Regardless of the intentions of individual artists, in times of struggle and political there will always be a demand for music to be a part of that struggle. When the public hears a music that seems like a good voice for the struggle, the public will latch onto that voice. There will also be later artists that are more politically driven and use the previously worked out art as a platform for their rhetoric.
It took a few decades for the theory atonality pioneered by people like Schoenberg and Webern in the 20s to permeate into the realm of jazz. The earliest evidence of atonality in jazz showed up in the music of Lennie Tristano in the 40s, and a few years later in the music of the “Third Stream” movement, an attempt to bring classical and jazz together. But there is a big difference between atonal jazz and Free Jazz. Composers and performers of early atonal jazz inserted elements of contemporary classical music into their writing and playing. The atonality in Free Jazz came simply from an advance from the highly chromatic music of bebop to free tonality. Free Jazz originated entirely from previous jazz, and the language developed entirely through improvisation. Another point that might be noteworthy is that the first people to bring atonality into jazz were white, and “Free Jazz” was invented by black people.
In 1961, Ornette Coleman released a groundbreaking album entitled “Free Jazz; a Collective Improvisation”. This album not only gave a name to the type of music the likes of Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor had been putting in motion for the last five years, but also segregated the listeners, critics, and very culture of jazz and influenced countless artists, each using the pillar of “Free Jazz” differently, notably John Coltrane and Peter Brotzmann.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbZIiom9rDA
What was so controversial about the album was that while it maintained traditional jazz instrumentation, it was almost completely improvised and featured a double quartet; one quartet in each channel so the music is difficult to listen to if you have never heard anything like it before. This improvisational free gave power to the instrumentalist in the creation of melodies as well as form.
The music’s upfront and powerful sound as well as its name, Free, being similar to the freedom riders and freedom schools made it immediately associated with the civil rights movement, regardless of the intentions of its creators.
While the album “Free Jazz” was not explicitly related to civil rights or black power, it inspired other artists that were, in particular Archie Shepp and Max Roach. Both artists released albums containing politically charged music, for example Roach’s “We Insist!” and Shepp’s “Fire Music” and “Attica Blues”.
At the time “Free Jazz” was considered forward thinking, but some people have considered the movement to be a return to roots. The highly chromatic harmony of bebop was disassembled, and in many free jazz albums there was a return to multiple instrumentalists soloing together, harkening back to the dixieland days. Many free jazz artists were also exploring the roots of different music from around the world, particularly africa. This relates to the black power movement’s rhetoric of a critical look at western culture.
In the end, Ornette Coleman didn’t intend for his album to be politicized, but it was the perfect voice in a time of struggle, and therefore became iconic. However, it is dangerous to look at the music through this lense of politics, as it distorts the original intentions of the artists such as Ornette Coleman. His music is beautiful in its own right and doesn’t need to be attached to a movement.
http://www.furious.com/perfect/jazzpunk.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_jazz
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ornette-coleman-mn0000484396/biography