Recommendations on Avant-garde jazz

I'm not much of a specialist on the genre, but I would really like to know what groups/artists can you recommend me that play in a style influenced by 20th century concert music (Messiaen, Schöenberg, Takemitsu...) and that also doesn't include the classics, such as Cecil Taylor or Albert Ayler. I really like this kind of avant-garde jazz but I don't know many artists.

The album in ECM of Meredith Monk and Giya Kancheli might recollect it.

He is very eclectic, some of his albums are in the range of what you are talking about, but some others are not. You might want to try reviews of his albums on here.

There's an album composer Mimargilou (sp) did with Freddie Hubbard called "Sing me a song of Songmy" decidedly outsider AG.

Also Ornette Coleman's "Skies of America"

I just remembered a personal favorite, Milton Babbit's "All Set" for jazz ensemble.

Babbit was a great serial composer who also did commercial music on the side (musicals etc) this jazz piece seems to have a lot of humor to it, its jazz deconstructed and fragmented, excellent piece of music as is all of his music.

Edited by js - 28 Jul 2011 at 11:14pm

^ Thats an avant-garde rock group, he's looking for concert hall composers mixed with jazz, at least as far as I understand so far.

js wrote:

^ Thats an avant-garde rock group, he's looking for concert hall composers mixed with jazz, at least as far as I understand so far.

Thus my wink.

danielpgz wrote:

I've also read of John Zorn but haven't heard any of his music, what do you think?

I can't think of any Zorn that would really fit your description. He's very eclectic, but as far as I know his chamber music is very much "straight" 20th century classical and does have much to do with free jazz. You might still like him, although I've mostly gone off him personally.

Man, I haven't been thinking about free jazz enough lately, I'm having trouble thinking of things. Of course, Anthony Braxton is the go-to guy for combining free jazz and academic music, but I'm as baffled by his massive discography as you are (and the one album I am familiar with, For Alto, is excellent but not what you're looking for). You might be interested in Architeuthis Walks on Land and Minamo. He played with Cecil Taylor for many years, but Jimmy Lyons' albums with his wife Karen Borca might satisfy your Messaien sounds, she plays bassoon. I'm not very familiar with the works of 20th century classical composers so I can't say how they fit into that.

Edited by Henry Plainview - 04 Aug 2011 at 8:35pm

Not sure based on your specifications.

Maybe you'd enjoy Sun Ra?

My Last.fm

Thanks a lot to everyone. What about japanese jazz musicians? In the vein of avant-garde jazz