[ZEROpumpkins]

Going to buy some records tomorrow. I bought Bitches Brew a couple of days ago and want some more music like that. Essentials, please!

[acousticrock87]

If you want more music like Bitches Brew, don't look at free jazz or avant-garde. It has vague elements of them, but it's mostly just early fusion.

But if you do want free jazz:

Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures
Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz
Sun Ra - Space Is The Place (or anything, I guess; it's the only one I have of his)

That's about as essential as it gets. Sonny Sharrock has some good fusion free jazz that's closer to Bitches Brew, but I don't really know him well enough to point out records.

As for good fusion (not easy to come by), a lot of the people that play on Miles' fusion stuff--Herby Hancock, Chick Corea--have stuff of their own that you might like. Also, try Hiromi's Sonic Bloom. Not free jazz at all, but fucking awesome stuff. Here's some of it so you don't get something you don't end up liking. It's kind of different.

[Death & the Maiden]

Laughing Clowns - maybe not quite avant-garde or free jazz though. They're my favourite band, but their albums are out of print and difficult to find, though you might be able to fing the Cruel But Fair boxset in somewhere like Redeye Records.

[gualbert]

God Is My Co-pilot..??
( maybe not so free )

[Massassinated]

for fusion if you like Bitches brew :
Mahavishnu Orchestra - The inner mounting flame
Nels Cline Singers - The giant pin
Joe McPhee - Nation time

for free jazz,
get first
John Coltrane - Ascension (unsurpassable imo)

some really great classics :
Don Cherry - Eternal rhythm
Eric Dolphy - Out to lunch
Julius Hemphill - Dogon A.D.
Krzysztof Komeda - Astigmatic
Lodon Jazz Composer's Orchestra - Ode
David Murray - Ming
Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons - Firebirds
Pharoah Sanders - Black unity
Sonny Sharrock - Black woman
Art Ensemble of Chicago - Urban bushmen
Anthony Braxton - Creative orchestra music
Sun Ra - Space is the place
Cecil Taylor - Silent tongues
Ornette Coleman - Free jazz
Tim Berne - Fractured fairy tales
Henry Threadgill - Just the facts and pass the bucket
Peter Brötzmann - Machine gun
John Carter - Castles of Ghana

and some harsher stuff, if you dare :
Jazz Composer's Orchestra - Communications
Dave Burrell - Echo
Alan Silva & the Celestrial Communication Orchestra - Seasons

some more recent but top-notch as well stuff :
Susie Ibarra - Folklorico
Mat Maneri - Sustain
Nicole Mitchell & Black Heart Ensemble - Hope, future and destiny
Matthew Shipp - New orbit
Wadada Leo Smith - Lake Biwa
William Parker - The peach orchard
Bobby Previte - The 23 Constellations of Joan Miró
David S. Ware - Godspelized

When done properly, free jazz is, like, the best thing ever

[ZEROpumpkins]

Ahh yes, Sun Ra, that's one of the one's I was gonna check out. I hear Atlantis is very good, yes?

[Massassinated]

Yes it is, but more abstract and "out there" than Space is the place

[Moshe]

I don't like the way Atlantis was recorded. Sounds like it is really from outer space.
You should definitely start here: John Coltrane - Ascension.

[ZEROpumpkins]

Originally Posted by Massassinated

Yes it is, but more abstract and "out ther" than Space is the place

I prefer that kinda music

[atsonicpark]

Just buy some Harry Partch. It's not free jazz, but it is essential, avant-garde, and great.

Get some Kaoru Abe.

[RdTv]

Looking over everyone's recommendations and the one I'm not seeing that is essential is Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity

Tod Dockstader - Eight Electronic Pieces

You can find the above also as the soundtrack to Fellini's 'Satyricon'.

The music sounds almost like dub/techno at times.

Probably I got the name of this thread wrong. Is he asking for avantgarde music and free jazz recommendations or just free jazz?

[narlus]

free jazz...check almost any release from these labels:

BYG/Actuel
FMP
Emanem
Silkheart
HatHut
ESP'-Disk

[greedrex]

great thread. thanks.

[themawt71]

check the other later miles davis cds from the late 60s and early to mid 70s. the funk became much darker and more abstract.

live evil, pangea, big fun.........

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by ZEROpumpkins

Ahh yes, Sun Ra, that's one of the one's I was gonna check out. I hear Atlantis is very good, yes?

Atlantis is amazing, my second favorite album after Bad Moon Rising by anyone. Unlike Moshe, I love the way it was recorded. Perfectly suitable for music about lost continents and sunken worlds.

Space is the Place is incredibly good as well. Parts of it are some of Ra's most accessible space themed music, but there's nothing wrong with that either. June Tyson's vocals are just perfect. This is one of his most lyrical albums. You should really watch the movie as well, which is totally incredible.

Other essential Ra albums: Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy (his most "out" record probably, music like nothing else by nobody else), Heliocentric Worlds (in 3 parts now, all great), My Brother the Wind (in 2 parts), Concert for Comet Kohoutek, Cymbals & Crystal Spears (two separate albums but released on cd by Evidence as "The Lost Albums"), Disco 3000, Astro Black, and on and on and on

The only Ra record I wasn't into was Reflections in Blue which is just straight jazz standards with Ra playing a very digital sounding synth.

Other Free Jazz stuff I love:

John Coltrane - Om (arguably his most out and admittedly a difficult listen even for fans, but worth it), Ascension, Meditations, Inerstellar Space

Alice Coltrane - Lord of Lords, Universal Consciousness, practically everything

Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Forms & Sounds (this one is a mix of free jazz and modern classical composition), At the Golden Circle (Pts. 1 & 2, usually two albums but I think recently packaged together), more (some of his 80s stuff has a fusion influence which you might like if you dug Bitches Brew)

Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity, Ghosts, At Slugs Saloon, really anything else you find

Since you like Bitches Brew, you should really grab On the Corner by Miles, and the Herbie Hancock album Headhunters. I really like Herbie's '80s electronic funk influence trilogy too Future Shock, Sound System, and Perfect Machine (I've been listening to that one a lot the past few days and my 9 month old son loves dancing to the funky beats).

[acousticrock87]

Originally Posted by themawt71

check the other later miles davis cds from the late 60s and early to mid 70s. the funk became much darker and more abstract.

live evil, pangea, big fun.........

Live-Evil is fucking amazing. Sivad is probably my favorite Miles track.

[ZEROpumpkins]

Most of the artists mentioned are very unlikely to actually be in stock...

[Dead-Air]

Originally Posted by ZEROpumpkins

Most of the artists mentioned are very unlikely to actually be in stock...

Really?? The artists that have been mentioned so far represent the big name superstars of avant jazz. If your record stores don't carry them, they probably don't have much jazz at all. You can probably find every one of the records mentioned on Amazon then.