These jazz birthdays are about success stories in a free market. They are case studies of relatively successful jazz musicians who made a name for themselves, left a body of creative work behind them, and made a living in a free market for music. In almost all cases, the success involved innovation, a subject not well handled in the notion of “perfect competition” that assumes product uniformity. Musical innovation is to some extent embodied in the artist, how he plays, what he plays, how he  modifies the instrument he plays, what groups he forms, songs he composes, and how he … Continue reading Jazz Birthdays: Albert Ammons (1907), John Coltrane (1926) and Frank Foster (1928)