Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s

by Michael Heller

The New York loft jazz scene of the 1970s was a pivotal period for uncompromising, artist-produced work. Faced with a flagging jazz economy, a group of young avant-garde improvisers chose to eschew the commercial sphere and develop alternative venues in the abandoned factories and warehouses of Lower Manhattan. "Loft Jazz" provides the first book-length study of this period, tracing its history amid a series of overlapping discourses surrounding collectivism, urban renewal, experimentalist aesthetics, underground archives, and the radical politics of self-determination.

Genres: Music, History, Jazz, Nonfiction

272 pages, ebook

Published December 13, 2016

Reviews

[Renato]

This book is a mash of several of my interests: jazz, NYC history, urban planning, etc, so I did expect to at least find it interesting. But now that I've finished it, I can say it is one of the most interesting books on jazz I've read!

First of all, it's about an era of jazz in New York City I knew nothing about. I've heard of artist lofts in SoHo in the 70s and 80s, but I never knew there was a community of jazz musicians who not only lived in them, but used them as performance spaces. It was a joy reading about places like Studio We and Studio Rivbea, but also about the musician collectives' counter-mainstream festivals meant to empower styles of jazz (mostly avant-garde) that commercial record companies and nightclubs gave less priority than fusion or acoustic jazz giants.

The tone is academic (as Heller is an ethnomusicologist), but the research is amazingly original. Heller worked for over a decade with Juma Sultan, whose paper/recording archive provided much insight and basis for this book. But, Heller does not tell the story in a predictable fashion a la "Here's how it started, here were the greats, here's how it ended." It's a much deeper dive into the ideals that guided it and an analysis of the different subcultures (a mature move, rather than acting like all these musicians believed the exact same thing).

It's not only inspired me to listen to some of these recordings (The "Wildflowers" set of live recordings of one of these festivals is out of this world), but also to be more aware of musician-run efforts that maybe aren't the big nightclubs in the Village. On the other side of COVID, I envision going to more concerts not just by groups like The Stone, but also house shows in people's homes whenever they're advertised. The environment is much different and a nice alternative to Two-Drink Minimum 45-minute set clubs in the city, not that those aren't great in their own way, too.

I wish I could have been around during this era. It sounds inspiring, friendly, and inviting.

[Fernando Pestana da Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A splendid book about New York jazz scene in the 1970s, where a conjunction of diverse factors (musical, economical, political, city planning) led to the use of former factory spaces in Lower Manhattan as residences/performing spaces (lofts) for artists and jazzmen. This book, with two parts, is a very illuminating work about this period of jazz history in New York. The first part is, as its name ("Histories") implies, a general history of the decade, whereas the second one ("Trajectories") is a more disjoint set of chapters about different aspects of the loft scene. They are more or less independent (it almost looks as if each one is an adaptation of a previously published academic paper). Apart from the chapter "Archive", interesting from an ethnographic viewpoint but somewhat boring for a more jazz oriented reader, the rest of the book is extremely interesting and I enjoyed very much reading the stories or extracts of interviews with well known (but unfortunately almost forgotten nowadays) jazzmen of the period, of whom I have some records, such as Sam Rivers, William Parker, or Cooper-Moore, and also a huge number of others that I barely knew, including Juma Sultan, the percussionist former owner of a loft whose archive was the main documentary foundation of this book.

[Jeff Golick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a strong interest in this subject, so I found the book to be informative and an essential bit of history. The writing is very academic, however, so if you are at all allergic to re/constructions of language and/or (re)contextualizations of subtending sub/cultures, well, reader beware.

Heller treats loft jazz, and the musicians who made up the scene, with the utmost respect. I might've preferred a little more on individual musicians -- a little more local color -- but that wasn't his objective. Heller really sets out to unpack what "loft jazz" means, and what something like Juma Sultan's archive can contribute to our understanding of this history.

It's probably a three-star book that, given my affinity for the topic, I'm inflating to four.

Ps. A selected listening guide to recordings would've been a nice addition.

[Jennifer Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael C. Heller serves as witness, documenter, and curator of the loft jazz scene with truth and respect. The reader can enjoy this book for its rich history as well as a guide for creating a dynamic jazz scene to be enjoyed in the now, instead of longed for and lamented.

Heller is our guide to a rich, innovative world that is not fading, actually it's still existing and waiting for most of us to open the door to the melodious, vibrant music that has never gone away.

A cracking good read for any musician or music lover!

[Tim McManus]

Great book for learning what the loft jazz scene was like in NYC.