It will blow your mind. It will stress you out. It may do both. That's the beauty of Free Jazz! This really isn't the kind of album you put on for the heck of it, but since I am honor bound to report whatever I dial up in the morning, here it is.
On the surface of things, it seems kind of preposterous to name your album after the genre you are playing in, especially when the genre is still in its infancy. However, Ornette Coleman realized that to truly free jazz, one had to be freed from the confines of structure, abolishing even the "song" structure and even titles. Coleman also took advantage of stereo recording to create a double-quartet, meaning four guys were playing on each channel, and each channel was its own entity, meaning rather than a classic octet with a spread of instrumentation, the double-quartet features two drummers, two bassists, two brass, and two wind instruments.
Thanks to the CD format, the two parts of Free Jazz have been reunited into a complete 37-minute experience. The bonus track, nominally called "First Take", shows that it wasn't entirely a free-for-all, as it is clear the double-quartet is following the same progression of loose "movements". I think that "First Take" was tossed because the band was moving too quickly and didn't end up with an album-load of material, which was the intention of Free Jazz.
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