Debating as to whether to post this on the jazz board or this board, and then decided that it would perhaps get seen by more people here, so here it is.

Just wondered what were people's opinions on the encounters between jazz and classical music, and the reciprocal (or otherwise) influence they've had over each other over the years? Obviously you've got the whole Third Stream thing in the 50s, with Schuller, Mingus, George Russell, et al - which I think produced some very good music, though was perhaps somewhat limited in what it could do, always treading a tightrope between being music of genuine interest and a somewhat academic exercise (I may be being unfair). And then there's the whole, more minor (but more popular) 'jazzing the classics' thing - Jacques Loussier and so on - with of course Miles Davis and Gil Evans' 'Sketches of Spain' as perhaps the ultimate example. But then you've also got what, for me, seems to be perhaps the most interesting encounter between jazz and classical - in the realm of the avant-garde. Composer/instrumentalists like Braxton, Ornette Coleman, the encounter between Penderecki and Don Cherry's Eternal Rhythm orchestra, and then things in the more free improv realm of things - Barry Guy, Simon H. Fell, Butch Morris, this forum's own Richard Barrett (who I hope could offer some valuable insight into this issue).

There's plenty of areas for discussion apropos this topic: e.g. the relation of composition to improvisation, questions of musical snobbery from classical to jazz (and perhaps elements of racism as well, at least, in the 50, 60s and 70s, maybe even today). I'm sure people can think of many more.

So, I open up the floor. Would be intrigued to hear what people think.

I've been doing quite a bit of listening to Anthony Braxton's music recently, and it set me thinking that phenomena like his work stem from a rather different process from the one Reiner is describing: that is, by the 1960s, both jazz and contemporary/experimental music had reached a point where their respective soundworlds had expanded (to a greater or lesser extent through the idea of "free improvisation" emerging from both) such that there could be a commonality of purpose and a true confluence between them - hence Braxton's interest in Stockhausen and Cage, for example, and, more generally, the whole phenomenon of "European free improvisation" as it evolved from that time onwards. Although, actually, I doubt whether it's appropriate to describe music such as Braxton's as either "jazz" or "classical".