There is a rather amusing quiet and polite ‘jazz fight’ going on between Ken Micallef and the Jazz Shepherd on YouTube over free jazz, with the former (correctly) loving it and the latter far less so.
It kind of starts with Jazz Shepherd’s very good two-part overview of CTI Records, which whilst very good indeed IMO is very accessible and mainstream:
In one of the parts he gives the free jazz of late Coltrane, Ayler, Coleman, Shepp, Dolphy etc a bit of a kicking. Ken Micallef’s response is very good indeed:
It goes back and forth a few times since then and I’ve been finding it all rather amusing. They both make good points, especially Ken with a great argument as to the political legitimacy of free jazz etc. All good fun and two great channels for sure.
PS Free jazz took a bit of effort for me before the penny dropped, but I love it now!