RIPMJAZZ
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Change

Change was published twice, once in 1965 and 1966 each, by the Artists’ Workshop Press of Detroit. The guiding spirits behind Change were the poet, jazz enthusiast, and political activist John Sinclair, along with co-editor Charles Moore, trumpet player and a founder of the Detroit Artists Workshop, a cooperative artistic organization based around Wayne State University. Although short-lived, Change represented the intersection of jazz, poetry, politics, race, and the growing 1960s counterculture.

In his detailed, philosophical, political and poetry-infused prospectus, Sinclair sought to create a “little magazine” for jazz writing, similar to the large number of then-active little magazines for poetry and literature. “Change will have to do entirely with those musics & those musicians its editors head as the real voices of America, the strong & useful artists of this time.” [Change 1, iii. All formatting original hereafter.] Sinclair criticized the rest of the jazz press as divorced from the music’s meanings – political, racial, economic, class – and only through raised communal consciousness can change – Change – come about. After Sinclair’s prospectus, Moore writes on “Black music / the New Wave”: a call for “a Fire Music … a cry of freedom; an utterance so powerful that it shatters the ears with pure Brute Black emotional force.” [Change 1, vi]

Following an open letter to Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., calling for the creation of the National Humanities Foundation, a set of news reports on the jazz scene appear from New York (Marion Brown), London (Tam Fiofori), Paris (George Tysh), Newark, New Jersey (Art Williams), Los Angeles (Mort Maizlish), and San Francisco (Dave Sandberg). Sinclair then wrote on activities at the Detroit Artists Workshop, followed by an introduction to, and reproduction of Jim Semark’s composition The Emotional Organ for two trumpets, alto and tenor saxophone, organ, guitar, bass, and percussion. After a letter from the experimental poet and musician Clark Coolidge in Providence, Rhode Island, poems from Paul Blackburn, Dave Sandberg, Marion Brown, Bob Hogg, Stu Broomer, and Clark Coolidge appear. Part 2 of the issue begins with an extended exploration and history of the Detroit New Music Society, the International Institute of Jazz Arts, and the Detroit jazz scene, with comments by pianist Harold McKinney and guitarist Kenny Burrell, interspersed with quotes from the I Ching and Lankavatara Sutra. A set of performance reviews follows: Ornette Coleman by Fiofori (Croyden, England) and Dave Sinclair (Paris); Steve Lacy’s quartet by Tysh (Paris); Usted Ali Akbar Khan by Semark (Detroit); The Burton Green Quartet by Joe Pinelli (Woodstock); Charles Mingus by Maizlish (UCLA); Cecil Taylor, John Coltrane, and Archie Shepp by John Sinclair (Chicago). After a number of record reviews, an homage to Sun Ra begins with the composer’s thoughts on his music and interpretive responses by J.B. Figi and Ron English. An appreciation of Booker Ervin by Bill Harris and Jim Semark’s prose-drama-semi-hallucination involving Eric Dolphy. Unofficial advertisements for ESP Disk and Impulse! Records are scattered throughout the issue.

Issue two of Change opens with an apology by John Sinclair, written from the Detroit House of Correction, on the publication delay, owing to Sinclair’s arrest on charges of possession of marijuana (Sinclair was an activist for cannabis legalization). Sinclair’s wife Magdalene (Leni) completed much work for the issue, often in collaboration with John during visitations. A series of letters and reports follows which showed the wide distribution and readership of Change – across the United States, Paris, Bologna, Australia – with many reporting on avant-garde and free jazz. Philip T. Cohran writes on “The Spiritual Musician” and John Sinclair contributes a long, effectively editorial letter from jail on the jazz journalism scene – Down Beat, Jazz, Sounds & Fury – and Chicago jazz. Performance reviews of Ornette Coleman (Paris and San Francisco), Coltrane (Philadelphia and Chicago), Miles Davis (Chicago), Archie Shepp (San Francisco), and Andrew Hill (Detroit and Toronto). Articles on Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman (including some reprinted from elsewhere) are interspersed with poetry; a number of extended record reviews and a note from Sinclair conclude the issue. 

Sinclair intended for Change to continue; a prospectus for two further issues appears at the end of number 2. Change was incorporated into the new Detroit Artists Workshop journal Guerrilla which began in January 1967.

Avant-garde