The “Free Jazz” Playlist: Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the late 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz composers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s. Each in their own way, free jazz musicians attempted to alter, extend, or break down the conventions of jazz. It is very important to include this playlist, although to many musicians, this form of unconventional over-improvising seemed to sound more like a self-indulgent experimental style of playing. The goal of these very talented musicians was to return jazz to its “primitive” and/or religious roots.
