For decades, free jazz has stood as one of history's most maligned and misunderstood musical genres. Often dismissed as mere noise, its challenging, unstructured nature has kept it a niche interest. Now, a new guidebook from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore aims to throw open the doors to this complex world for the uninitiated.
The Punk Rocker's Conversion
Thurston Moore's journey into free jazz began in the 1980s. Despite having witnessed New York's legendary avant-garde jazz loft scene in the late 1970s, the Sonic Youth guitarist admits he was initially "too young and too preoccupied by the flurry of activity in punk and no wave" to fully appreciate it. His curiosity was piqued on tour, leading him to request jazz tapes from writer Byron Coley.
These recordings, featuring artists like Coltrane, Mingus, and Sun Ra, became a gateway to free jazz. Moore describes it as "a music both liberated and yet wholly indebted to the learned techniques of its tradition," drawing parallels to the experimental freedom he found in noise and art rock. This passion project culminates in his new book, Now Jazz Now: 100 Essential Free Jazz and Improvisation Recordings 1960-80, co-written with Coley and saxophonist Mats Gustafsson.
An Uphill Battle for Acceptance
Moore and his co-authors face a significant challenge. Free jazz was critically derided from its inception, frequently labelled as nonsense. The book notes the commercial failure of key works, such as Jimmy Guiffre's 1963 album Free Fall, which led to a ten-year recording hiatus for the artist after his trio earned a mere 35 cents each from a gig.
This forbidding aura persists today. Joakim Haugland, who runs the Oslo-based label Smalltown Supersound, discovered free jazz through an album Moore released and was instantly captivated by its unpredictability, which reminded him of early punk gigs. Yet, he confesses, "I almost always play free jazz in hiding, when I'm alone, because people think I'm mad to listen to it."
Where to Begin: An Essential Free Jazz Primer
For those curious about where to start, both Moore and Haugland offer beginner-friendly recommendations. Moore suggests the notoriously fierce Machine Gun by the Peter Brötzmann Octet or the more varied Afrodisiaca by John Tchicai.
Haugland's picks are more introspective. He describes Joe McPhee's Tenor, recorded alone in a Swiss farmhouse, as "poetry" where the artist pours his "whole soul through the saxophone." He also recommends Cecil Taylor's Silent Tongues, suggesting listeners play it at low volume to fill a room with indescribable emotion.
Listening to these albums reveals the genre's incredible breadth. Machine Gun is a furious, unremitting blast, a product of the same 1968 German artistic ferment that birthed krautrock. In contrast, Tenor is spellbinding and emotionally direct, shifting from bluesy lyricism to piercing discord without ever feeling jarring.
These recordings underscore Moore's point that free jazz is not a musical free-for-all. It is, instead, a profound expression of freedom guided by deep technical scholarship and tradition. As Moore puts it, "The records are the research, and the research is the spirit of so much of this music's essential vocabulary. Research and reveal and join the revolution of the free!"
Now Jazz Now: 100 Essential Free Jazz and Improvisation Recordings 1960-80 is published by Ecstatic Peace Library on 5 December.
