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Who here actually plays free jazz?

#21
I would suggest everybody read Hal Crook's book/method on performing free jazz. It's nothing short of amazing.

There's a difference I like to distinguish between "free" jazz and "out" jazz. Free improvisation does not need to be "out" in order to be free, in other words, it's musical language does not have to be atonal, textural, arhythmic, etc in order for it to be completely improvised. It can be, but that's just one particular texture. I personally prefer to play and listen to free performance where "out" is used sparingly.
 
#22
JAUQO III-X said:
If you do, or have at some point what are your thoughts on the genre? And how has it affected your musical creativeness and has it helped you grow as a bassist?
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The more I do it, the greater my hunger becomes for understanding the vocabulary and conventions of "inside" playing. Playing old Johnny Cash songs a lot this year really opened my ears to some things I wasn't quite communicating in free jams, for instance.

Plus, if people hear you playing stuff they understand well, I've noticed that they tend to give you a little more rope when you go out. My favorite example was seeing Sun Ra in NYC with a huge guest horn section, and the first hour was pure tortured penguin squalling. Then the band segued into Mood Indigo, straight as can be, and the contrast was stunning. Then they blew their brains out for another hour or two (albeit playing classic Sun Ra compositions), and clearly the crowd was much more engaged at that point. ;)
 
#23
gnasher1993 said:
I used to play in a band that played free jazz/ambience.

I feel it made me improve as a bassist simply because there's alot of space and you've got to play around it; something I struggled with at first. I used to be the one that played too much.

On a different note, where do you draw the line between free jazz and ambience...and who draws that line? Just a thought...
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Interesting, I was thinking earlier that my favorite "free" music is mid 70's Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze
 
#24
Free Jazz... perhaps a misnomer? Constraints exist in every music form, when you interact with another musician, the "conversation has form" of some kind. That is a form of constraint an hence the word "free" is misused (sort of). If you accecpt this concept, no one plays free Jazz.
This type of stream of consciousness, shoot form the hip improvisation requires creativity, but so does creating within a highly structured song form and harmonic structure. One could make the argument that it requires more creative energy to truly create something noteworthy within these confines.

While I understand the yearning to blaze new trails, for me, often times the resulting free jazz music lacks beauty that symmetry or balance of tension and release thoughtful composition contains. Many times I hear this type of music as "all tension, no release".

I think this type of improvisation can be helpful in composition. Recording the work and extracting the interesting and colorful passages can be a wonderful source of ideas .
 
#25
Billnc said:
It's more fun to play than it is to listen to I think. I played it for a few years in a side project. What I found annoying while playing it was that it seemed few players interacted with what was going on around them. Free doesn't mean just wailing away, you still should react intelligently to the other players. What was fascinating, was after a lot of gigs was many of the "free" pieces became much shorter set compositions. Maybe noisy etc but played exactly the same way each gig.
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nailed it hahaha
 
#28
fryBASS said:
Bitches Brew anyone??
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No. "The Shape of Jazz to Come".

I have to agree that "free jazz" is more fun to play than to listen to, and I think that's because a lot of players don't really understand the concept of "free jazz". Jazz is an improvisers art, and most "structured jazz" or "Legit jazz" or whatever you want to call it has more guidelines to follow than free music. Free jazz is the same improvisers art with the improvisation extended beyond the current featured soloist. It almost borders on Dixieland jazz with its collective improv.

Just wailing away and wanking is exactly what it sounds like: wailing and wanking. Jackson Pollock or Pablo Picasso didn't randomly smear paint on a canvas. There was thought and intention, and just like free jazz it takes a lot of experience and maturity in playing to pull it off and make it musical.
 
#29
onlyclave said:
No. "The Shape of Jazz to Come".

I have to agree that "free jazz" is more fun to play than to listen to, and I think that's because a lot of players don't really understand the concept of "free jazz". Jazz is an improvisers art, and most "structured jazz" or "Legit jazz" or whatever you want to call it has more guidelines to follow than free music. Free jazz is the same improvisers art with the improvisation extended beyond the current featured soloist. It almost borders on Dixieland jazz with its collective improv.

Just wailing away and wanking is exactly what it sounds like: wailing and wanking. Jackson Pollock or Pablo Picasso didn't randomly smear paint on a canvas. There was thought and intention, and just like free jazz it takes a lot of experience and maturity in playing to pull it off and make it musical.
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Exactly! When free music is at the highest level it's incredible stuff. It's amazing that they can tell a Pollock from a fake by fractal geometery, and Pollock's fractals were more precise as he got older. Oddly, I think a lot of fractal music misses the mark, but free jazz etc seems to get it. There is great free jazz played by wonderful players, and a lot of hacks, just like the blues.

What a great thread.
 
#36
Free jazz and free improvisation aren't exactly the same thing. I potentially love both or loath them depending on the music. I've been playing, as well as lots of other styles, "Free Jazz" for about 10 years and I have to say some of the most amazing musical experiences of my 20 years of bass playing have been from playing free.

As I play a lot of kinds of music to pay the bills and keep me interested, including folk and south american styles, as well as classical, roots rock and classic pop and country, among others, and I have to say that the lessons I have learned playing freely improvised music have helped me immensely in all stages of my career. From being really confidant and focused to being really sensitive and responsive, to trying to play the most astonishingly difficult things to knowing when to play as little as possible, when to focus on blending and when to step forward, these are things that I feel I really internalized and came to own by playing free, and they are just as important in all kinds of music.

I would encourage all musicians to find their own creative and craft core by spending some serious time improvising so that they can figure out what their own style really is, instead of trying only to copy others. Once one knows oneself, one has more to bring to the table in any situation.

I've also heard much of the most amazing music in my life played in this way.

But it seems that the bulk of good free jazz bassists are upright players...

Joelle Leandre
Barry Guy
John Edwards
William Parker
 

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