First known use of "Downtown" when referring to the NYC avant scene of the late '70s-early '80s?

[AndreyHenkin]

Does anyone any idea when this was first used in print to describe that circle of players and small DIY venues? Now it is ubiquitous but some journalist must have used it first.

References to downtown jazz can be found in DownBeat as early as 1962 but that is strictly geographical discussing clubs rather than an aesthetic description.

[clifford_thornton]

This might be a question for Will Hermes...

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533540/lovegoestobuildingsonfire/

[T.D.]

Somewhat off-topic, but "Downtown music" is a thing in classical/"new" music as well.

Kyle Gann dates the scene (but not usage) to 1961 (Yoko Ono's loft 🙂), see https://www.kylegann.com/downtown.html

I'm going to look into when that usage first appeared in print.

Edited 6 hours ago by T.D.

[clifford_thornton]

yes, Robert Wilson was called "Downtown Bob" (because of another Robert Wilson living, you guessed it, uptown), but I do not know if the term "Downtown" was ascribed to his art/theater scene in the late '60s or if the term as an aesthetic qualifier emerged later. 

https://whitney.org/exhibitions/rituals-of-rented-island

[rostasi]

I think the transition from a geographical distinction to a "scene" one was really a slippery one that started with the writings of Tom Johnson in the Village Voice starting around 1977 where he'd differentiate by referring to groups of composers working downtown and then referencing The Kitchen or Artists Space. I think that it started to have a stylistic meaning around '80 or '81 - still by Johnson - just because the divisions were growing clearer and the term was already circulating in the informal speech of the time so it just naturally worked its way into reviews with the knowledge that VV readers would just know.

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, I was thinking the Voice, and Johnson would make sense.

[Rabshakeh]

Two things that interest me are (1) the way that the geographic descriptor means that people interpret the New York downtown scene of that period as being something different to the wider trends in improv that were also happening in London and Tokyo which went in the same direction, rather than as being part of a cohesive second wave of free improv (to use the term that I think Shoemaker uses in reference to e.g. Steve Beresford pissing off the oldies at Company week); and (2) the apparently complete dominance of Eugene Chadbourne in the early stages of the NY scene (I wasn’t there but he seems to have been everywhere).

Were Slug’s Saloon and Ornette Coleman’s loft Downtown? Perhaps the descriptor was used for them? My knowledge of where the line is drawn is hazy.