free jazz
In 2025, listening sessions focused on different music genres were introduced at sec. The sessions are curated by Katya, a friend of the community and a passionate enthusiast of experimental music. Katya accompanies each session with an introduction to the genre, its history, and its defining characteristics. In September, we focused on free jazz, and Katya kindly put together a listening list with her comments.
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Ornette Coleman – “Lonely Woman” (1959)
Let's start with the founding fathers: this lyrical track from the album The Shape of Jazz to Come became the first milestone of free jazz. Coleman gave the entire genre its name – his next album, released a couple of years later, was simply called Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. The central concept here is the harmolodics approach, where melody, rhythm, and harmony are treated as equals. Notably, there is fundamentally no piano here, which freed the musicians from a rigid chord framework.
Cecil Taylor – "Bulbs" (1961)
One of the earliest free jazz recordings: the structure is still holding on, but the familiar melody has already left the chat. Taylor uses the grand piano literally like a drum kit made of 88 very loud drums – resulting in a genuine wall of sound. Interestingly, the album was formally released under the name of Gil Evans (Miles Davis's collaborator), who helped Taylor get signed to the label.
Anthony Braxton – "To Composer John Cage" (1969)
A track from For Alto – the first solo saxophone album in jazz history. Braxton dedicated this piece to John Cage, building a bridge between jazz and academic music. The musician effortlessly fuses African-American traditions with the European avant-garde through his "Language Music" system (12 foundational sonic "languages"). The track is something of a catalogue of sounds extractable from a saxophone: from multiphonics and squeals to a ringing silence that functions here as a full-fledged element.
The Ganelin Trio – Live in the USA (1986)
A recording from their first and, essentially, only American tour. How did such an avant-garde survive behind the Iron Curtain? The answer is simple: the Ganelin Trio began their journey in Vilnius, where authorities turned a blind eye to their experiments because the "centre" was far away. Due to isolation, the Ganelin Trio developed their unique style independently of the West: more theatricality and absurdity, elements of Russian folk motifs, changing around 20 instruments on stage, and a performance involving voice and body. It is a true "psychological instrumental theatre" where everything merges together.
John Zorn / Electric Masada – "Metal Tov 1" (2005)
A radical reinterpretation of traditions, recorded live during a European tour. This is an expanded version of the Masada project, where electric guitar, electronics, and organ were added to jazz. John Zorn explores Jewish identity through the avant-garde on his Tzadik label. The title (Mazel Tov + Metal) speaks for itself – traditional motifs sound magnificent against the backdrop of distortion.
Torn/Berne/Taborn/Rainey – "Structural Functions of Prezens" (2007)
A fragment of the album Prezens, born from a 12-hour studio jam by veterans of free improvisation. Guitarist David Torn used live sampling: he recorded phrases on the fly, processed them, and fed them back into the general flow, so the quartet improvises both with each other and with their own "ghosts" – improvisation squared. Sonically, the track sits at the intersection of free jazz, electroacoustic avant-garde, and prog-rock density – something perfectly in between all of that.
Tamura/Fujii/López – "Nine Steps to the Ground" (2019)
The result of a fascinating experiment: during a Japanese tour, the musicians (trumpet, piano, and drums) wrote a new piece for each of the 9 concerts. From the 27 compositions created, nine were selected. The track begins with a simple figure, then launches into free improvisation. Critics aptly described this cross-cultural union as a "musical democracy," where no one dominates.
ØKSE + billy woods – "Amager" (2024)
What happens when a free jazz quartet meets underground hip-hop? Pure celebration, that's what: Billy woods raps about racial profiling (I been a nigga too long / I know the dance, I know the damn song), and behind him is not a pre-made beat, but live improvisation. Free drums, distorted electronics, bass holding the structure, and a saxophone solo over the vocals – the musicians respond to the text in real time rather than simply providing a backdrop.
Ambrose Akinmusire – "MYanx." (2025)
In my head, I refer to this track as nothing other than "oh, here come the strings!". Ambrose Akinmusire is a trumpeter attempting to mix oil and water: synthesizers, piano, a string quartet, and raw rapping all at once. The result is uneven, at times a stretch. But it's genuinely interesting to hear how it works technically – where exactly the line runs between a bold mix and a genre soup.
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This text is part of sec_almanac published in Jan 2026.
sec is a non-commercial project that aims to create a self-organized and self-sustained community of musicians, artists, engineers, scholars, as well as other enthusiasts of mixed backgrounds who are interested in all kinds of sonic expressions.
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