Ae6. Was John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy's music anti-jazz?
"I heard a good rhythm section … go to waste behind the nihilistic exercises of the two horns. Coltrane and Dolphy seem intent on deliberately destroying [swing]. They seem bent on pursuing an anarchistic course in their music that can but be termed anti-jazz.” – John Tynan, DownBeat Magazine, November, 1961
In 1961, DownBeat magazine published a review of a John Coltrane performance referring to the music as "anarchistic" and as "a horrifying demonstration of what appears to be a growing anti-jazz trend." This review documented one of the most controversial moments in the history of jazz: the advent of Free Jazz or "The New Thing."
John Coltrane (1926–1967)
Eric Dolphy (1928–1964)