The 1960's was a decade of major transformation in British jazz and in
British popular music in general. The British jazz scene had been,
arguably, the first outside America to assert its independence. At first
slowly but with gathering speed, it began to define an identity that
drew increasingly on sources from within its own culture, as well as
those from African-American jazz, and from its shared European cultural
heritage. This process would in itself prove highly influential, as
French, Italian, German and Scandinavian scenes began to follow suit.
The nature of jazz, its scope and potential were re-examined and
reformulated in this period with important implications for its
musicians and its audience.
The external forces acting upon the British jazz scene were both global
and local in origin. Jazz was not immune from the economic, social and
cultural changes that occurred following the Second World War and which
continued apace in the 1960's. Its development was both affected by and
reflected those changes and the new ways of thinking and acting that
arose from them. And yet wider global economic and political changes, in
particular in America, would continue to have a major impact on British
jazz.
For these reasons, any history of British jazz in the 1960's must
explain these trends and describe which were global and which were local
in origin. It must show how forces outside the music acted upon it and
both created and limited its potential for development. But it must also
define the personalities, as well as the context in which they
functioned. Jazz is made by its musicians and is ultimately changed by
them. What were the records that they made which defined the era? From
where did their inspiration arise? And how did their audience respond?
Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers follows a number of
themes - class, education, drugs and addictions, relationships with rock
and blues, race and immigration, gender issues, the arts, politics and
that sixties buzzword: 'freedom'. In doing so, the book challenges many
conventional understandings of British jazz and its scene. This is the
definitive history of British jazz in the 1960's.
