[3] The situation deteriorated to the point where, by the following summer, Dixon stopped playing in public in order to focus on correcting the issue.
[5] Dixon, however, was still unhappy with his sound, and stated: "After that record date, when I started freelancing, I needed things to do to make money.
[6] The Café, run by Peter Sabino, had opened in late February, and "was serving up an eclectic and inchoate fare of poetry, film, folk music, and jazz for an audience largely of Columbia University students.
I would have walked on past, but they had a sign up that read 'JAZZ TONIGHT', with the name of a very fine musician, [alto saxophonist] Bobby Brown.
That's how I met [the club's manager Peter Sabino...]"[6] Dixon described the atmosphere as "very relaxed, like a Viennese coffee house, lots of things going on.
Between May and September, 1964, Dixon staged a series of concerts at 4 p.m. on Sundays, featuring Paul Bley, the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble, Jimmy Giuffre, and Sun Ra.
"[9] Dixon also recalled: "You had to have two things to run a club successfully: you had to make it so people could afford to go to the place, and so musicians were comfortable enough to play and not bullshit the public.
"[10] At this point, Dixon began planning something more substantial: One day I went to the operator of the Cellar, Peter Sabino, and he and I came up with the idea for this thing.
[13] According to Val Wilmer, "Dixon had maintained that there was an audience for the new music, at that time still in its infancy, and the nightly turnout that squeezed into the club and spilled out on the sidewalk confirmed this.
[18] Bernard Gendron wrote: With advanced advertising in the Village Voice, each of the four nights drew capacity crowds with long lines of people waiting their turn in these marathon events.
The audience included a number of jazz musicians, some who came without prompting (Ornette Coleman and Gil Evans), and others who came to participate in the panel discussions (Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, and Steve Lacy, among others).
B. Spellman noted: "Almost everybody who's doing anything at all in the way of avant-garde jazz in New York passed through the Cellar during these programs, if not to play, then to participate in the panels or to listen.
[2] Val Wilmer wrote: "Dixon discussed with Cecil Taylor the possibilities of forming an organization that would protect the jazz musician/composer from the exploitation that had hitherto prevailed.
"[18] In mid-October, the following announcement appeared: THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION CONTINUES: musicians-composers Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra, Mike Mantler, Burton Greene, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, and Bill Dixon have united as the JAZZ COMPOSERS GUILD with the idea in mind that the music as represented by the above-named and others must and will no longer remain a part of the "underground" scene.
[23] One of these concerts, called the "Pre-Halloween Jazz Party," ran from 9:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. on October 30–31 and was put on "to raise funds to provide a permanent home for the Guild.
In any case, the success of these two concert series served as a basis for optimism about the possibilities of alternative means of organizing musical events.
[28] The Guild itself proved to be short-lived, but did "light the way for the organisations that were to follow,"[29] such as the Jazz and People's Movement, the Collective Black Artists group, and the AACM.