earliest free-improv recording?

eucalyptus · #1 02-21-2009, 02:39 PM

i read somewhere recently that some album released in 1948 or '49 is considered to be a 'first' free-jazz/improv recording.. but i can't remember the artists' name. i think it might be lennie tristano? anyone know of this recording? thanks!

eucalyptus · #2 02-21-2009, 02:57 PM

nevermind - i found it out. lennie tristano sextet's 'crosscurrents', 1949. the 'free' tracks are 'intuition' and 'digression'. now if i can just find the album..

1smileymn · #3 03-22-2010, 01:12 PM

Found this thread searching for an unrelated tristano thread. Anywho, the first ever free improvisation recording I know is late 1930s early 1940s by Charles Ives when he was recording his own version of the concord piano sonatas. He played several cadenzas that were improvised and had NOTHING really at all to do with the piano sonata. This is what I have heard to be (from George Lewis' book a power stronger than itself) the EARLIEST recording of anyone playing totally free improvisations.

Chrix · #4 03-23-2010, 05:39 PM

From my understanding and research, the earliest free improvisation recording in a jazz setting are the Stuff Smith/Robert Crum transcriptions from 1944.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...pfwxqlaldde~T0

This set is hard to get though...

1smileymn · #5 03-23-2010, 11:27 PM

I'll have look that cd up!

http://www.discogs.com/Charles-Ives-...elease/2188317

here's a link, so recordings between 1933-1943