When Ornette Coleman and a few other daring musicians began improvising freely in the late 1950s and early ’60s, it set off a revolution in the jazz world.
You can read more about the early history of free jazz in our April issue, and you can hear plenty of it in our Hear the Music and Extended Play sections. But it’s also nice to see this music being played, so here are a few video examples. First off is the father of free improvisation, Ornette Coleman, captured at a 1972 Berlin solo performance, going back and forth between piano and his more customary alto saxophone. Note the piercing, bluesy quality of his sax playing, which sometimes sounds almost like a human cry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3dxkFrxc10
Next, pianist Cecil Taylor, in a dramatic solo performance from 1981. Much of what Taylor plays here couldn’t be called traditionally jazzy; it’s more like modern classical music.
Things get a little more elaborate (check out all the percussion!) with this taste of the Art Ensemble of Chicago from a 1991 performance at the Berlin Jazz Festival. The song is called “Funky AEOC,” and we’d say that’s appropriate.
Finally, we take a trip into another dimension entirely, courtesy of pianist Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Both of the songs played here, “Face the Music” and “Space Is the Place,” come from a 1989 performance on the short-lived Night Music program. Between the two is an interview segment with the man himself, in which he describes his early experiences on the planet Saturn (!).