Warning: I'm Partial to Free-Jazz... Quiz

Answer: Seasons

My love for Alan Silva's music knows no bounds. For decades this was my most sought after LP bar none. THEN I heard a certain Thurston Moore was buying every copy he came across. The war was on. Ironically I finally got my copy from Thurston's business partner Byron Coley in the 00s. And he got it signed for me to boot. The wheezing mouth-breather was a happy boy that day.

OH, you wanna know about the album. Forgive my diversion. It was released in 1969 on the French BYG label (A label so wonderful that there is probably a special corner in Heaven for its founder). Alan is a bass player (an acoustic bass player) who's is endlessly inventive. His bow technique in particular is praised highly. Nowadays he tends to be more synclavier oriented, but that's his choice. The personnel of 'Seasons' is like a who's who of the free jazz world and it was reissued (even on vinyl!) not all that long ago so it's no longer near impossible to find. Look, you really can't go wrong with anything that has Alan Silva on it. You might as well start here.

Answer: Saxophone Improvisations Series F

It's not just my favorite, but me long deceased pet dog Fluffy would usually listen to this with me with great attention as well (No kidding: during the sax swoops her eyes and head would follow the sound up to the ceiling and then back down to the floor and after a few times of this she would start panting and yelp or bark, and she did this perhaps the first 20 or so times I played it over the years!).

You might think for as many years as Anthony has been around and for how many albums he has released over the decades that he has said just about all there is to say on any kind of saxophone, and you would be woefully wrong. This man keeps surprising and enthralling with each new release. Seriously: I could have chosen a number of his records for this quiz but I just love this 1972 release (Which has since been reissued on the fantastic America Records label). In the USA it originally came out as a single disc on Inter City Records (for the longest tine this was the only version I knew) but the reissue restores it to its original 2LP length.

Answer: The All Star Game

2003's 'The All Star Game' is one of the two greatest records from the past 20 years (see my next question for the other) if your tastes tend towards the free. If you are willing to explore a little bit and open your mind and dabble in the free jazz pond, do your ears a favor and do whatever it takes to get this cd on the Eremite label in 2003. It should still be in print and not be the hardest cd in the world to find (No. Unfortunately there is no vinyl issue that I know of - a crime in and of itself). It was recorded on December 1, 2000 at the ICA Theater in Boston, MA.

The other choices I gave do not exist(although somebody, somewhere really should consider taking "I Threw My Instrument..." and using it (just please send me a copy if you do)

Answer: Weight/Counterweight

Released on the Editions Brokenresearch label in 2009 shortly before his death. I had never (knowingly) heard Bill Dixon before this and bought it purely on a whim (well I also had $30 burning a hole in my pocket at the time and I had just more or less bought every Sun Ra album this place could possibly get a hold of). So I took it to work with me and listened to it later that week at home (to put this in perspective: I have albums going back to the Nineties that I have yet to listen to so for me to get to something within a week is lightning fast)! It would be difficult for me to overstate this release's beauty. I mean, if you have to die, what an amazingly great album to go out on!

Answer: Machine Gun

'Machine Gun' was one of the very first free jazz releases and one of the most outright assaultive albums ever made. It was first released on the BRO label (as his second release) and then reissued in 1971 by the wonderful old German label Free Music Productions who unfortunately went out of business in 1999. Peter has released a ton of albums over the years and they can all be recommended for the novice.

But if you want the one to start with you'd find it difficult to find a better one to start with than this here (on a sidenote the FMP reissue was my first ever Free Jazz purchase when I was 12).

Answer: Lorrach Paris 1966

'Lorrach Paris 1966' on the often wonderful HatHut label was a true eye opener for me. I always pegged Albert as somewhat of a one trick pony at first and then in the eighties I started to dig deeper. Man was I wrong about him (and his brother Donald for that matter).

The line up on this album is: Albert Ayler - tenor saxophone, Don Ayler - trumpet, Michel Sampson - violin, William Folwell - bass and Beaver Harris - drums. The group pushes Albert to mew heights (and all play at their peak). A (very serious) bonus on this album is the sound quality.

In my opinion Albert's albums often suffer from mediocre recording. Not so here. Everybody is nice and clear AND you get some pretty swank packaging to boot. It almost beats 'Bells' (a little info here: 'Bells' was a one sided picture disc. I think you can count all of the free jazz picture discs on 2 or 3 fingers).

This one just hits a home run on every level! While I am torn about not saying you should make 'Bells' (if you have not heard it 'Bells' sounds like a seriously demented Salvation Army band) your first choice with Albert I sincerely would strongly urge you to get 'Bells' as a picture disc reissue just to have and also get this if you can find it at the same time

Answer: Big Chief

One of the people on my bucket list to see live before I die was always Sonny Murray - a free jazz drummer who puts together wonderful bands to back him up. Well... that dream came to a close when he died on December 7, 2017 (He was born on September 21, 1936). I RARELY cry when a musician dies (I did when AC/DC's Bon Scott did, but that's because I knew the guy. And I know whenever Peter Brotzmann and Alan Silva pass it'll hit me very hard), but I shed a tear when I heard Sonny had shifted this mortal coil. I know the idea of free jazz drumming might seem odd to some (Kinda like free jazz singing) but there was something so very unique about his style.

'Big Chief' is an album by him from 1969 that was reissued not too long ago and should not prove impossible to find at a reasonable price - did I mentions that Free Jazz is one of the most collectable genres of music in the world and getting a small decent collection together on vinyl can prove extremely pricey? Thank god some of this stuff is slowly being reissued!. Another easy to find CD by him that shines bright is 'Indelicacy' from 1987. A Base records reissue of the great 'Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd, Gary Peacock, Sonny Murray - New York Eye And Ear Control' (originally on the ESP label) would do you just fine as well, but the Base reissue is mastered of of vinyl and sounds kinda cruddy.

Oh yeah: the difference between 'Big Chief' and the other three choices is in the question: they all have black and white or other two tone color covers (I know. It was cruel of me to do but I REALY wanted him in this quiz).

Answer: Detlef Schonenberg Spielt Schlagzeug

Detlef Schonenberg was born in Berlin in 1944. He is what I would call a free jazz drummer. He has issued quite a few records as half of a duo and some with numerous players but this one is just drums and him solo. The title translates to 'Detlef Sconenberg Plays Drums', and that's exactly what you get. In some ways this record is similar to Jack DeJohnette's 'Pictures' album but without the piano pieces and more free form overall. I bought my copy on a whim in Wuppetal, Germany in 1988 and honestly: over 2/3 of what I buy musically is me "buying blind". I like the cover, the song titles sounded interesting or whatever. But something inspired me to buy the record and it is not because I am in any way shape or form prepared for what I am about to buy, I know nothing about the artist or the record. Half the time I don't even know ahead of time what genre the record falls into. It's all guesswork. But that's how I have been buying records since I was a kid in the sixties: blind. I usually know what I am buying about 1/3 of the time. And that's how I like it and it keeps me on my toes. Granted nowadays 90% of what I am buying blind at 60 is Hard Core Punk but that's something that for the most part is reasonably new to me and unfamiliar and therefore exciting.

Ok, all of that out of the way I have to say: THIS album is one of the finest 'blind buys' I have ever purchased! Things rarely get this good. And what makes it special is that despite just being drums it never gets monotonous or boring in its 40+ minutes. Seriously: Don't pass this one by if you ever see it.

Answer: Live in Japan

John Coltrane (September 23, 1926 - July 17, 1967). What can one possibly say about the man that has not been said hundreds of times before this and said better? Let's just stick with this album: it will scare you. It will delight you. If you like free jazz it will make you swoon. And to live in a time that saw it expanded from two LPs to four jam packed CDs is a blessing from God. I mean let's be honest for a moment: John Coltrane. Alice Coltrane. Pharoah Sanders. Jimmy Garrison. Rashied Ali. All playing together with no tethers to hold them back. At its very worst how bad do you think such a record could possibly even be? Now change that to "at its very best, what would this record sound like?"

That's what it sounds like. Simply monumental.

All the alternate choices I gave up above actually do exist. They just are not the correct choices.

Answer: Tauhid (1967)

'Tauhid' (admit it: you thought I was gonna say 'Karma' didn't you ;-) ) is such a monumental achievement. The balance between sheer sax screaming and pure beauty are a marvel to hear. Issued on the Impulse label in 1967 it has not aged a whit (something many free jazz albums have in common at their best).

The amazing free jazz guitar player Sonny Sharrock is on the album adding his beauty to it. Pharaoh played with John Coltrane's band from 1965 until his death in 1967. This was the first album Pharaoh released after John's death (It is Pharaoh's second solo album).

As far as I know this was recently reissued so it should be easy to find on cd and vinyl. The other three choices I listed do exist and are great albums to investigate. 'Karma' came REALLY close to being the album I was going to write about here, but that segment with Sonny and the scat singing is just too great for me to overlook. Offhand I cannot think of another moment like it on a free jazz album.

But then again we are presuming I can think after the past year to begin with lol. Why do you think I'm planning on taking a break from quizzes for a while lol?)

Answer: Patty Waters

I actually was told if I played her version of "Black Is The Colour Of My True Love's Hair' ever again very quietly on my personal MP3 player I would be immediately fired. This at a place where music was loudly blaring from their PA (I am one of the world's biggest Marc Bolan fans, but do I want to hear 'Get It Pm Bang A Gong' three times every single day? NO! I never want to hear that song again!) and almost all of the employees had personal MP3 players which they played very audibly with stuff like Justin Bieber or whatever the hits of the day were (Stuff I found personally offensive to listen to in other words)! But did I ever complain? No.

In any case Patty Waters can take a little getting used to. She is very unique, going from gorgeous breathy soft singing to the most jarring yelling and screaming within one line of a song. Her most well known album is perhaps her first one ('Patty Waters Sings') on the always fine ESP label. If you dare go here it is one of her easiest albums to find.

Answer: Sun Ra

Le Sony'r Ra (Born Herman Blount on May 22, 1914) a/k/a Sun Ra was quite simply one of Jazz's most visionary musicians. He did not play just free jazz. Some of his releases that sounded as if they would be impossibly free were in fact as traditional as they come.

More than sticking to one style, he was concerned with presenting the entire history of Jazz with his music. He was a huge fan of Fletcher Henderson. He became involved in the Chicago jazz scene in the forties. In the mid fifties he formed his musical collective The Arkestra, which continues to perform under the guidance of some of his more well known sidemen to this day as 'The Sun Ra Arkestra'.

As much as music was at the forefront of any Arkestra live show the band wore costumes, performed dances and generally were as extremely visual event as well. I am really trying to keep things brief here as this explanation could EASILY run into thousands of words. I don't really know which album by him to recommend starting with but personally I lean towards the 2 Volume "Solar Myth Approach Vols 1+2", "Atlantis" or "The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra Volumes 1 and 2". All three should not prove that difficult to find at fair prices, .

However be warned: his music can be seriously addictive and you would be dipping your toes into some very deep waters. His hundreds of records seem to go in and out of print every few years.

Answer: New World Records

Cecil released a number of records that would easily be stunning to the novice. But these two are so good that it would be criminal to not single them out. Both feature the version of his band, the Cecil Taylor Unit, that existed at the time. Both feature the phenomenal Jimmy Lyons on saxophone. Both will knock your head around like a pinball. I will give anybody that the man was a phenomena and his importance to the free jazz genre simply cannot be overstated. I just don't have that much to say about him as when I met him, like I said, I found him to be a somewhat repugnant human being (I won't go into details as he cannot defend himself and my words could be considered slanderous) so let's just leave this "about" at this.

Answer: Mingus At Carnegie Hall

Now I just did you a BIG favor. If you are not familiar with the magic that is Charlie Mingus I just gave you four places to start with him with this question. But it's the 'Carnegie Hall' album tat has this amazing snippet of free jazz on it (ok, if we were talking about the track 'Meditations' I'd be telling you to get all over the 'Monterey' album.

But that's neither here nor there. Seriously: the five minutes of free playing on the album justifies the purchase price - AND the rest of the album, although not free jazz, swings pretty neat-o as well.

It was released by Atlantic Records in 1974.

Answer: The Flying Luttenbachers

So this question was really a chance for me to namedrop some offbeat bands I find amazing (as well as throw a little love to The Flying Luttenbachers), but I don't think anybody who actually hears them will find this band out of place here at all. They definitely have STRONG Free Jazz elements running through their music and are one of the most musically exciting bands I have heard in ages. Do yourself a favor: check them (as well as perhaps the alternate choices I listed). You can thank me later.

The amount of newer free jazz bands (GOOD free jazz bands) has dwindled to a trickle these past decades and if something vibrant shows up it deserves your support. Don't allow this genre to die a noisy death!