Why 'Free Jazz For Lovers?
or;
There's no such thing as Free Jazz!
Some say Free Jazz gets a bit of a bad press. Others say that Jazz in general gets a bit of a bad press. But to be totally honest, Jazz doesn't really get a 'bit of a bad press' because it doesn't really get that much press - other than in the 'Jazz Press' of course.
All brands of Jazz are often seen as kind of noisy, difficult music that goes on a bit and is made by and for people who can't appreciate a good tune So why on earth would a band call their début CD 'Free Jazz for Lovers' and reference an unilluminated back-water on an unfashionable tributary to the river Jazz that feeds the mighty ocean of musical history? Well perhaps because that backwater is such a varied and fertile source of nutrients for the more expansive flood plains further down stream, and perhaps that metaphor has been stretch too far?
So, what is Free Jazz, what is it free to do, and what is it free from, and what exactly is freedom anyway?
What is Jazz?
If you want to find something out these days the first stop for most of us is often the internet.
Here is a link which returns the results for a general search for the definition of Jazz.
Did you click it?
Are you more or less enlightened now?
The chances are that if you're reading this you probably already know something of the artists, concepts, and history of Jazz (If you' don't, then just click through the 'What is Jazz' link). You're probably more curious about POG's definition, approach and/or thoughts about this music rather than the musings of some dry text-book or spurious internet resource. Perhaps you're even a little intrigued as to why the word Jazz is consitently capitalised? Well, best to get to the point before you fall asleep eh?
Here's what is said about 'Free Jazz For Lovers' in the albums invisible sleevenotes:
After a rather intense portion of the 2nd days recording double-bassist Giorgi made a suggestion, "Shall we do a ballad?" Penrose replied, "Yeah sure, but which one?" And Oli pipped up, "Shall we just make one up?" And so they did! When the music had drawn to its natural conclusion, there was a surprisingly lengthy pause, the three looked at each other, and Goirgi said, with a cheeky grin, "Free Jazz for Lovers." All laughed out loud and decided this would be the tracks title, and eventually the title track. This is the first, last and only take there will ever be, or can ever be of this tune.
'Free Jazz' was a term initially applied to a sub-set of Jazz that developed during the late 1950's and early 1960's which took collective improvisation as its fundamental base. However, from its earliest days collective improvisation has been an essential element, if not the most obvious idiomatic signifier, of Jazz, so in a way then, all Jazz is Free Jazz.
Nowadays, Free Jazz has a broader meaning, mostly referring to a musical movement which attempts to reinterpret the expressive potential of the musical language that some still call Jazz.
The early experiments in freedom were sometimes labelled 'Energy-Music,' 'Avante-Garde,' or 'The New Thing', and often were typified by rowdily extended collective improvisations - colloquially know as a 'Freak Out!' In the beginning many fans and critic's considered the music, and the musicians, aggressively over-emotional, wantonly complicated, musically ugly, broken, threatening, distasteful, onanistic, cacophonous, or even just plain incompetent.
Views like these, and the difficulty in finding commercial outlets, helped to keep the music underground and cemented early on Free Jazz's reputation as being rather far-out,' dangerous, or just a bit rubbish. Today, even though it is common to find many of the elements of Freedom incorporated into the work of a wide range of contemporary musicians, the actual phrase 'Free Jazz' itself is still often enough to fill the average Jazz fan with feelings of mild trepidation, or even nervous terror.
Perversely, POG quite like that idea.
We accept that Free Jazz is not everybody's cup of tea, but when we hear someone saying that they don't like it is always sounds to us like they're saying they don't like sofas. The music is such a wide category of varying styles and materials that one cannot simply dislike it all based on its label alone - one can always find something comfortable and accommodating for even the most sensitive of musical behinds - if one is prepared to persevere.
Perhaps the application of a more literal definition of 'free/freedom' to music one could argue that all music outside of a classical tradition, and perhaps much music-making from within, is 'free' at its core. This 'freedom principle' liberates improvising musicians from the strictures and structures of a single musical tradition, giving us licence to incorporate sources from the whole history of music, according the our own predilections.
This is what Free Jazz was and is: Free Music.
There is no particular Jazz that is free, but musicians have the freedom to choose, to mix, to create, to represent any and all ideas in sound to the level of their ability. The only limitations or conditions applied to the music are those chosen by the composer/performer, and of course, with our particular music being called Jazz, a significant portion of this takes place in the moment, at the point in time of creation.
The Meme of Free Jazz, which infected the expanding body of music in the 1950's, has now mutated and multiplied to fit into many musical environments and niches in cultures across the globe - this is the true gift of the pioneers, and if you listen carefully you can still hear the echoes of their footsteps, still marching on...
So, listening back after the recording session the track we felt achieved a kind of synthesis of ideas and actions, and sounded like ourselves and like a unique ensemble, was 'Free Jazz For Lovers.' The tune produced out of our own brains, created on the spot, in the moment, as it happened, live, and captured on a hard-drive in an uninterrupted stream of creativity transformed into binary data. This immediacy is what we want from the experience of music: After all, this is how we experience and this is how make music - in a direct interface - and this is why we chose to call the CD 'Free Jazz For Lovers.'
Of course, if we had chosen a different title track then none of the above would have been necessary. Now, as for the 'Lovers' bit... more»»
