European free jazz

European free jazz is a part of the global free jazz scene with its own development and characteristics. It is hard to establish who are the founders of European free jazz because of the different developments in different European countries. One can, however, be certain that European free jazz took its development from American free jazz, where musicians such as Ornette Coleman revolutionised the way of playing.

The free jazz movement, also known as avant-garde jazz began in the United States of America in the 1960s as a reaction to the popular subgenres of Jazz music such as bebop, swing and big-band arranged music. Although the roots of free jazz music are based in the United States, it did not receive mainstream popularity nor did it achieve significant commercial success until much later. Rather it was viewed as a musical, political and social backlash to the structure of jazz music and of American society at the time. "For some performers the style was loosely linked to the Black Power movement in the USA, partly because of the radical political outlook of some of its practitioners and advocates (e.g., Archie Shepp and LeRoi Jones – later known as Amiri Baraka) and partly owing to the explosive, expressionistic nature of the music itself". Due to the lack of commercial success of the free jazz music as well as the racial issues, like the Civil Rights Movement, many American free jazz musicians began touring the European continent, playing and spreading their new avant-garde style throughout Europe. Jazz musicians like Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Bud Powell, Don Byas amongst others traveled and performed extensively throughout Europe. In contrast to the lack of commercial success in America, many American free jazz musicians experienced both commercial success as well as societal acceptance amongst the European community. This acceptance led many of the innovators of this genre of music to travel extensively throughout Europe, and in some cases, to stay in various European countries for extended periods of time. "A number of jazz musicians migrated to other parts of the world, where they received an opposite response, being considered the ultimate expression of high culture. Thus, many of them remained in exile, and they enjoyed unparalleled success in France, Germany, Japan, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands after the world wars".

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Wikipedia