"Free Jazz/Black Power" by Philippe Carles and Jean Louis Comolli.

Ed Rhodes, Jr. wrote:

At 10:18 AM 11/21/98 +0200, Teatro allocchio@FININVEST.IT wrote:

Notwithstanding its typical Gallic presumption and some ideological stuff that today sounds no less than naif, I still think that the best book about free jazz is "Free Jazz/Black Power" by Philippe Carles and Jean Louis Comolli.

Viz Gallic, is this book in French? Is there an English translation? Is it still in print? Do you have information on the publisher?

Ed Rhodes

Ed, Yes in French indeed and published 1/25/71 by "Editions Champ Libre" which, I think, do not exist any more for years ... However, I have often seen this book on french 2nd hand records & books stores. E-mail me privately if you are interested. Never translated in english as I know, but may be Philippe Carles, Sun Ra's Cosmos & Unity liner notes writer, and presently editorial director of the french "Jazz Magazine", could confirm and help you (Jazz Magazine e-mail: jazzmag@calva.net). The book is really interesting even if with a marxist 60's point of view. It is mainly historical, sociological, political with less than 10 of the 328 pages really about the music itself ...

For the music, there is an other european book: "Free Jazz" from the german Ekkehard Jost, published 1972, available in english @ Da Capo. I found it interesting too and never saw better from this musicologist point of view.

I liked these 2 books with their obsessive (and very different) point of view. They both gave me food for thought ...

Bertrand bgugg@club-internet.fr