ABSTRACT
Critical history of the superstructure of free jazz, tracing the formation of a jazz establishment in the 1950s, then the challenges that Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and their advocates presented to its musical postulates, those Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Pharaoh Sanders, and their advocates presented to its organizational ones, and intersections of these challenges with Civil Rights and Black liberation movements. Subsequent chapters discuss Black nationalism and the music, centered on LeRoi Jones and the Black Arts theater, attempts to organize alternative performance situations, particularly by the Jazz Composers Guild and AACM, and to remove the music from market pressures through academic and nonprofit support.
