A Beginner's Guide to Free Improvisation

Q: What is Free Improvisation?

A: Free Improvisation is a form of music that is entirely improvised.   It can borrow stylistic elements from other forms of music such as rock or jazz, or it can be what is called non-idiomatic, where the resultant sound is entirely determined by each musician's own self-created language, without reference to or overt influence from any other musical style.

Q: What is the relationship between Free Improvisation and Jazz?

A:  They are two separate musical genres, however some musicians are equally adept at both and travel between the two with ease.  Some jazz musicians have explored the genre of Free Improvisation, playing either non-idiomatically or making reference to the pre-established musical ideas of jazz.  Many of the pioneering Free Improvisers began their music careers playing jazz.  Interestingly, while many musicians are involved with both "Free Jazz" and "Free Improvisation" there is little conceptual connection between these two genres, as many of the most influential practitioners of Free Jazz like Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor deal almost entirely with compositions (which of course allow for a lot of improvisation within pre-defined structures).

Q: When did Free Improvisation begin?

A: Free Improvisation began establishing itself as an independent musical style in the late 1960s, primarily due to the efforts of a number of pioneering English and European avant-garde jazz musicians. 

Q: It just sounds like a bunch of chaos to me.  Are there any rules governing Free Improvisation?

A: There are no rules per se, but each musician most likely has his or her own musical concepts and instrumental style.  Free Improvisers take the most basic elements of music and sound as their starting point, and build up their music from there.  These elements are such simple things as loud-soft, fast-slow, low-high, dense-sparse, etc.  

Q: Are groups like the Grateful Dead and jam-bands considered Free Improvisation?

A: As long as they are improvising a complete musical performance, and not including improvisation as part of a pre-rehearsed "song", then they are.  The Grateful Dead have included both songs and free improvisation in their music for years, the two blending into each other during the course of a concert.

Q: Is there a clear dividing line between Free Improvisation and composed music?

A: You would think there would be but there isn't.  It's open to debate whether a "composition" containing nothing but abstract verbal directions is in reality a "composition", when the resulting sound may be very similar to a free improvisation. Also, there are many examples of  this kind of music where the listener does not know how much is improvised and what, if anything, was pre-composed ahead of time.  Unfortunately, most CD liner notes don't go into the nuts and bolts processes of how this music is made.

Q: Who are some of the most famous Free Improvising musicians?

A: A number of English musicians, such as Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Tony Oxley, Barry Guy, Paul Rutherford, Lol Coxhill, John Butcher, Paul Lytton, John Stevens, AMM (Eddie Prevost, John Tilbury, Keith Rowe, and others), and a number of Continental musicians like Han Bennink, Peter Brotzmann, Peter Kowald, Alexander von Schlippenbach, and Paul Lovens, to name a few.  A number of American composers and jazz musicians also take part in free improvisation from time to time, such as Jimmy Giuffre, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, Leo Smith, and Anthony Braxton. 

Q: Why can't I find recordings by any of these people at my local music chain like Best Buy or Wherehouse?

A: Free Improvisation is a specialty genre that cannot be found at any big music retailer (with the exception of some Tower and Virgin stores).  Try smaller independent stores, mail-order, or internet sources.  Cadence, Forced Exposure, and Wayside Music have many free improvisation CDs available.

Q: What are some of the most famous record labels that release CDs of Free Improvisation?

A: There are many and their number are growing.  For starters, you have Incus, Matchless, Emanem, Hatology, FMP, Leo, Potlach, Organ of Corti (selected releases), Atavistic (selected releases), and Soul Note (selected releases).

Q: What are some good CDs that will help a beginner like me get acquainted with this music?

A: For Free Improvisation based on pre-existing musical styles like rock, jazz, or avant-garde classical, try the following:

Rock-based:

Grateful Dead: Infrared Roses - collects a number of free improvisations from several concerts, omitting songs altogether
Henry Cow: Concerts - contains several lengthy free improvisations
King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King - One of the best debut albums of all time includes a lengthy free improvisation clearly influenced by the English Bailey/Stevens school of improv.
King Crimson: The Great Deceiver - 4 CD live set contains many free improvisations
King Crimson: Thrakattak - Compilation of various improvs bookended by a composition.
King Crimson: Heavy Construkction - 3 CD live set including many improvisations from the latest version of this group.

Jazz-based:

Lennie Tristano: Intuition - contains what many believe to be the earliest examples of free improvisation, two pieces from 1949
Shelley Manne: The Three and the Two - contains one free improvisation among standards and progressive jazz compositions
Albert Ayler: My Name Is Albert Ayler - contains one free improvisation among standards
Warne Marsh: Ne Plus Ultra - contains one lengthy free improvisation among Tristano-school repertoire
Art Ensemble of Chicago: A Jackson in Your House, Reese and the Smooth Ones, People in Sorrow - contains many of what sound like free improvisations among compositions by group members
Archie Shepp: Life at the Donaueschingen Festival - One lengthy track which might be entirely improvised
Keith Jarrett: The Koln Concert - Most of Jarrett's solo piano recordings are entirely improvised, but draw heavily on jazz, blues, gospel, and classical elements
Keith Jarrett Trio: Inside Out - Jarrett, Peacock, and DeJohnette get into some purely free playing.  DeJohnette is especially inspired.

Classical-based:

Leonard Bernstein: Music of Our Time - includes several infamous improvisations by the NYPO, as well as composed pieces by Ligeti, Feldman, Messiaen, and others.
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Aus den Sieben Tagen - text compositions that result in "intuitive music"

"Pure" or non-idiomatic Free Improvisation:

AMM: The Inexhaustible Document, Laminal, AMMMusic 1966, The Nameless Uncarved Block - any CDs by this group are entirely improvised and represent the some of the pinnacles of the genre in terms of musical quality.
Arcana: The Last Wave - Trio of Derek Bailey, Bill Laswell, and Tony Williams provides hard-rocking improv
Derek Bailey: Solo Guitar Vol. 1, Incus Taps, Aida, Domestic and Public Pieces - any solo recordings by Derek Bailey are guaranteed to be free improvisation, and these four are a good place to start.
Derek Bailey/Evan Parker: Arch Duo - two of the finest free improvisers meet face to face.  Unfortunately, they have had a falling out since then are may never perform together again.
Derek Bailey/Jamie Muir: Dart Drug - duets with former King Crimson percussionist and Music Improvisation Company co-founder Muir.
Derek Bailey/Han Bennink: Live at Verity's Place - raucous free improv with drummer Bennink
Derek Bailey/Steve Lacy: Outcome - sublime meeting of musical minds
Derek Bailey/Anthony Braxton: First Duo Concert - fascinating meeting between arch-improviser Bailey and one of the most innovative composers of our era.
Derek Bailey/Cecil Taylor: Pleistozaen mit Wasser - Another recording from the monumental 1988 German sessions, this pairs two of the most distinctive stylists in improvised music.  Whenever such meetings of giants occur, there is always the danger that it will turn into a battle of egos (Cecil Taylor vs. Derek Bailey).  With this recording however, the result is sheer magic.  Taylor and Bailey both manage to claim their own turf, yet they each transcend their own vocabulary under each other's influence.  There are two long tracks, the first pairs Bailey's acoustic guitar with Taylor's vocals and playing inside the piano.  The second pairs Bailey's electric guitar with Taylor at the piano keyboard.  Both are brilliant.   A must-have, absolutely essential.
Anthony Braxton/Richard Teitelbaum: Open Aspects '82 - duets of sax and synthesizer, most likely entirely improvised. 
Peter Brotzmann: Reserve - Free improv from a trio of Brotzmann, Gunter Sommer, and Barre Phillips.
Andrea Centazzo/Alvin Curran/Evan Parker: Real Time - fascinating collaboration between European improvisers and American electro-acoustic composer Curran
Andrea Centazzo/Lol Coxhill/Giancarlo Schiaffini: Situations - shows that free improvisation crosses all musical boundaries with the inclusion of Luigi Nono associate Schiaffini
Company: Company 6 & 7 - all-star meeting of American and European improvisers
Company: Once - improv fest including jazz giant Lee Konitz
Lol Coxhill: Digswell Duets, Alone and Together - two entirely improvised discs from this master of many styles, from avant-garde to music hall.
Lol Coxhill/Veryan Weston: Boundless - soprano sax/piano duos from this long-standing team
Jimmy Giuffre: Free Fall - A stunning example of early free improvisation.  This is the last recording by the Giuffre/Bley/Swallow trio until their reunion several years later.  They had previously recorded two sessions, Fusion and Thesis (reissued by ECM as 1961), which featured compositions with albeit loose improvisations, but Free Fall is completely improvised.  Be warned that most of this disc is solo clarinet, there are only a few pieces by the whole trio.  However, these clarinet solos are amazing precursors to Braxton's solo reed work later in the decade, and sound completely fresh and contemporary today.
Jimmy Giuffre/Paul Bley/Steve Swallow: Conversations with a Goose - a most-likely entirely-improvised reunion of this pioneering group
Peter Kowald: Duos - compilation CD features Kowald in free duets with about 20 musicians from various backgrounds
Steve Lacy: The Forest and the Zoo - an early example of completely free improvisation, a trio with Lacy and two South Africans, Louis Moholo and Johnny Dyani, recorded in Argentina.  The tale of how this group of people got together and wound up in Argentina is a priceless piece of jazz biz lore.
Music Improvisation Company: 1968-1971 - one of the earliest recorded examples of the European school of Free Improvisation
Tony Oxley: Quartet - Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley meet the samplers and electronics of Matt Wand and Pat Thomas.
Evan Parker: Monoceros, Process and Reality - Just two of many solo saxophone discs from one of the most influential sax players of the modern era.
Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble: Toward the Margins, Drawn Inward - introduces electronic technology like sampling and processing into the mix
Evan Parker: Live at Les Instants Chavires - highly successful electro-acoustic improvisations
Evan Parker/Paul Lytton: Three Other Stories - epic improvisations from this duo
Evan Parker/Eddie Prevost: Most Materiall - one of the deepest, most profound recordings in this genre
Evan Parker/Keith Rowe: Dark Rags - recorded on the last evening of the 20th century, a near-mystical experience
Parker/Guy/Lytton Trio: Breaths and Heartbeats - free improvisations arranged into a composed whole
Eddie Prevost: Touch - AMM drummer trio recording with sax and bass, very fine
Keith Rowe: A Dimension of Perfectly Ordinary Reality - solo recording from AMM guitarist
Alexander von Schlippenbach: Elf Bagatellen - outstanding free improvising from the trio of Schlippenbach, Parker, and Lovens.
Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Karyobin - an all-star group featuring some well-known jazz musicians like Kenny Wheeler and Dave Holland
Spontaneous Music Ensemble: Quintessence - all-star improv group with Parker, Stevens, Bailey, Kent Carter, and Trevor Watts
John Stevens/Derek Bailey/Kent Carter: One Time - another side of Free Improvisation, quiet and reflective.
Cecil Taylor: Nailed - quite possibly entirely improvised.  The CD recorded the next day, Melancholy, is definitely composed.
Cecil Taylor/Han Bennink: Spots, Circles, and Fantasy - hour-plus long improv between American and Dutch giants.
Cecil Taylor/Max Roach: Historic Concerts - fascinating meeting between Taylor and bebop co-founder Roach
Cecil Taylor/Gunter Sommer: Riobec - three lengthy improvs

Q: Are there any good websites that have more information on Free Improvisation?

A: Start with the European Free Improvisation Website, and take it from there.

Q: What do CD covers of Free Improvisation look like?

A: For a sample, see below: