What is free-form jazz?
Also known as free jazz, “The New Thing” or avant-garde, free-form jazz evolved in the 1950s as a reaction against the perceived constraints of previous jazz types. Performers of this new style experimented with all parameters of conventional music.Pioneers of Free-Form JazzPianist Cecil Taylor made the first recordings of free-form jazz in the late 1950s. Ornette Coleman, a saxophonist, presented the first live performances in New York City in 1959.Absence of Traditional TonalityOne of the most obvious features of free-form jazz is that it lacks a traditional tonality, or key signature. There was no predetermined chord structure, and musicians improvise in groups with only cues and signs to guide them.TimbresFree-form jazz performers experimented with timbres, or sound qualities. They used instruments in unheard-of ways, such as a saxophone shrieking or a bass playing the melody.RhythmRhythms in free-form jazz were elastic, rather than steadily pulsating patterns. Drummers and percuss
