No Room For Squares Session 52 – The Bill Dixon Orchestra – Intents and purposes (1967)

Bill Dixon’s Intents and Purposes stands as one of the most profound yet criminally overlooked statements of 1960s jazz. Recorded at a time when the American free jazz movement was both exploding and fracturing, Dixon’s sole major-label release presents a vision that is as rigorous in its structure as it is daring in its freedom.

Dixon’s trumpet serves more as a guiding presence than a traditional lead instrument. His sense of space recalls the European avant-garde and even contemporary classical composers, but the music remains deeply rooted in the Black American jazz tradition. The orchestra’s careful balancing of improvisation and composition reveals Dixon’s role not just as a bandleader, but as an architect of sound.

It is music that resists easy categorization: too structured for “free jazz,” too expansive for “chamber jazz”. Listening today, one realizes how far ahead Dixon was, anticipating later developments in large-ensemble improvisation and compositional jazz.

✨ The bar opens at 6:30 PM, needle drop at 8:30 PM.
✨ A 5 Euro entry ticket will be charged on the first order. No reservations.
✨ We ask for silent listening during the length of the record.
✨ Come early and stay late for a chat and a drink!

“Dark and mysterious. These are probably the best words to describe the music on Intents & Purposes from trumpet player and composer Bill Dixon. Unlike the manic frenzy that’s often found in free jazz of the same period, this album is more solemn. There are, of course, bursts of energy from the soloists but they are subjected to the global texture of the music. Intents & Purposes is clearly an ensemble project and not a soloist one. The sound balance, the orchestration and the arrangements are more important than individual prowess that is only used to spice the whole, in a way similar to what Mingus did with his bands.“ (Timy Keller, All music, 23.09.15)