Green Dolphin

Recommendations would probably be best served in relation to what you like listening to now.Also what sounded "free" in the late 50's can sound pretty tame these days.If you mean from the early days then best start with Ornette's Atlantics(or indeed the two Contemporary's),Cecil Taylor's Looking Ahead and the Candids moving onto the more difficult Unit Structures and Conquistador.Then of course Coltrane post Love Supreme(First Meditations would be a good toe in the water if it's still available as a single disc)before immersing yourself in such things as Ascension.Art Ensemble(and Roscoe Mitchell's "Sound"),Archie Shepp and plenty more treats will follow. I must admit I'm no authority on today's splintered free scene but check out Ken Vandermark,Joe Morris,Peter Brotzmann(save 68's Machine Gun for a while!).I'm sure there's other board members who'll fill you(and me!) in with contemporary must haves.I'm not one really for sub-genres,it's either good or bad,as the Duke said. By way of an edit how could I have forgotten Ayler-Spiritual Unity knocked me sideways when I first heard it("What the hell is this?").And forgot Ware too,any of the DIW's are worth having,Godspellized is awesome but the two Columbias would be a good start,backwards probably...Surrendered first then Go See The World.

Wayne Shorter-Alegria Mat Maneri-Sustain Brad Shepik-Short Trip Horace Tapscott-The Dark Tree John Taylor-Rosslyn

1.Paul Bley 2.Keith Jarrett 3.Andrew Hill 4.Brad Mehldau 5.Uri Caine Three legends and 2 relative newcomers-as a piano nut there's too many to choose from.It wouldn't be so dificult to pick out,say, tenor players or guitarists, but drummers are another lot I'd find it hard to squeeze out five favourites. Great board by the way,and glad to be aboard.