New York City, US, 1966-1967

The Free Spirits were one of the very first instances in history when jazz and rock was combined and are listed in jazz literature as the first jazz-rock band. They were formed in 1966 in NYC by primarily jazz musicians who "decided to play rock". Among them was Larry Coryell. They recorded one album, Out Of Sight And Sound, which was released in 1967. The album contains songs flavoured by jazz harmonies and arrangements with a few psychedelic moments as well. It is known that they opened for The Doors and that they broke up at some point in 1967. The album sold poorly and went mostly unnoticed. It has become notable for historians as being one of the first attempts to combine rock with jazz.
The CD version of their album contains extensive liner notes by Richie Unterberger. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.