This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
Jazz by Grella on freedom and free jazz history
The piece traces the roots and rise of free jazz as a political and cultural movement led by figures like Taylor Coleman Cherry Ayler and Coltrane. It discusses existential improvisation, Black musical heritage, and the era’s social stakes, ending with a call to embrace jazz as a test of American values.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Lightnin’ Hopkins
John Lee Hooker
Steve Lacy
Cecil Taylor
Lacy
Taylor
Ornette Coleman
Don Cherry
John Coltrane
Albert Ayler
Pharoah Sanders
Cherry
Coltrane
America
Philippe Carles
Jean-Louis Comelli
LeRoi Jones
Amiri Baraka
William Hooker
Anthology Film Archives
Coleman
Hooker
Marc Edwards
Patricia Nicholson Parker
Craig Harris
Ka’a Davis
Lisa Soko
The
Angels
James “Blood” Ulmer
Rudolph Burger
William Parker
Curtis Mayfield
Lester Bowie
Conjure
Kip Hanrahan