Free Jazz/Black Power

Philippe Carles (1941-2023) was editor-in-chief at Jazz Magazine from 1971 until 2006. He coauthored several books on jazz, including Dictionnaire du jazz.

In 1971, French jazz critics Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli co-wroteFree Jazz/Black Power, a treatise on the racial and political implications of jazzand jazz criticism. It remains a testimony to the long-ignored encounter of radicalAfrican American music and French left-wing criticism. Carles and Comolliset out to defend a genre vilified by jazz critics on both sides of the Atlanticby exposing the new sound's ties to African American culture, history, and thepolitical struggle that was raging in the early 1970s. The two offered a politicaland cultural history of black presence in the United States to shed more light onthe dubious role played by jazz criticism in racial oppression.This analysis critiques the critics, building a work of cultural studies in a timeand place where the practice was virtually unknown. The authors reached radicalconclusions-free jazz was a revolutionary reaction against white dominationwas the musical counterpart to the Black Power movement, and was amusic that demanded a similar political commitment. The impact of this bookis difficult to overstate, as it made readers reconsider their response to AfricanAmerican music. In some cases it changed the way musicians thought aboutand played jazz. Free Jazz/Black Power remains indispensable to the study ofthe relation of American free jazz to European audiences, critics, and artists.Philippe Carles was editor-in-chief at Jazz Magazine from 1971 until 2006.He has coauthored several books on jazz, including Dictionnaire du jazz.Jean-Louis Comolli teaches at Université Paris-VIII, FEMIS, and UniversitatPompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He is a film critic, screenwriter, film director, andjazz author. Grégory Pierrot is assistant professor of English at the University ofConnecticut at Stamford.