free jazz

American  

noun

1. spontaneously experimental, free-form jazz, popularized as an avant-garde phenomenon in the 1960s by various soloists and characterized by random expression and disregard for traditional structures, tonalities, and rhythms.

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Example Sentences

“I go out with my band and I play typical band gigs, but I prefer being in a basement with a free jazz drummer any day of the week.”

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 16, 2025

But its reliance on stark emotion wasn’t far from the free jazz being made at the time by Archie Shepp or Albert Ayler—or from Lennon’s own primal scream, “Mother,” which certainly shows Ms. Ono’s influence.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 13, 2025

Where “I Think You Should Leave” operates like a jukebox, “The Chair Company” is a concept album extrapolating a single sight gag into a swirl of lunacy on par with an extended free jazz performance.

From Salon • Oct. 13, 2025

Five decades later, Ismaily has become one of music’s most in-demand collaborators, flitting like a mischievous butterfly through genres as diverse as honeyed folk, rambunctious free jazz and spectral meditations sung in Urdu.

From New York Times • Jun. 27, 2023

From the beginning, Weather Report specialized in electronically amplified blends of funk, soul, Latin and free jazz.

From Washington Post • Mar. 2, 2023