The Free Jazz Convention was founded by Washington, DC– and NYC-based musician and organizer Luke Stewart as his capstone for the MA Arts Management and
Entrepreneurship program. The Free Jazz Convention brings together musicians, advocates, and other constituents of the free jazz community in New York City. Arts for Art, the premier free jazz organization in NYC, is collaborating on this convention.
Luke Stewart explains, “In recent years, there has been a major shift within the free jazz community at large. Some of the movement’s most ardent supporters and iconic figures are passing into ancestry, leaving behind a generation with a completely different
sensibility, operating under drastically different circumstances. The music is being lost in the greater cultural conversation, especially around jazz. However, within the world of jazz, it seems to be consistently at the height of respectability for
those who feel invested in the community. In other words, those in the community have a deep level of reverence, while others seem to either be unknowing and uncaring or ardently against the approach. More than any other time in recent history, however,
there is a feeling that people are searching for something new, for something that can speak to the times in a non-commercial, honest way. It is natural for improvisers to exist in the moment, using the contemporary environment as fuel for creativity.
As a key component of free jazz, the sounds of the community can answer the call. More important, free jazz movements were born out of radicalism and are perfectly suited for inspiring the generation of today.”
Leading the Free Jazz Convention is a natural outgrowth of Stewart’s relationship with Arts for Art and with the free jazz community in New York City and around the world. The idea of bringing this community together for the Free Jazz Convention, the
necessity of which is widely recognized, emerged from discussions with key people in the movement. Producing the Free Jazz Convention further established Stewart as an artist and organizer. Since graduating from The New School, Stewart has further
integrated the Free Jazz Convention into the activities of Arts for Art. Over the past year, the community held a number of discussions exploring ideas raised during the first Free Jazz Convention, in 2019. In the process, the community shared important
resources and perspectives on the pandemic, unemployment, organizational structure, racism, sexism, and protest. These discussions culminated in a number of political actions that took place throughout the year and are expected to continue f in the
years to come.