Happy Anniversary: Eddie Harris, Free Speech

45 years ago, sax man Eddie Harris released an album with a title that referenced a right guaranteed by the First Amendment…or maybe it was referencing the cost of speech. Either way, it’s still not the strongest entry in Harris’s discography, although – like virtually all of his work – it still has its merits.

Free Speech is often neglected in reflecting on the classic albums in Harris’s back catalog, and part of the reason for that may be that it came out in such close proximity to one of the best and most commercially successful releases of his career: Swiss Movement, a live performance with Les McCann at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Still, you can’t go wrong with a song called “Boogie Woogie Bossa Nova,” and the title track is nine minutes of Harris, Jodie Christian, Billy Hart, and Louis Spears just going to town. The iTunes review for Free Speech suggests that it’s an album which serves as a dividing line of sorts between “stoner jazz” and “jazz that people get stoned to,” possibly because it’s the first time Harris really went to town with his Veritone sax.

Yes, Free Speech can be a challenging listen, but what else would you expect with a title like that? The right to make the music they want is one that musicians should exercise as often as possible, and if the end result is an album that perplexes as many people as it impresses… Hey, that’s art, baby!