LOOKING BACK AT
JACKIE MCLEAN’S LET FREEDOM RING

May 17, 2016 | by Rusty Aceves

Jackie McLean

Here's a look back at Let Freedom Ring, a transitional album for alto saxophone giant Jackie McLean and one of the definitive jazz statements of the 1960s.

Easily one of the prolific and identifiable saxophonists to emerge during the hard bop era of the late 1950s, Jackie McLean expertly straddled the line between muscular straight-ahead standard-bearer and intrepid explorer of uncharted musical territory. After years of experience with Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis, McLean established his career as a bandleader and recorded nearly 20 sessions for Prestige, Ad Lib, Jubilee, and Blue Note before he had reached a turning point in his musical conception with the 1962 masterpiece Let Freedom Ring. The album was a landmark for McLean and assuredly one of the greatest of Blue Note’s golden period in the 1960s.

The record title is a celebratory expression of the freedom McLean found by rejecting traditional chord changes and embracing the modal approach popularized by Miles Davis as well as the long-form compositional style he learned from Mingus – an abandonment of bebop strictures the saxophonist called “the big room.” But the four lengthy tracks that make up Let Freedom Ring were more than simply products of McLean’s combined influences – they represented an opening of doors and a basis for further explorations – a basis that would be expanded upon for the remainder of the saxophonist’s career. McLean’s bandmates on the session, pianist Walter Davis, bassist Herbie Lewis, and drummer Billy Higgins, were the perfect rhythm section to make this conceptual leap of faith. McLean felt strongly enough about the new direction he had taken with Let Freedom Ring that he insisted on writing the album’s liner notes himself, and they paint a vivid portrait of the composer unfettered by stifling restrictions of style and form.

“When a musician reaches a certain point, he is no longer satisfied with merely copying someone else. He begins to look for his own way of expression. Getting away from the conventional and much overused chord changes was my personal dilemma. Until recently this was the reason why many things I composed in 1955 left me helpless when it came to a basis for improvisation. Today I am going through a big change, composition-wise, and in improvising. Ornette Coleman has made me stop and think. He has stood up under much criticism, yet he never gives up his cause, freedom of expression. The search is on.”

“Jazz is going through a big change, and the listener or fan, or what have you, should listen with an open mind. They should use a mental telescope to bring into view the explorers who have taken one step beyond. I want to thank Walter Davis, Billy Higgins, and Herbie Lewis for their support. The new breed has inspired me all over again. The search is on. Let freedom ring.”

Looking back at his life a decade before his passing in 2006, McLean told jazz critic and author Bob Blumenthal, “My life has been sweet and sour, bittersweet, and I’m interpreting my experience. I’m a sugar-free saxophonist.”