Western Front

1965 saw the first release of a studio recording featuring Amiri Baraka (then still LeRoi Jones) working with avant garde jazz musicians, the New York Art Quartet. On the evidence of that recording we can trace parallels between the “projective verse” aesthetics Baraka had wedded to African American verse traditions, and the emerging techniques of “Free Jazz.” The post-Bop approach of the NYAQ, much influenced by the breakthroughs of John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman, provided a performance space within which Baraka could recite his “Black Dada Nihilismus” to best effect. Shortly thereafter, the NYAQ and Baraka reunited in the studios of New York’s Pacifica radio outlet. These sessions, little known until their recent reissue, brought to light three more Baraka performances with the group.