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Avant Garde Jazz

 
 

Description of Avant Garde Jazz

 
Avant-Garde Jazz is a catch-all for a wide number of experimental developments within the last forty years, many of which continue to defy further classification. Counted among its more established sub-genres are Third Stream, the fusion of jazz with modern classical music, and Free Jazz, an intensely expressionistic idiom epitomized by the wild saxophone playing of '60s legend Albert Ayler. More recently, eclectic composers such as Chicago's Henry Threadgill and New York's John Zorn have forged wild hybrids, giving form to the open-ended spontaneity of Free Jazz while incorporating influences from Funk, rock, and world music. Zorn's Masada group, for example, runs Jewish melodies through a mill of Post Bop and Free Jazz, with side trips through Surf, Lounge, and Thrash territory. Threadgill's music has blended vocal chants, Chinese pipas, accordions, and rock backbeats with dense ensemble charts. Countless other musicians from around the world -- some working in abstract Free Improvisation, others dealing with cutting-edge electronics -- have helped Avant-Garde Jazz continue to grow and mutate.
 

Avant Garde Jazz Key Tracks

 
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1. Double Clutching John Coltrane
2. Thermopylae Stan Kenton
3. Happy House Ornette Coleman
4. Man Alone Jimmy Giuffre
5. Better Get Hit In Your Soul Charles Mingus
6. A Shot In The Dark John Zorn
7. Out To Lunch Eric Dolphy
8. VO Chico Hamilton
9. A Thousand Evenings Dave Douglas
10. Cadillac 1959 Bill Frisell
 

Filed Under

 
Jazz  >  Avant Garde Jazz
 

Avant Garde Jazz Key Artists

 
Andrew Hill

This constantly
experimental jazz pianist
has charted his own
idiosyncratic path for close
to fifty years now. Hill has...

Anthony Braxton

This multi-reedist is one of
the more prolific
composers in Avant-Jazz,
with works spanning thirty
years.

Art Ensemble of Chicago

With a theatrical and
indigenous spirit, this
African-influenced
Avant-Jazz ensemble was
popular in the '70s and '80...

Bill Frisell

Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell
paints audible landscapes
with his subtle country
twang and wonderful
tonality. Frisell wrote and...

Carla Bley

A major force in modern
experimental Big Band jazz,
Bley's music is always as
intriguing as her
manufactured hairstyles.

Charles Mingus

A free-thinking bassist and
masterful composer, Mingus
amassed a body of work
that was as deep as it was
(often) playful. Mingus co...

Charlie Haden

This amazingly gifted jazz
bassist helped spearhead
avant garde free jazz and
now carries the torch for
mainstream bop.

Dave Douglas

Though he started out as a
jazz outsider, Dave Douglas
is now considered one of
the bright lights of the new
generation. At first know...

Dave Holland

Dave Holland has
deservedly won fame in the
jazz world after years of
critical respect. Though
Holland has many differen...

David Murray

Tenorist David Murray
ranges from abstract to
conventional, with anything
from solo to experimental
Big Band arrangements.

Don Pullen

Don Pullen has a wide range
of releases from
straight-ahead jazz to '70s
Funk, much like fellow
piano/organist Herbie Han...

Eric Dolphy

Along with Coltrane and
Coleman, Dolphy created
and nurtured Avant Garde
Jazz. Classically trained,
there was always a firm m...

Henry Threadgill

In addition to many years as
an Avant-Garde solo artist,
alto, and flutist Henry
Threadgill was a member of
the group Air.

James Blood Ulmer

One of the few Free Jazz
guitar players around,
James Blood Ulmer picks
just as free and wild as
Ornette Coleman blows.

Jimmy Giuffre

Guiffre's Cool Jazz clarinet
was a mainstay of the 1950s
and his subsequent
Avant-Garde work retains a
lyrical edge.

John Coltrane

A gentle revolutionary,
Coltrane's alternately
blistering & blissful sax still
astounds. Coltrane became
a star sideman playing wit...

John Zorn

A one-man cottage industry
who never sits still, Zorn is
the driving force in modern
improvisatory music.

Julius Hemphill

Lester Bowie

The late Lester Bowie's free
Funk style mixed with
ensemble arrangements
presents a post-Big Band
kind of Avant-Jazz.

Ornette Coleman

The iconoclastic alto sax
player has put the "free"
into Free Jazz for more than
four decades. This
revolutionary saxophonis...

Paul Bley

Lyrical or densely complex,
this jazz pianist has been on
the cutting edge since his
days with Ornette Coleman.

Roscoe Mitchell

Roscoe Mitchell has been a
bandleader in a variety of
Avant-Jazz ensembles for
the past thirty years.

Sam Rivers

Technically brilliant, this
saxophonist started as a
Post Bop pioneer before
going completely outside
the mainstream.

Steve Coleman

Saxophonist Steve Coleman
is a true pioneer of
Funk-based Avant-Jazz and
is well known for his
equation-based music the...

Steve Lacy

Lacy has been around the
Jazz block, collaborating
with a cast of greats such as
Gil Evans, Cecil Talyor and
Thelonious Monk. One of...

The Lounge Lizards

Lead by alto saxophonist
(and actor) John Lurie, this
cinematic and exuberant
Avant Jazz ensemble is from
downtown NYC. John Lur...

World Saxophone Quartet

Artistically accomplished
and experimental, the WSQ
has found a wide general
audience for Avant-Garde
jazz.

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