* Hardback cover edition * Breaking through pervasive misconceptions, Jazz in the 1970s explores a pivotal decade in jazz history. Many consider the 1970s to be the fusion decade, but Bill Shoemaker pushes back against this stereotype with a bold perspective that examines both the diverse musical innovations and cultural developments that elevated jazz internationally. He traces events that redefined jazz’s role in the broadband arts movement as well as the changing social and political landscape.  Rather than focus on fusion experiments such as Miles Davis's Bitches Brew, he chronologically details the work of such free-jazz exponents as South African pianist/band leader Chris McGregor, German trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, saxophonist and Black Artists Group cofounder Julius Hemphill, and multiinstrumentalist Anthony Braxton. Shoemaker continues with saxophonist/flautist Sam Rivers, pianist Cecil Taylor, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, and the English team of guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer John Stevens, who founded the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. The author adds exciting chapters about the role of jazz critics in free jazz and the importance of the Montreux Jazz Festival. He ends with a meandering chapter, which deals with 1980s jazz, from the traditionalism of Wynton Marsalis to the innovations of British saxophonist Evan Parker.