Part 9, the avant-garde
In this section, I collect a few pieces by musicians who have attempted to push the previous boundaries of jazz. In particular, I classify as ‘avant-garde’ those who have tried to explore new possibilities in one or more of these aspects of music:
- Harmony: playing without chords, or with sophisticated harmony that goes beyond the tonal or modal setting.
- The form: playing ‘open’ pieces without predetermined sections but following the flow of the moment. This is done by communicating with gestures, or simply listening to the other members of the group, without a predefined framework.
- The rhythm: creating sequences on completely new patterns, or without a clear and stable rhythm.
Some of these tracks explore several of these roads at once, but I have also included in this group tracks that bring innovation into only one of these fields, e.g. Keith Jarrett’s ‘Kohln Concert’ is neither harmonically nor rhythmically revolutionary, but is a creative flow born in the moment and thus transcends the classical boundaries of a musical form.
- Charles Mingus, Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956)
- Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz (1961)
- Max Roach, Tears for Johannesburg (1961)
- Sun Ra, And Otherness (1963)
- Andrew Hill, New Monastery (1964)
- John Coltrane, A Love Supreme (1965)
- Miles Davis, In a Silent Way (1969)
- Albert Ayler, Summertime (1970)
- Keith Jarrett, Kohln Concert (1975)
The playlist on Spotify
If you want to listen to the selection of one hundred jazz standards in full, this is the link on spotify. I will update the playlist as the list progresses.
If you think I have forgotten something important and would like to suggest tracks to add to the list, please do so in the comments to the article. I will be happy to welcome suggestions from the many music lovers who visit my website. Thank you!