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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.
 

Top Avant Garde Jazz Tracks

 
Play Track Artist Price
1. Blue Train John Coltrane
2. My Favorite Things John Coltrane
3. In A Sentimental Mood John Coltrane
$0.99
4. Disfarmer Theme Bill Frisell
$0.99
5. Giant Steps John Coltrane
$1.29
6. Mission: Impossible Main Title Lalo Schifrin
7. Cryin' Daddy's Band
$0.99
8. After 5 (Late Nite Mix) James Goudeau Jr
$0.99
9. Ridin' The Waves James Goudeau Jr
$0.99
10. Roll wit' It James Goudeau Jr
$0.99
11. Imagine James Goudeau Jr
$0.99
12. Acknowledgement Part 1 John Coltrane
13. Shamisen Daddy's Band
$0.99
14. Moody Daddy's Band
$0.99
15. The Köln Concert (Part I) - Live (Live) Keith Jarrett
16. Somethin' To Do Daddy's Band
$0.99
17. Farmer Bill Frisell
$0.99
18. Sunny Days James Goudeau Jr
$0.99
19. Lonely Man Bill Frisell
$0.99
20. Rhythm Takes Me Daddy's Band
$0.99
21. After 5 Daddy's Band
$0.99
22. A Love Supreme (Part 1: Acknowledgment) John Coltrane
23. Focus Bill Frisell
$0.99
24. Lovesick Blues Bill Frisell
$0.99
25. Lost, Night Bill Frisell
$0.99
26. Oleo Keith Jarrett
$0.99
27. That's Alright, Mama Bill Frisell
$0.99
28. Peter Miller's Discovery Bill Frisell
$0.99
29. Little Girl Bill Frisell
$0.99
30. I'm Old Fashioned John Coltrane
31. No One Gets In Bill Frisell
$0.99
32. Little Boy Bill Frisell
$0.99
33. Morning Tale Pharoah Sanders
$0.99
34. I Can't Help It [If I'm Still In Love With You] Bill Frisell
$0.99
35. Foi a Saudade Modern Jazz Quartet
$0.99
36. Half Moon Bay John Zorn
$0.99
37. Greeting To Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner) Pharoah Sanders
$0.99
38. Naima John Coltrane
$1.29
39. Shutter, Dream Bill Frisell
$0.99
40. Habana Transmission 1 / Avisale A La Vecina Dub Bill Laswell
$0.99
41. Cousin Mary John Coltrane
$1.29
42. My One And Only Love John Coltrane
$0.99
43. Spring, River, Flower, Moon, Night Min Xiao-Fen
$0.99
44. La Bamba Leon Thomas
$0.99
45. Pacifica John Zorn
$0.99
46. Exposed Bill Frisell
$0.99
47. Countdown John Coltrane
$1.29
48. I Am Not A Farmer Bill Frisell
$0.99
49. The Wizard Bill Frisell
$0.99
50. Think Bill Frisell
$0.99
 

Avant Garde Jazz Key Albums

 
Conquistador
$9.99
Out To Lunch
$9.99
Point Of Departure
(Bonus Tracks) $9.99
Space Is The Place (Impulse!)
(EP) $8.99
Spiritual Unity
$3.99
The Shape Of Jazz To Come
$4.99
This Is Our Music
$5.99
Wildflowers -- The New York Jazz Loft Sessions
$16.99

 

Filed Under

 
 

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.

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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