Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation

The music is a continuous free improvisation with only a few brief pre-determined sections, recorded in one take with no overdubbing or editing.[7] The album features what Coleman called a “double quartet,” i.e., two self-contained jazz quartets: each with a reed instrument, trumpet, bass, and drums.[8] The two quartets are heard in separate channels, with Coleman's working quartet at the time (as featured on Ornette!) in the left channel, and the second quartet, including the former Coleman rhythm section of Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell, on the right.[9]

The two quartets play simultaneously, with the two rhythm sections providing a dense rhythmic foundation over which the wind players either solo or provide freeform commentaries, interspersed with pre-composed passages. The composed thematic material can be considered a series of brief, dissonant fanfares for the horns which serve as interludes between solos. Free Jazz was the first album-length improvisation at thirty-seven minutes, unheard of at the time.

The original LP package incorporated Jackson Pollock's 1954 painting The White Light.[10] The cover was a gatefold with a cutout window in the lower right corner allowing a glimpse of the painting; opening the cover revealed the full artwork, along with liner notes by critic Martin Williams. Coleman was a fan of Pollock as well as a painter, and the cover of his 1966 LP The Empty Foxhole would feature his own artwork.[11][12]

In the January 18, 1962 issue of Down Beat magazine, in a special review titled "Double View of a Double Quartet," Pete Welding awarded the album Five Stars while John A. Tynan rated it No Stars.[9][13]

The album was identified by Chris Kelsey in his Allmusic essay "Free Jazz: A Subjective History" as one of the "20 Essential Free Jazz Albums".[14] Fellow Allmusic critic Steve Huey described it in his five-star retrospective review as "a staggering achievement" which "practically defies superlatives in its historical importance."[15] It served as the blueprint for later large-ensemble free jazz recordings such as Ascension by John Coltrane and Machine Gun by Peter Brötzmann.

On March 3, 1998, Free Jazz was reissued on compact disc by Rhino Records as part of its "Atlantic 50" series marking Atlantic Records' fiftieth anniversary. The title track, split into two sections for each side of the LP, appeared here in continuous uninterrupted form, along with the previously issued "First Take".

Composition by Ornette Coleman. On compact disc "Free Jazz" is presented as one continuous track with a running time listed as 37:03.

Left channel

• Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone
• Don Cherry – pocket trumpet
• Scott LaFaro – double bass
• Billy Higgins – drums

Right channel

• Eric Dolphy – bass clarinet
• Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
• Charlie Haden – bass
• Ed Blackwell – drums

• Tom Dowd – recording engineer
• Nesuhi Ertegün – producer