Free Jazz - Bad Career Choice?

[AlexArkansas]

Is there a difference between free jazz and free music? You mention your classical background - lots of free stuff there too. If you want to do it, you need to be committed - which is a good thing, as all good music demands commitment. Go for it, man, you only live once :-)

Guys like Derek Bailey would insist that there is a difference. That group of (largely) European improvisers saw themselves as playing improvised music that lacked even implicit reference to jazz- "non-idiomatic improvisation" in Bailey's phrase. Not sure what Stevebol is getting at regarding chords- Bailey used tons of them, and supposedly mapped out all the cluster voicings available on the guitar in his attempt to move beyond his jazz roots and create a new language on the instrument. There's more Webern than Ellington in this music, something OP might appreciate with his classical background. As for not "buying" Bailey's playing-viewing it as snake oil as opposed to simply not liking it- I'll just point out that Pat Metheny, for one, had tremendous respect for (and recorded with) Bailey. Miles 'stole' Dave Holland from the European improv scene, Han Bennink played with Dolphy; the list goes on. These guys can play.
Until a few years ago, I only knew Bill Frisell as 'the guitarist for Naked City'. I grew up with this stuff. The market for challenging music is and always will be small but dedicated- look at the scene John Zorn has been able to organize in NYC. Besides, it's not like there's a crowd of millionaires waiting to throw money at the next guy to come along and play Girl from Ipanema. Play what you love, and move to the Netherlands if you get too weird for your home crowd.

[fumblefingers]

regarding the original question - I think you already know the answer.

if the question was "bad artistic choice?", that would be a horse of a different color.



we've already run this through a bunch of times:

1. music is not a great career choice for hardly anyone
2. jazz music is even tougher to make it with
3. free jazz is even tougher


its like going out of one's way to narrow his/her revenue prospects

[3625]

I love everything about free music except the way it sounds.