Straight Ahead Vs Free Jazz

     I was just thinking about this. Straight Ahead versus Free Jazz. In some ways I feel that every single jazz fan is a straight ahead lover because it all starts with the original straight ahead recordings. Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane (early period), Thelonious Monk, Dexter Gordon, Duke Ellington, the list could go on and on. All jazz fans listened to straight ahead, and most of them listened to that before they ever heard anything from the avante-garde, or free jazz scene. Free jazz came from straight ahead, particularly from John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman. I feel like in order to appreciate free jazz and what it represents you have to understand and hear everything from the straight ahead guys, perhaps even go further back and listen to dixieland and big band stuff as well. I've always been more on the cutting edge of the free jazz scene when it comes to listening to jazz but recently I've been only listening to straight ahead stuff. It all comes back to that really. Free jazz takes a big commitment to listen to because the music isn't necessarily easy listening like listening to a rap, pop, or metal track (what other people my age listen to). Whenever I hear the screaming wail of an out of tune saxophone wrecking havoc at a free jazz concert (on youtube) I think about how that guy came up with that style and how it would've never happened without the greats that came before him. Jazz is all about the masters laying down the foundation for the apprentice. Nowadays, jazz is kind of bland and white bread because the masters are dead and/or dying and what has replaced them has been institutional learning from the University system. You can learn how to master your instrument at a school but you can't learn how to play jazz there. That's the way I see it. That's why today's jazz is so lame and boring. I still have faith in jazz though, mainly because of free jazz. Free jazz still has places to go and is relatively new in the development of American music. Its only been around since like the mid to late 60s. Anyways, where would we be without Coltrane going from straight ahead to free jazz. The whole musical universe of jazz switched back then and it was awesome. Free jazz is the heart and soul of current jazz in my opinion and I look forward to hearing new names and younger people come out of the scene. Lastly, if I had to say which is better I would say Free Jazz but only because its newer and more relevant in the current zeitgeist of jazz.