Air was a free jazz

Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

 trio founded in 1971 by saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 player Henry Threadgill

Henry Threadgill

Henry Threadgill is an American composer, saxophonist and flautist. Threadgill came to prominence in the 1970s leading ensembles with unusual instrumentation and often incorporating a range of non-jazz genres....

, double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

ist Fred Hopkins

Fred Hopkins

Fred Hopkins was a Chicago double bassist who played a major role in the development of the avant-garde jazz movement. He was a member of the avant garde jazz trio Air and David Murray's Low Class Conspiracy; he frequently worked with the cellist Diedre Murray...

 and drum

Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...

mer Steve McCall

Steve McCall (drummer)

Steve McCall was an American jazz drummer.McCall was born in Chicago and began his career there in the 1950s. One of his early gigs was playing behind blues singer Lucky Carmichael. McCall befriended Muhal Richard Abrams in 1961, and went on to be one of the founders of the AACM in 1965...

. They combined radical free improvisation with a strong sense of tune and equal emphasis on each instrument in the group.

They began when Threadgill was asked by Columbia College

Columbia College Chicago

Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...

 in Chicago, Illinois to arrange a number of Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin

Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...

 songs. Joplin was so strongly associated with piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 that the musicians enjoyed the challenge of performing his trademark songs without piano. They opted to play them as rags and as a basis for jazz improvisation.

The group recorded twelve albums, among them Air Lore

Air Lore

Air Lore is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins performing compositions by Jelly Roll Morton and Scott Joplin.-Reception:...

from 1979 on the Arista/Novus label of Arista Records

Arista Records

Arista was an American record label. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operated under the RCA Music Group. The label was founded in 1974 by Clive Davis, who formerly worked for CBS Records...

, which is a recording of improvisations over more Scott Joplin songs as well as selections by Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....

 and a Henry Threadgill original. It remains a classic. Other albums of note are Air Time

Air Time

Air Time is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins performing three of Threadgill's compositions and one each by Hopkins and McCall.-Reception:...

from 1977, and 80° Below '82

80° Below '82

80° Below '82 is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins recorded in 1982 for the Antilles label.-Reception:...

from 1982. The Penguin Guide to Jazz

The Penguin Guide to Jazz

The Penguin Guide to Jazz is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which are currently available in Europe or the United States...

included Air Song

Air Song

Air Song is the debut album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins performing four of Threadgill's compositions. The album was originally released on the Japanese Why Not label in 1975 and later released in the U.S...

and Air Time in its suggested "Core Collection."

Air broke up and reformed several times, and after McCall's death, Andrew Cyrille

Andrew Cyrille

Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...

 performed as part of the trio. They released two CD's with drummer Pheeroan Aklaff

Pheeroan akLaff

Pheeroan akLaff is an American jazz drummer. Pheeroan akLaff began playing in his hometown of Detroit, and Ann Arbor, Michigan with Travis Biggs, Ars Nova, The Ebony Set, The Last Days, and Rod Lumpkin, recorded with Major Lansky. Moved to New Haven, Connecticut and formed DejaVu with Dwight...

 as "New Air" (on Black Saint).

Discography

Title	Year	Label
Air Song Air Song Air Song is the debut album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins performing four of Threadgill's compositions. The album was originally released on the Japanese Why Not label in 1975 and later released in the U.S...	1975	Whynot Whynot Records -Discography:...  (Japan) India Navigation India Navigation India Navigation was an American independent record label that was active from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Founded by corporate lawyer Bob Cummins, the label specialized in jazz music, particularly avant-garde jazz.-Discography:...  (US)
Air Raid Air Raid (album) Air Raid is the second album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins performing four of Threadgill's compositions. The album was originally released on the Japanese Why Not label in 1976 and later released in the U.S...	1976	Whynot (Japan) India Navigation (US)
Live Air Live Air Live Air is a live album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins recorded at Studio Rivbea, in New York and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, first released by Black Saint Records in 1980....	1977	Black Saint
Air Time Air Time Air Time is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins performing three of Threadgill's compositions and one each by Hopkins and McCall.-Reception:...	1977	Nessa Nessa Records -Discography:*n-1 Lester Bowie - Numbers 1 & 2 *n-2 Roscoe Mitchell - Congliptious...
Open Air Suit Open Air Suit Open Air Suit is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins recorded in New York in 1978 featuring four of Threadgill's compositions.-Reception:...	1978	Novus Novus Records Novus Records Novus Records Novus Records (later Arista Novus and RCA Novus was a United States jazz and contemporary jazz record label. It was an Arista Records imprint focused on then-contemporary jazz artists...
Montreux Suisse Montreux Suisse Montreux Suisse is a live album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival, in Switzerland in 1978.-Reception:...	1978	Novus
Air Lore Air Lore Air Lore is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins performing compositions by Jelly Roll Morton and Scott Joplin.-Reception:...	1979	Novus
Air Mail Air Mail (album) Air Mail is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins recorded for the Italian Black Saint label...	1980	Black Saint
80° Below '82 80° Below '82 80° Below '82 is an album by the improvisational collective Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Steve McCall, and Fred Hopkins recorded in 1982 for the Antilles label.-Reception:...	1982	Antilles Antilles Records Antilles Records was an American record label that was a subsidiary of Island Records.Its jazz catalog is now managed by Verve Records.-Discography:*1001 Joanne Brackeen - Special Identity 1981*1002 Biréli Lagrène- Routes To Django 1980...
Live at Montreal International Jazz Festival Live at Montreal International Jazz Festival Live at Montreal International Jazz Festival is a live album recorded for the Italian Black Saint label by the improvisational collective New Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Fred Hopkins and Pheeroan akLaff performing at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 1983... as New Air	1984	Black Saint
Air Show No. 1 Air Show No. 1 Air Show No. 1 is an album recorded for the Italian Black Saint label by the improvisational collective New Air featuring Henry Threadgill, Fred Hopkins and Pheeroan akLaff with Cassandra Wilson providing vocals on three selections.-Reception:... as New Air	1986	Black Saint