Avant-Garde Jazz

Avant-garde jazz is a Jazz music subgenre that came into prominence in the 1960s. Combining elements of both traditional jazz and avant-garde art music, the genre attempts to break down the boundaries of jazz by experimenting with its defining characteristics such as rhythm, harmony, melody, structure, and instrumentation. Avant-garde jazz is also characterized by a heavy use of extended techniques, including overblowing, multiphonics, and flutter-tonguing. Compositions in the genre can range from dense, complex, and thoroughly composed works to the loose and improvised sounds of Free Jazz, a subgenre of avant-garde jazz. Among the most famous leaders of the movement were John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, and Eric Dolphy.