Was Black Flag a Free Jazz Band in Disguise? by John M. Ellison IV

Listening to the semi-instrumental and instrumental EPs “Family Man” and “The Process of Weeding Out” respectively, I’m noticing a strong undercurrent of free jazz/avant-garde jazz from Black Flag. No, this isn’t a sequel of the “One Drop” article per se; just consider this kind of a quick nod to the previous articles though.

In this case, I’m going to focus on one of my favorite Black Flag songs, “Screw the Law.”
With “Screw the Law,” I noticed that this has a main theme on bass that’s played by Kira Rosseler for 22 seconds before Ginn doubles up on guitar and continues to solo throughout the song. Greg Ginn has stated that he’s more influenced by horn players than other guitarists in his technique. This makes sense, because the timbre of distorted guitar can be similar to the brass timbre of saxophone, trumpet etc. Actually, as I’m writing this, I just realize that Ginn’s approach is kind of similar to first wave free jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock when you think about it.

In closing, on albums like “The Process of Weeding Out,” just think of it as a classic hardcore punk album that can potentially introduce punks to a side of their musical heritage that some of them probably weren’t aware existed.