Free Jazz CDs

Ornette Coleman pushed the envelope even while playing honky tonks, blues bars and carnivals. He was so far ahead of his time that musicians told him he couldn't play and a bandleader who hired him paid him not to play.When Coleman left Fort Worth, Texas and relocated to Los Angeles, he...

Ascension is the single recording that placed John Coltrane firmly into the avant-garde. Whereas, prior to 1965, Coltrane could be heard playing in an avant vein with stretched-out solos, atonality, and a seemingly free design to the beat, Ascension throws most rules right out the window with...

The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is one of the greatest achievements in orchestration by any composer in jazz history. Charles Mingus consciously designed the six-part ballet as his magnum opus, and -- implied in his famous inclusion of liner notes by his psychologist -- it's as much an...

Live in Greenwich Village was Albert Ayler's first recording for Impulse, and is arguably his finest moment, not only for the label, but ever. This double-CD reissue combines both of the Village concerts -- documented only partially on previously released LPs -- recorded in 1965 and 1966...

This is one of the most famous jazz albums of the 1960s, John Coltrane's gift to God. Coltrane had been jazz's pacesetting tenor and soprano-saxophonist since the late 1950s, growing in power, inventiveness and spirituality ever since. Not only did Coltrane develop very original sounds...

Pianist and composer Andrew Hill is perhaps known more for this date than any other in his catalogue -- and with good reason. Hill's complex compositions straddled many lines in the early to mid-1960s and crossed over many. Point of Departure, with its all-star lineup (even then), took jazz...

Ornette Coleman pushed the envelope even while playing honky tonks, blues bars and carnivals. He was so far ahead of his time that musicians told him he couldn't play and a bandleader who hired him paid him not to play.When Coleman left Fort Worth, Texas and relocated to Los Angeles, he...

Before his untimely death, Eric Dolphy had played with no less than tenor-saxophonist John Coltrane and bassist Charles Mingus. Coltrane praised him for being able to hold his own on stage, and Mingus featured him on such fiery compositions as Folk Forms No. 1 and The Fables of Faubus.Dolphy...

After several years off records, pianist Cecil Taylor finally had an opportunity to document his music of the mid-'60s on two Blue Note albums (the other one was Conquistador). Taylor's high-energy atonalism fit in well with the free jazz of the period but he was actually leading the...

Space Is the Place provides an excellent introduction to Sun Ra's vast and free-form jazz catalog. Typical of many Sun Ra recordings, the program is varied; earthbound songs, like the swing number "Images" and Egyptian exotica piece "Discipline," fit right in with more...

The pairing of these two BYG/Actuel albums on a single disc is a compelling way to encounter saxophonist/composer/poet Archie Shepp during his stay in Paris in 1969. Yasmina, a Black Woman and Poem for Malcolm were recorded just three weeks after Shepp and his bands had recorded Blasé in...

The previous Art Ensemble of Chicago ECM album Nice Guys vaulted them to the top of improvised music groups in the U.S. and worldwide, paving the way for similar bands to be more accepted into the mainstream of modern music. Where "Full Force" generally lives up to the title,...