Drawing on interviews with dozens of musicians, I Hear Freedom tells the story of free jazz in Cleveland and Detroit — and how a generation of Black artists turned the heritage of the Great Migration into a radical new music of liberation.
Drawing on interviews with dozens of musicians, I Hear Freedom tells the story of free jazz in Cleveland and Detroit — how families carried the musical traditions of the South north during the Great Migration, and how a generation of Black artists turned that heritage into a radical new music of liberation.
“[A] comprehensive, vivid treatment of social as well as musical factors in the development of free jazz.” — The Wire
The rise and fall of Brooklyn’s underground music and art scene, from the late 1980s to the 2010s.
“…an authoritative book on a creative foment that has often gone unrecognized in the discourse around experimental music in New York.” — Nate Chinen, NPR
The life and music of visionary bassist and composer William Parker.
“…an essential entry in the critical culture reading list.” — John Corbett
The legacy of Shaykh Daʻud al-Fatani in Mecca and Southeast Asia.
Take Me to Fendika illuminates the traditional and innovative musical culture of Ethiopia at what has been called “the best venue in Africa” — through its founder, the world-renowned dancer Melaku Belay.
Directed by Cisco Bradley and made in collaboration with Ethiopian and diaspora musicians, artists, and filmmakers across three continents.
As the founder of the Music and Migration Lab at Pratt Institute, Bradley’s current research examines the oral transmission of African music in North America and the Caribbean from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century. By examining the ancestral lineages of every significant musician of African descent active up to World War II (over 3,600 musicians), Bradley is reconstructing when, where, and how African music spread across the American landscape.
The project examines a series of cultural movements including Black-indigenous encounters in early America, the post-revolution Haitian diaspora, free Black communities, the Underground Railroad, and networks of enslaved people who transmitted concepts of African music over the centuries that culminated in the post-emancipation era in continent-spanning networks via the Great Migration that gave birth to Black musical forms such as spirituals, blues, jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, soul, rock, Motown, funk, hip hop and other forms of music that have since spread all over the globe.
Since 2013, Bradley has conducted 500 interviews with musicians for the Free Jazz Oral History Project, housed at the Music and Migration Lab.
Bradley teaches classes on the music, migrations, and cultural history of the African diaspora. Subject areas include jazz history, American migration, oral history, family history, and social movements.
Classes TaughtCisco Bradley speaks widely on the history of free jazz and the Great Migration, the music of the African diaspora, Brooklyn’s experimental music scenes, and the making of Take Me to Fendika.
University lectures, conference keynotes, and seminar visits on music history, migration, and the Black radical tradition.
Available for print, radio, and podcast conversations about I Hear Freedom and two decades of writing on experimental music.
Festival, campus, and community screenings of Take Me to Fendika, with director Q&A and live music where possible.
Cisco Bradley is Professor of History at Pratt Institute, where he teaches the history and aesthetics of music of the African diaspora and directs the Music and Migration Lab. He is the author of four books, founder of the Free Jazz Oral History Project, and chair of New Revolution Arts, a nonprofit supporting experimental music in New York City.
His writing has appeared in NPR Music and El Intruso critics polls, and he has curated festivals including the New York Tenor Saxophone Festival and the New Revolution Arts Concert Series. Take Me to Fendika is his first film.
Founder and editor of Jazz Right Now — covering New York’s experimental jazz scene since 2013.
For speaking invitations, interviews, film screenings, and everything else — use the form and you’ll hear back promptly.