European Free Jazz - Aftermath of Free Jazz

Aftermath of Free Jazz

After the craze of the late 1960s and 1970s in Europe, improvised music began to influence and became influenced by other genres of music. In the United States, Europe and the rest of the world, musicians continued to play free improvisational music, but also looked to other genres for inspiration. This term 'improvised music' may of course be used in the common dictionary sense, and it is particularly useful in references to the pan-genre eclecticism which has characterized much music-making from the 1980s onwards, as musicians draw freely from, or meld together, not only jazz and contemporary art music but also aspects of various mainstream popular musics (blues, rock, soul, pop, etc.) and 'world music' (this last term comprising any and all ethnic traditions, worldwide). Free jazz had a lasting effect on the European music scene and there are still many musicians who perform this style today. Organizations like "European Jazz Network" serve to promote European jazz music. On their website, http://www.europejazz.net/index.php, they describe themselves as a "Europe-wide association of producers, presenters and supporting organisations who specialise in creative music, contemporary jazz and improvised music created from a distinctly European perspective".