‘Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s’ Explores a Vital Chapter in Downtown History

L–R: Ted Daniel, Milford Graves, Frank Lowe, Juma Sultan, Noah Howard, James DuBoise, unknown, Sam Rivers, and Ali Abuwi outside Studio We, 1973
"In the late 1960s and 1970s, with New York City’s socioeconomic scaffolding rickety and near collapse, abandoned industrial spaces in Lower Manhattan were buttressed by artists. Painters, appropriators, and sculptors converted nineteenth-century sweatshops into studios, and dance-happy DJs turned these same buildings into the first cathedrals of disco. One of the most fecund, though least documented, scenes was chiseled out by jazz musicians, most young, black, and with eclectic leanings. These post-Coltrane free players, and free thinkers — shunned by a mainstream in the midst of commodifying the 'counterculture' — lived, rehearsed, and performed in these loft spaces, usually in or around Soho. ..."
Voice
NY Times - Jazz Lofts: A Walk Through the Wild Sounds By Stanley Crouch (April 17, 1977)
W - Loft jazz
new york’s free jazz loft scene, with tom marcello’s photos from studio rivbea
University of California - Loft Jazz: Improvising New York in the 1970s by Michael C. Heller, amazon