As the Cold War and the McCarthy witch hunt continued relentlessly in the late fifties, a group of bold musicians abandoned bebop and challenged the limits of improvised music. While some critics and elder established stars called them frauds, bogus and charlatans, the trailblazers pressed on in their quest, with icons - pianist Cecil Taylor, saxophonists John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman assuming leadership status in this music called free jazz or "The New Thing." The spectacular images of the music's essential albums reproduced in this buying guide are presented to the consumer seeking to make free jazz a part of their listening library. Free jazz was courageous, mesmerizing, and took risks. As Ornette Coleman, one of the music's leading rebels, said - there are no boundaries to music. Leaf through the guide carefully. Weigh the categories of experimental, cultural, political, and spiritual. Suspend all doubt and embrace the music. It should be noted that this book is a pictorial buying guide, not an encyclopedic treatise.
About the Author: Robert Fleming, a freelance journalist and editor, formerly worked as a writer-consultant with ex-CBS News president Fred Friendly, boss of the legendary Edward R. Morrow for the PBS TV show, Media and Society, after graduating from Columbia University's Journalism school. Employed throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, he served as a reporter for the New York Daily News, earning several honors including a New York Press Club award and a Revson Fellowship in 1990. He worked as a freelance editor and book doctor at Random House's imprint, One World. He taught courses in film and journalism at Manhattan's prestigious The New School. His articles and reviews have appeared in many publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, Essence, Black Enterprise, Omni, Black Issues Book Review, Quarterly Black Review, and Publishers Weekly. He has written several non-fiction books such as Rescuing A Neighborhood, The Success of Caroline Jones Inc., The Wisdom of the Elders, and The African-American Writer's Handbook. His fiction consists of such works as Fever In The Blood, Havoc After Dark: Tales of Terror, Gift of Faith, Gift of Truth, and Gift of Revelation. He edited three anthologies, After Hours, Intimacy, and the Muntu Poets Anthology Volume 2 - 47 Years Later with Russell Atkins. K Kelly is an avid Modern Jazz enthusiast. He proudly owns a vintage collection of over 1000 classic jazz CDs. He authored the book: Best of the Best Modern Jazz, which is an effort to compile his significant knowledge of the genre to assist others who want to develop and enjoy their own modern jazz collection. At the helm of Uptown Media Joint Ventures Publishing, K Kelly is following his passion of helping authors get their viable stories published. This passion has expanded to facilitate recording artists being heard, as well, via a label he started under the name Uptown MJV Records.