As the American Negro population began to realize its invaluable contribution to the United States as it stood, the fight for equality began. Even acclaimed black young men and women suffered the degradation of racism. Sonny Rollins, one of the best tenor saxophonists known to the jazz world, was still unable to buy the apartment he desired in New York City due to the color of his skin. To this he commented: “Here I had all these reviews, newspaper articles and pictures. At the time it struck me, what did it all mean if you were still a nigger, so to speak?” In response, Rollins chose music as his weapon, and composed ‘the suite’ as he calls it.

‘The Suite’ refers to a twenty minute long jazz piece featuring Rollins alongside bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Max Roach, and also the title piece of his later album. Protest pieces were common of the era, such as Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddam and other such musical social commentary. But Freedom Suite would be the first instrumental extended instrumental protest piece.  Rollin’s piece represented what freedom meant to him, but more importantly what it meant to him at that time, in that place. His piece portrayed what freedom was for a black man of his status in specifically in New York in the 1960s.

The first point many critics make when analyzing the significance of the Freedom Suite is the obviously apparent length of the piece. Some say the shocking length of the piece is meant to represent the long-standing suffering of the black people in the U.S. Secondly, the composition and improvisation is thought to portray the freedom that Rollins would ideally like to live in.

In other words, musical freedom is a portrayal of physical and moral freedom. Ironically however, Rollins’s label Riverside Records initially deemed the piece and its intentions too provocative and controversial, and attempted to change the content. America wanted to hear the black music, but not the black story, and this is exactly the mentality the civil rights movement aimed to overturn, and the fight that ‘Freedom Suite’ aimed to express.

Another notable point is the style of improvisation Sonny employs throughout his piece.  Through his many themes, the melody line is never lost despite complex improvisations going on above it, and additionally, by the end of the piece the listener can see that the seemingly different themes are in reality all connected and held together by a larger musical idea.

Furthermore when listening to the 20 minute masterpiece, strands of joy can distinctly be heard, versus strands of anger and strands of struggle. Though analysis on this aspect of the work is not quite as widely accepted, it is said that this fact alone represents the many sides of the African American effort for equality.  The constant melody represents the African Americans constant strength despite the oppression, hardship and constant change going on around them (ie the improvisation.)

Without lyrics, the debate on the intent of Rollin’s piece can go on and on without ever reaching a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ conclusion.  However with Rollin’s own comments on his piece we know that his work was clearly a political statement. The title itself, ‘Freedom Suite’ does not refer to musical freedom alone.  He sought to portray the liberation of his people, as well as the liberation of jazz (as the era moved towards free jazz) in one combined effort. Rollins also opened the door for others to follow in his path, for example his drummer Max Roach went on to compose his own Freedom Suite entitled We Insist. Doors also opened up for females to take their stand, and in fact Max Roach recorded his work alongside his wife Abbey Lincoln.

Sonny Rollins took a bold step for his time, and of course his music was met with much opposition.  Yet he, as well as many others in his community, saw it fit to let their voice, and their views be heard.  Through his music he put forward the change he wished to see around him, and let the world know that his people were finally prepared to fight for the racial equality they long deserved.  The Freedom Suite was not meant to represent specifically the Little Rock Nine story, or specifically Brown vs. Board of Education. Instead it represented the change that would soon come, and the freedom that the African American population was battling for nationwide.

For more about Sonny Rollins and to listen to The Freedom Suite, check out NPR Music’s entry on the piece by clicking here.

ENITAN MARCELLE

The Art Ensemble of Chicago

With the black arts movement in the United States during the 1960s came politically charged performances by artists such as Max Roach and The Art Ensemble of Chicago, who were attempting to “take back” jazz for blacks from an industry they perceived to be under white control.  There is much controversy about the “free jazz” these men played.  Melodically and rhythmically it had begun to venture so far outside the traditional parameters of what was traditionally accepted that people began to question whether or not what they were playing really even qualified as music at all, much less jazz music.

Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln – Freedom Now Suite

What these artists attempted to do with their music was radical, but also completely understandable.  Jazz had always been about improvisation and innovation, so free jazz proponents saw what they were doing as a logical extension of the genre.  Turbulent times during the civil rights movement called for turbulent music, punctuated by hoarse screams (in the “Freedom Now Suite”) and flamboyant costumes (in the Art Ensemble).  But while these artists succeeded in blazing new trails in terms of what could be done with music both sonically and socially, it is debatable whether they succeeded in creating what the Art Ensemble termed “great black music.”

James Brown – I Feel Good

While some consider it great, and the artists were black and concerned with Afro-centric history and politics, it never became the music of the black race. In fact, it was artists such as James Brown the “Godfather of Soul”, who was enjoying great popularity during this time among the black community. Although the issues that jazz artists at the time were confronting were important to many black people, the majority failed to see the connection between the progressive politics and the progressive sound of free jazz music.

This divide continues today.  Almost everyone, black or white, has heard of Kanye West, but the majority of American youths can probably count the number of contemporary jazz artists they know on one hand.  This isn’t to say that the music is irrelevant, or not salvageable, but perhaps we must accept that for a popular audience, it has been subsumed under the umbrella of “rock music,” a term just as indefinable as jazz.

Sly and the Family Stone

Since Miles Davis pioneered jazz fusion after witnessing his contemporaries Sly and the Family Stone move the crowd in ways that even he no longer felt he could with straight jazz, jazz and rock have borrowed from each other freely.  I would submit that jazz still thrives, and that it is commercially viable, although perhaps it exists in a form that would appall the Art Ensemble.

Dirty Projectors – Temecula Sunrise

Artists like Dirty Projectors employ many of the elements of what made bop initially successful.  It takes the tried and true pop verse-chorus-verse pop song format and uses traditional rock instrumentation while introducing complex, virtuosic instrumentation, intricate time signatures, and drum beats that weave in and out of the melody instead of simply keeping the beat.

For the most part, the band uses drums, guitar, bass, and keys, instruments that are typically associated with rock music, not jazz, but all of the essential elements are there.  Their song “Temecula Sunrise” off of their most recent album Bitte Orca provides a good example.

Radiohead – The National Anthem

Similarly the band Radiohead, one of the biggest “rock” bands in the world, borrows heavily from Charles Mingus tinged hard bop on the songs “The National Anthem” off of their album Kid A (which won the 2000 Grammy for Best Alternative Album) and polyphonic early New Orleans influenced jazz sounds on “Life in a Glasshouse,” off their 2001 album Amnesiac.  If Radiohead were not packaged and sold by the industry as a rock band, it would be very difficult to categorize this music as such.

Radiohead – Life In A Glasshouse

However, we must note another important thing these two bands have in common: they both consist exclusively of white men.  Is this not just another recurrence of white executives and musicians copping a black musical form in order to appeal to a more mainstream audience and cash in on a black musical innovation?  It’s hard to say.

The music industry is different now, with black artists like Jay-Z controlling his own musical empire.  But in a lot of ways this certainly looks like a case of white artists “Benny Goodman-ing” jazz music to make it more palatable.  It’s certainly not the vision of the Art Ensemble, and so the controversy remains: Is the only way to make jazz music popular to Anglicize it?

STEVEN WAYE