Lots of good discussion and advice here...

the only thing I'd throw out there is that "free" jazz (i, like others, have problems with the label) is best experienced as a dedicated listen. I mean, you can have it play in the background or whatever, if it floats your boat, but in terms of "getting" it you have to let yourself really sink into it, which happens most if you're focusing on it.

((The same with a lot of other forms of radical or "avant garde" music...))

I like to think of it as immersion. Suspend your disbelief and sink into it, which isn't passive but *active*: ask yourself, what are they doing? Assume they have a vision, that they're not just fucking around. What is that vision? If it sounds like noise, it's probably supposed to sound like noise (at least at first listen): why should it sound like noise?

((Folks who are interested in this topic might be interested in a great interview with the composer John Luther Adams, whose own work usually works with either long waves of repetition and silence, or with long stretches of absolute cacophony. In the interview, he discusses how he has always been attracted by the music he just doesn't "get" ... and describes in a bit of detail his solution, which is basically repeated listening to find signposts or things to hang your hat on, and then to sink into the piece and find its larger intent... or something like that.

Interview is here: http://www.wqxr.org/#!/story/john-luther-adams-poor-career-choices-finding-home-alaska/

-thebigfunk

~ i could still snort you under the table ~