Category Archives: Jazz

How Pharoah Sanders Brought Jazz to Its Spiritual Peak with His Impulse! Albums

Posted on May 14, 2018 by

November 1966 “With Ayler’s statement about jazz’s so-called ‘New Thing,’ the metaphor was cast. Of course John Coltrane – the giant of the tenor saxophone who brought Eastern thought to bear on his own music – was deemed the father. … Continue reading →

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The Greatest Week in the History of Avant-Garde Jazz

Posted on April 3, 2018 by

“Thank God somebody bought Lester Bowie’s couch in the spring of 1969. And his chairs, bed and desk. Otherwise, the most glorious week in avant-garde jazz history would never have happened. ‘Lester was selling all the furniture in his house … Continue reading →

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The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now

Posted on March 25, 2018 by

Installation view, The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now “This summer, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago presents The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, a large-scale group exhibition that links … Continue reading →

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Sonny Rollins – On Impulse! (1965)

Posted on March 3, 2018 by

“In 1965 and 1966 tenor giant Sonny Rollins issued three albums for the Impulse label. They would be his last until 1972 when he re-emerged on the scene from a self-imposed retirement. This date is significant for the manner in … Continue reading →

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Blues People: Negro Music in White America – LeRoi Jones (1963)

Posted on February 21, 2018 by

“Blues People: Negro Music in White America is a seminal study of Afro-American music (and culture generally) by Amiri Baraka, who published it as LeRoi Jones in 1963. In Blues People Baraka explores the possibility that the history of black … Continue reading →

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We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite (1960)

Posted on January 26, 2018 by

“We Insist! (subtitled Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite) is a jazz album released on Candid Records in 1960. It contains a suite which composer and drummer Max Roach and lyricist Oscar Brown had begun to develop in 1959 with a … Continue reading →

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Coney Island of the Mind – Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1958)

Posted on January 7, 2018 by

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Coney Island of the Mind, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s landmark second volume of poetry. In commemoration, New Directions has recently released a new hardback edition of the book, complete with a CD … Continue reading →

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