”, open rhythms and room dynamics very early on. He
\nfurthered his adventure with music-conservatory studies and applied a
\nmaster’s technique to his fleeting, furious, highly-sensitive
\npianistic ACTIONS. Today he’s almost shaman-like in his mystic noise
\ntransploits. He hates record business weasels after years of scorn and
\nneglect (club owners had been know to beat him up after gigs claiming
\nhe damaged their pianos) and records now for the aforementioned
\nartist’s label FMP. In the early 70’s he had his own label called Unit
\nCore and released two crucial LP’s: the one listed above and one
\ntitled “Spring of Two Blue J’s” (Unit Core 30551). This is when his
\ngroup included two critical figures on the FREE scene. Alt-saxist
\nJimmy Lyons (now deceased) was a consistent improviser and a perfect
\nplayer alongside Cecil as was veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille who
\nrecorded his own solo (and duos with the likes of Milford Graves and
\nPeter Brotzmann) LP’s on various small labels (BYG, FMP, Ictus).<\/p>\n