New York Is Now!: The New Wave of Free Jazz

by Phil Freeman

For nearly 20 years, a group of musicians has been making music in the tradition of pioneers such as Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, and John Coltrane, but which is uniquely their own. This introduction to and analysis of the current state of free jazz music in New York City profiles these performers and the larger community around them that has been all but frozen out by the critical, “safe” jazz establishment. Included are discussions of the major musicians in the scene, including Matthew Shipp, David S. Ware, and William Parker; the independent record labels that release free jazz music; the rock magazines that have covered them when jazz magazines have not; and the atmosphere of familiarity and collective effort that permeates the free jazz scene.

Genres: Music, Jazz

Paperback

Published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn't call this a "passionate account" of NY free jazz at the turn of the millennium, but it's a decent survey of some players and composers in bloom at the time. Split into chapters focusing on individual musicians David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp, Daniel Carter, and others (most of whom are still active today), the book never really stretches beyond a kind of who's-who, cataloguing overview. I'm not sure what I expected, but the writing is a little stiff. I was shaking my head by the first chapter at the author's dismissal of crossover group Digable Planets as "truly awful and best forgotten." Critics will be critics, I guess, and fusion of any kind is usually the first to be lambasted, but damn.

Freeman clearly loves jazz and improvised music, and he writes from far enough outside cloistered, institutionalized circles to be able to recognize what he sees as its blinders, its "profitability problem," and its attitude problem. He spends some time connecting 90s/ early-oughts free jazz to its forebearers in Albert Ayler, Ornett Coleman, the AACM, and post-"Ascension" John Coltrane, and he distinguishes the NY free jazz thing from the European free improv thing, but he also spends a disproportionate amount of time blowing smoke at Wynton Marsalis and the conservative jazz movement. Which I get. But for a slim book that probably wasn't read by a lot of people unaware of Matthew Shipp or the Knitting Factory at the time it came out, it comes off a little whiny.

I can say all this 22 years later, when a sizeable venue dedicated to this music just opened on Broad Street in center city Philadelphia. It's not that Freeman seems to fear the end of free jazz in 2002, I just think talking about record sales for music that a lot of people really, really cannot stand is a little boring. Don't read this book for lyricism or figurative language. No descriptions of saxophones screaming like tortured horses to be found here.

I wouldn't really recommend "New York Is Now!" as any kind of primer for modern free music, though a lot of these musicians remain veteran flagships on the scene today. It's definitely interesting as a document of a writer taking stock in the midst of the first so-called "renaissance" of free jazz, which we may or may not be in the middle of a third or fourth version of now in the 2020's.

[Phil Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took some fire from Amazon readers but I dug it thoroughly. A must for anyone seeking after living heroes of creative American music.

[Jun Okubo · Rating 4 out of 5]

a book about New York free jazz, mainly in the 90s like David S. Ware and members of his band.
i bought some CDs and they were quite interesting