Ed Blackwell, Dewey Redman, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, at Prince Street May 1971 © Val Wilmer Once upon a time, before Manhattan priced out its young talent, you had to be an artist to live in SoHo. And in the late 1960s and 70s, a cultural phenomenon known as “Loft Jazz” came into existence in downtown Manhattan’s abandoned industrial spaces. Eclectic, edgy and often Black musicians turned Soho’s neglected lofts into places where they both lived, rehearsed, recorded and performed. Before gentrification hit, musicians fled small town America to squat these urban spaces vacated by the manufacturing industry, storing their...