SUMMARY
Actualising the concert of Archie Shepp–Bill Dixon Quartet at the 8th World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki 1962, Free Jazz Communism contextualizes the politics of free jazz music in light of global decolonisation movements, anti-war activism, structures of racial capitalism, and forms of avant-garde music.
Apart from the theoretical and historical overview by its editors Sezgin Boynik and Taneli Viitahuhta, the book includes testimonies of the collective and international spirit of the 1962 Youth Festival, translated documents from the Finnish press, a new interview with Archie Shepp, commissioned text by Jeff Schwartz on the historical context of political engagement of free jazz musicians, and reproduction of three hard-to-find texts by Shepp. The new edition of Free Jazz Communismalso includes the reprint of the entire script of Archie Shepp’s play The Communist (Junebug Graduates Tonight: A Jazz Allegory).
