Ornette Coleman - Of Human Feelings

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1982
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 36:25
Size: 83,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:34)  1. Sleep Talk
(4:24)  2. Jump Street
(4:20)  3. Him and Her
(6:11)  4. Air Ship
(3:58)  5. What is the Name of That Song?
(4:58)  6. Job Mob
(2:54)  7. Love Words
(6:03)  8. Times Square

When one thinks of Ornette Coleman's innovative Prime Time Band, it is of crowded ensembles played by the altoist/leader, two guitars, two electric bassists, and two drummers. Actually, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, who plays enough for two musicians, is the only bassist on this date, but guitarists Charlie Ellerbee and Bern Nix, along with drummers Denardo Coleman and Calvin Weston, keep the ensembles quite exciting. None of the eight Coleman originals (which includes a tune titled "What Is the Name of That Song?") would catch on, but in this context they serve as a fine platform for Coleman's distinctive horn and often witty and free (but oddly melodic) style. ~ Scott Yanow https://www.allmusic.com/album/of-human-feelings-mw0000902383

Personnel:  Denardo Coleman – drums;  Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone, production;  Charlie Ellerbee – guitar;  Bern Nix – guitar;  Jamaaladeen Tacuma – bass guitar;  Calvin Weston – drums.

Of Human Feelings

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Ornette Coleman - The Empty Foxhole

Styles: Saxophone, Trumpet And Violin Jazz 
Year: 1966
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:48
Size: 89,0 MB
Art: Front

(6:49)  1. Good Old Days
(3:20)  2. The Empty Foxhole
(7:16)  3. Sound Gravitation
(8:18)  4. Freeway Express
(7:05)  5. Faithful
(5:57)  6. Zig Zag

Denardo Coleman, son of the free jazz master, is now forty years old and has been playing drums for thirty-four years. The virtuosity that he has developed over these years can be heard to best advantage on his father's two new albums of 1996, Sound Museum: Three Women and Sound Museum: Hidden Man. His playing has been fine through the years, as on James Blood Ulmer's 1978 Tales of Captain Black. The Empty Foxhole, however, dates from 1966, when the drummer was ten years old. Proud papa explains in the liner notes that he gave an enthusiastic Denardo a drum set for Christmas when he was six. That would mean that at the time the album was recorded Denardo probably had more experience playing drums than Ornette had on trumpet and violin, his two new instruments which are lovingly featured on this album. Of the six cuts, only "Good Old Days," "Faithful," and "Zig Zag" contain Ornette's inimitable alto saxophone. The title track and "Freeway Express" present the master on trumpet, and "Sound Gravitation" is the first and only piece Ornette has ever recorded exclusively on violin. Father and son are joined by Charlie Haden on bass, who thus becomes, on three of these tracks, the only player who has extensive experience with the instrument he's playing. As such he is the stabilizing force of the trio. 

Freddie Hubbard famously commented in a Blindfold Test that Denardo the drummer sounded "like a little kid fooling around." Miles Davis, in a Blindfold Test of his own, mistook Don Cherry for Ornette on trumpet, which may be insulting to Don Cherry, Ornette, or neither one. In any case, the trumpeter, the violinist, and the drummer in this group are anything but conventional, and that's just what the leader wanted. When Ornette picks up his alto here, he plays more simply than usual. "Good Old Days" is as straightforward a blues as Ornette plays; "Faithful" is another in the series of mournful ballads Ornette was playing at the time (the wrenching "Sadness" never made it to the studio, but is worth checking out on live discs); "Zig Zag" is playful. Ornette's adventurousness here is confined to the intense trumpet piece "Freeway Express," where he pulls Miles' chain a little with a harmon mute, and the intense violin workout "Sound Gravitation." I had a chance to pick up a violin the other day. I've never played it in my life, but in a few seconds I was approximating "Sound Gravitation." Does that mean it's worthless as music? No. Ornette Coleman is not a conventional musician, but he has too much musical talent to make a bad album. Haden's bowed bass interacts skillfully with his furious violin. For that matter, Haden is masterful all the way through.

Listening to him listen to Ornette (and Denardo) and react is a musical experience of value. Nor is the little kid just fooling around. The music here is unlike most everything else that ever came out of Blue Note, or anywhere, but those who won't notice or care that these guys are not the smoothest of instrumentalists might enjoy this album. I do. ~ Robert Spencer https://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-empty-foxhole-ornette-coleman-blue-note-records-review-by-robert-spencer.php

Personnel  Ornette Coleman - alto saxophone (tracks 1, 5, 6), trumpet (2, 4), violin (3);  Charlie Haden - bass;  Denardo Coleman - drums

The Empty Foxhole

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Ornette Coleman - Change Of The Century

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1960
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:35
Size: 95,3 MB
Art: Front

(6:39)  1. Ramblin'
(6:24)  2. Free
(6:59)  3. The Face Of The Bass
(5:16)  4. Forerunner
(5:31)  5. Bird Food
(6:02)  6. Una Muy Bonita
(4:41)  7. Change Of The Century

Change Of The Century was an audacious album title, to say the least. On his second Atlantic release and second with his most like-minded ensemble (trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins) alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman pushed the freedom principal farther. At the same time, he looked backward too for inspiration. Having eliminated the piano on his Contemporary release, Tomorrow Is The Question! (1959), Coleman opened up wide improvisational opportunities. On that recording, he and his "freedom principle" remained partially inhibited by the presence of traditionalist bassist Percy Heath and drummer Shelly Manne, who resisted coloring outside of the lines as Coleman was attempting to do. But that was not so on The Shape Of Jazz To Come (Atlantic, 1959) and Change Of The Century. While the rhythm section continued to provide enough cohesive swing to propel matters, Coleman and Cherry stretched the melodic boundaries without the previous harmonic anchors. Change of the Century is compelling in its embrace of contrasts. "Ramblin'" is funky organic, almost early rock and roll. Haden plucks and strums his way through a fractured 12-bar format that never fully resolves itself into the comfort of the anticipated. Coleman's solo over Haden's support is bar-walking rhythm and blues, lowdown and dirty, smelling of beer and Lucky Strikes. Cherry plays his famous pocket trumpet, sounding closer to Lee Morgan than anyone else, squeezing out hard bop lines like sparks from a metal lathe. Haden solos using the figures he has supported the whole piece with. His intonation is middle-of-the-note, relaxed and slightly wooden. "Ramblin'" retains an erstwhile harmonic structure, albeit only barely. The head of "Free" is an odd premonition for composer/saxophonist Oliver Nelson's "Hoedown" from The Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse!, 1961), passing through an ascending and descending blues figure. Haden is rock solid throughout, even when the solo-going gets ragged and frayed. Higgins' accents are as potent as pepper, shoring up the edges of chaos on the briskly-timed piece. "The Face Of Bass" gives prominence to Haden while at the same time sounding strangely traditional for an album entitled Change of the Century. But it is a facade. Coleman encourages a careful abandon in the piece's overall structure and arrangement. Cherry pops on his solo, sometimes sounding like Freddie Hubbard, sometimes, Art Farmer.

"Forerunner" pretends that it is bebop, with a serpentine head and a deft drum break by Higgins. Coleman's solo is inspired, quenched in gospel and the blues. His tonal expanse is as big as his native Texas, informed by the many great tenor saxophone players from that state. Cherry emerges assertive, playing with swagger and attitude. So well constructed and delivered is his solo that it is easy to forget that a move toward a freer musical system is in the works. Haden remains stalwart in time-keeping, shepherding everything between the rhythmic ditches. The same can be said for the Charlie Parker-inspired "Bird Food," which is surveyed at a fast clip over a complex note pattern.  "Una Muy Bonita" is only passing Latin, with pianist Thelonious Monk phrasing and side- winding playing. Haden sets up a familiar clave beat with strummed chords. Coleman stages the piece to more insinuate a Latin vibe than to actually play one. After a lengthy introduction, Cherry solos muted, allowing himself a broad swath over which to play. The disc's closer, the title tune, was the most fully-realized "free jazz" at that point from Coleman. It is a wild phantasm of notes that are to "free jazz" what trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's "Bebop" was for that virtuosic genre. It is a clarion call played on impulse. Yes, finally things are really beginning to come apart at the seams, properly foreshadowing Free Jazz: A Group Improvisation (Atlantic, 1961). Coleman has fully gained his traction and is now read. ~C.Michael Bailey https://www.allaboutjazz.com/ornette-coleman-change-of-the-century-ornette-coleman-by-c-michael-bailey.php

Personnel: Ornette Coleman: alto saxophone; Don Cherry: pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden: bass; Billy Higgins: drums.

Change Of The Century

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Ornette Coleman - Virgin Beauty

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 44:53
Size: 102.8 MB
Styles: Free jazz, Saxophone jazz
Year: 1988/2013
Art: Front

[4:19] 1. 3 Wishes
[5:09] 2. Bourgeois Boogie
[4:44] 3. Happy Hour
[3:33] 4. Virgin Beauty
[5:20] 5. Healing The Feeling
[4:22] 6. Singing In The Shower
[4:23] 7. Desert Players
[4:22] 8. Honeymooners
[3:00] 9. Chanting
[1:25] 10. Spelling The Alphabet
[4:11] 11. Unknown Artist

This CD is often quite exciting, if a bit messy. Ornette Coleman (on alto, trumpet and violin) is heard with his "double quartet" Prime Time, which at the time was comprised of guitarists Bern Nix and Charlie Ellerbee, electric bassists Al MacDowell and Chris Walker, and drummers Denardo Coleman (who also plays some keyboards) and Calvin Weston. As if the ensembles are not dense and overcrowded enough, Jerry Garcia sits in on third guitar on three of the 11 Coleman originals. The music is frequently exciting, but will take several listens to absorb. Worth investigating. ~Scott Yanow

Virgin Beauty

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Ornette Coleman - Complete Live At The Hillcrest Club

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1958
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 66:23
Size: 152,2 MB
Art: Front

(12:07)  1. Klact-Oveeseds-Tene
( 3:52)  2. I Remember Harlem
( 9:38)  3. The Blessing
( 5:39)  4. Free
(14:29)  5. When Will The Blues Leave?
( 4:35)  6. How Deep Is The Ocean?
(14:06)  7. Ramblin'
( 1:55)  8. Crossroads

Ornette Coleman's epic 1959 LPs The Shape of Jazz to Come and Change of the Century were pivot points in modern post-bop jazz and early creative music. This recording is a prelude to those epics, a live two-night engagement in October of 1958 at the Hillcrest Club in Los Angeles. The Coleman quintet, with trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins, plus a then-young pianist Paul Bley, sets up that new shape of jazz. This eight-selection set features three of Coleman's signature originals, two standards, and three lesser-known, fairly rare pieces that Coleman did at the time. The program kicks off with Charlie Parker's "Klactoveedsedstene," an on-fire free bopper where Coleman's alto sax in tandem with Cherry reflects a quest for cleanliness and innocent, alive freshness, well transferred, balanced, and reproduced digitally. Whoever tagged this music unlistenable needs to revisit the symbiosis of the front-line horns present. Three of Coleman's all-time immortal compositions on call are the relaxed and easily swung harmolodic dream "The Blessing" accented by Ornette's piquant alto, the call-and-response-laden "When Will the Blues Leave?," and the post-bop evergreen "Ramblin'." The stairstep ascending and descending melody for "Free" also remains arresting, taking no prisoners. It's interesting how alleged rebel Coleman pays reverence to two ballad standards, Roy Eldridge's pensive "I Remember Harlem" and Cherry's trumpet-led "How Deep Is the Ocean?" Closing is the frantic, scattershot two-minute improvisation "Crossroads." A major fault of this recording is Bley's piano, which is unfortunately so far down in the mix that it is virtually inaudible. One really has to strain, even with headphones, to hear the true depth of Bley's clearly brilliant, probing, but muffled and muted playing. There's no doubt as to the historical and musical significance of this date, and it belongs in the collection of any follower of Coleman, despite the one production flaw. ~ Michael G.Nastos http://www.allmusic.com/album/complete-live-at-the-hillcrest-club-mw0000584535

Personnel:  Ornette Coleman (as), Don Cherry (tp), Paul Bley (p), Charlie Haden (b) & Billy Higgins (d).

Complete Live At The Hillcrest Club

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The Ornette Coleman Quartet - This Is Our Music

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 38:41
Size: 88.6 MB
Styles: Mainstream jazz, Saxophone jazz
Year: 1961/2014
Art: Front

[5:15] 1. P.S. Unless One Has [blues Connotation]
[7:12] 2. Beauty Is A Rare Thing
[6:33] 3. Kaleidoscope
[4:54] 4. Embraceable You
[4:36] 5. Poise
[5:20] 6. Humpty Dumpty
[4:47] 7. Folk Tale

Ed Blackwell - Drums; Don Cherry - Trumpet; Ornette Coleman - Sax (Alto); Charlie Haden - Bass.

With two landmark albums already under its belt, the Ornette Coleman Quartet spent nearly a year out of the studio before reconvening for This Is Our Music. This time, Billy Higgins is replaced on drums by Ed Blackwell, who has a similar knack for anticipating the ensemble's direction, and proves a more fiery presence on tracks like "Kaleidoscope" and "Folk Tale." The session is also notable for containing the only standard (or, for that matter, the only non-original) Coleman recorded during his tenure with Atlantic -- Gershwin's "Embraceable You," which is given a lyrical interpretation and even a rather old-time, sentimental intro (which may or may not be sarcastic, but really is pretty). In general, though, Coleman disapproved of giving up his own voice and viewed standards as concessions to popular taste; as the unapologetic title of the album makes clear, he wanted to be taken (or left) on his own terms. And that word "our" also makes clear just how important the concept of group improvisation was to Coleman's goals. Anyone can improvise whenever he feels like it, and the players share such empathy that each knows how to add to the feeling of the ensemble without undermining its egalitarian sense of give and take. Their stark, thin textures were highly distinctive, and both Coleman and Cherry chose instruments (respectively, an alto made of plastic rather than brass and a pocket trumpet or cornet instead of a standard trumpet) to accentuate that quality. It's all showcased to best effect here on the hard-swinging "Blues Connotation" and the haunting "Beauty Is a Rare Thing," though pretty much every composition has something to recommend it. All in all, This Is Our Music keeps one of the hottest creative streaks in jazz history going strong. ~Steve Huey

This Is Our Music

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Ornette Coleman - The Best Of Ornette Coleman: The Blue Note Years

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 56:59
Size: 130.5 MB
Styles: Avant Garde jazz, Saxophone jazz
Year: 1998
Art: Front

[ 8:40] 1. Broad Way Blues
[ 6:15] 2. Round Trip
[ 8:09] 3. Dawn
[10:25] 4. Dee Dee
[ 5:56] 5. Zig Zag
[ 6:50] 6. Good Old Days
[10:40] 7. Old Gospel

If there ever was an artist unsuited to a best-of compilation, it's Ornette Coleman. His music is about space and texture within a certain context, not only within the compositions themselves, but in how those songs relate to each other on a particular album or session. By selecting highlights from a series of albums, the songs themselves lose some of their power. That's the main problem with The Best of Ornette Coleman, an otherwise solid overview of his three years at Blue Note. Between 1965 and 1968, he recorded several terrific sessions for the label, and they're all worth hearing. Arguably, the seven songs here are among the best moments from those records, and they do give some sense of what his music is about, but neophytes would be better off with a full album, which will give a more accurate portrait of Coleman's music and its greatness. ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The Best Of Ornette Coleman: The Blue Note Years

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Ornette Coleman - Skies Of America

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1972
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 41:24
Size: 100,0 MB
Art: Front

(2:49)  1. Skies Of America
(1:10)  2. Native Americans
(1:33)  3. The Good Life
(3:13)  4. Birthdays And Funerals
(0:51)  5. Dreams
(1:20)  6. Sounds Of Sculpture
(1:10)  7. Holiday For Heroes
(3:08)  8. All Of My Life
(1:17)  9. Dancers
(0:47) 10. The Soul Within Woman
(3:54) 11. The Artist In America
(0:31) 12. The New Anthem
(2:44) 13. Place In Space
(1:19) 14. Foreigner In A Free Land
(1:10) 15. Silver Screen
(1:15) 16. Poetry
(2:48) 17. The Men Who Live In The White House
(4:34) 18. Love Life
(0:32) 19. The Military
(0:39) 20. Jam Session
(4:29) 21. Sunday In America

Here's what is known about Ornette Coleman's first recorded orchestral symphonic work (he had written others previously and had them performed but never put on tape): After hiring conductor David Measham and the London Symphony Orchestra, British musicians' union rules prohibited Coleman from using his own quartet to play on the record. As a result, he had to re-examine the work without the concerto grosso form and, to fit the work on a single LP, he had to cut many of the recurrent themes of the work. It is also known that the recording quality isn't the greatest. So what? The bottom line is this: In the 21st century, Skies of America, which was Ornette's first attempt at employing his newly developed harmolodic theory (whereby using modulation many players could solo at once using different keys), still sounds ahead of its time. Though there are 21 bands marked on the cover, this is a single unbroken work with many of the themes recurring either in that they had long been present in Ornette's musical iconography, or would become so. (Check the theme in "The Good Life," as it evolved from "School Work" from 1962 and became "Dancing in Your Head" in the late '70s.) 

Coleman himself solos beautifully in the middle of the disc, from "The Artist in America" on and off until the work's end with "Sunday in America." This is loaded music: politically, emotionally, and also spiritually. The dissonance doesn't seem so profound now, but it still rubs against the grain of Western harmonic principles in all the right ways. It's difficult to find the sense of what chord is dominant in Coleman's composition, and for that alone it's valuable. But also, it's compelling listening on a level that music such as this is not yet the cultural norm or even close to approaching its standard which means that it is not yet fully possible. Ornette's was an opening volley, thrown down as a gauntlet that has yet to be picked up. This is still dangerous and rewarding music. 

~ Thom Jurek  http://www.allmusic.com/album/skies-of-america-mw0000061385

Personnel: Ornette Coleman (alto saxophone); David Measham (conductor); London Symphony Orchestra.

Skies Of America

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Ornette Coleman - The Best Of Ornette Coleman

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 40:45
Size: 93.3 MB
Styles: Avant Garde jazz
Year: 1970/2005
Art: Front

[ 5:57] 1. Una Muy Bonita
[ 4:51] 2. Embraceable You
[ 5:15] 3. Blues Connotation
[ 4:57] 4. Lonely Woman
[ 6:33] 5. Ramblin'
[13:09] 6. C. & D

Released as part of the Atlantic Jazz Anthology series in the early '70s, this hodgepodge of Ornette Coleman Quartet tracks were recorded for the label between 1959 and 1961. This short disc, originally released on LP, is now unnecessary, as Coleman's career has been well-documented and given the respect it deserves in the digital age. As a side note, it's interesting that out of four tracks, the compilers would include "Embraceable You," from the pen of George and Ira Gershwin, instead of an entire program of Coleman's compositions. ~Al Campbell

The Best Of Ornette Coleman

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Ornette Coleman - Tomorrow Is The Question!

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1959
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:43
Size: 98,6 MB
Art: Front

(3:12)  1. Tomorrow Is The Question!
(5:03)  2. Tears Inside
(3:11)  3. Mind And Time
(4:38)  4. Compassion
(3:21)  5. Giggin'
(4:04)  6. Rejoicing
(5:58)  7. Lorraine
(7:54)  8. Turnaround
(5:19)  9. Endless

Shaking out of the contractual obligation forcing him to employ a pianist on his debut, Something Else!!!! (Contemporary, 1958), alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman dispensed with the instrument altogether on 1959's Tomorrow is the Question!, causing a bit of consternation on the part of the mainstream jazz media. This was Coleman's committed step forward toward a harmonically less restrictive sound, en route to the joyful chaos of Free Jazz (Atlantic, 1961). Following, in form, Gerry Mulligan's famous piano-less quartet of the early 1950s, Coleman greatly liberated his solo and rhythm instruments, taking a quantum greater advantage of this freedom compared with Mulligan, had the baritone saxophonist been so inclined. At the same time, the ensemble writing on Tomorrow is the Question! comes off more precise and filigreed than on Something Else!!!! and considerably more musical. Heard by today's ears, it is not so jarring a progression. Novel at the time was Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry's tearing loose from harmonic convention in their solos, like Coleman's refractive muse on the title piece (sounding like a Jungian analysis of traditional New Orleans jazz) and, "Mind and Time" (an angular Thelonious Monk-like piece taken to the next level). Coleman shares his space with Cherry, who tends to stay melodically closer to home, providing a tether to Coleman's dissonant flights of fancy and imagination. Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane's later path to harmonic freedom followed approximately this same arc, from Live at Birdland (Impulse!, 1963) through A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1964),, on to Ascension (Impulse!, 1965).

"Tears Inside" approximates the funk achieved by tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley on his "Funk in the Deep Freeze," from Hank Mobley Quintet (Blue Note, 1957). A jangling head gives way to a blues well-grounded by drummer Shelly Manne and bassist Jimmy Heath, both playing more conservatively than Coleman or Cherry. The piece was also covered shortly after by saxophonist Art Pepper on his ironically titled Smack Up (Contemporary, 1960), the altoist straightening out Coleman's crooks, casting the piece as a straight-ahead blues and possibly offering a window into Coleman's otherwise enigmatic composing and playing. "Compassion" echoes pianist Dave Brubeck's 1959 "Blue Rondo a la Turk," From Time Out (Columbia, 1959), with its off-time playing alternating with the straight 4/4. 

It is a bit of complicated playing that mixes up the rhythm direction without steering the show off the road. The presence of Manne and Heath somewhat grounds Coleman in a way bassist Don Payne and drummer Billy Higgins resisted on Something Else!!!!, with the pair finally loosening up on the jubilant "Rejoicing." Bassist Red Mitchell replaces Heath on the disc's final three cuts. "Lorraine" could be classified as a ballad, but it would be one of a new variety, differing in temperament to the conventional ballad. Coleman's alto playing turns blue on this piece, with Cherry's tart trumpet curling the edges of the charts. "Lorraine" prepares the recording for its bluest moment, "Turnabout." Coleman elongates his solo notes into primal screams as opposed to furious flurries of manically expressed ideas, reaching a groove and maintaining it.

The disc closer, "Endless," bounces back to bebop, while breaking completely from the clean turnarounds and brief, pungent solos. Coleman and Cherry reveal that they are not going back to the old ways, but that they are carefully considering where they are going and how they are changing jazz music. Much here sounds like standard bebop/hard bop of the period, but there is an undercurrent of creative anxiety, a nervous tension that continues to build progressively and would be heard more clearly in Coleman's later recordings. ~ C.Michael Bailey http://www.allaboutjazz.com/ornette-coleman-tomorrow-is-the-question-ornette-coleman-by-c-michael-bailey.php

Personnel: Ornette Coleman: alto saxophone; Don Cherry: trumpet; Percy Heath: bass (1-6); Red Mitchell: bass (7-9); Shelly Mann: drums.

Tomorrow Is The Question!

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Ornette Coleman - Ornette!

Styles: Straight-ahead/Mainstream
Year: 1962
File: MP3@224K/s
Time: 54:29
Size: 87,4 MB
Art: Front + Back

(16:28)  1. W.R.U.
( 4:38)  2. T. & T.
(13:13)  3. C. & D.
( 9:43)  4. R.P.D.D.
(10:25)  5. Proof Readers (bonus track)

Saxophonist Coleman recorded Ornette! about a month after his milestone Free Jazz sessions, retaining bassist Scott LaFaro, drummer Ed Blackwell, and the amazing Don Cherry on pocket trumpet. Four tracks, each titled with an acronym, from the original 1962 release are supplemented by a fifth, “Proof Readers,” for this reissue. Ornette! uniquely blends musical tradition and revolution. Most arrangements sound almost conventional now, with melody statements leading into and out of each piece. Coleman honks out a surprising number of familiar-sounding R&B expressions, and Cherry burns through some Dizzy bop chops, on “W.R.U.”  

How they employ them is, of course, an entirely different matter. “W.R.U.” also sounds extremely difficult for the rhythm section, particularly the bassist, to navigate, and “R.P.D.D.” sounds like it’s missing its pianist, though not from lack of LaFaro’s rhythmic and harmonic effort. “C. & D.” scales the session’s peak: LaFaro tumbles through his walking basslines like a gymnast underneath Cherry as Blackwell impeccably rings out time on his cymbals, playing free but never feeling out of control the freedom of discipline. Although sometimes viewed as musically dour, Coleman sounds positively joyous in its middle section, while Cherry also suggests Kenny Dorham and even the inscrutable Miles. It is tribute to Coleman’s vision that, four decades after its release, Ornette! does not sound as menacing or subversive as once it might. ~ Chris M. Slawecki   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=13723#.UzsT9VdSvro
 

Personnel: Ornette Coleman, alto sax; Donald Cherry, pocket trumpet; Scott LaFaro, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums.

Ornette!

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Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz

Styles: Saxophone Jazz
Year: 1960
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 54:13
Size: 124,2 MB
Art: Front

(37:10)  1. Free Jazz
(17:02)  2. First Take (Bonus Track)

Alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman's masterpiece, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation by the Ornette Coleman Double Quartet, is one of the hinges of jazz evolution. As a musical hinge, Free Jazz, heard from this side of its development, is a bit of an anticlimax compared with the two-label, five album prelude to this point: Something Else!!!! (Contemporary, 1958), Tomorrow is the Question! (Contemporary, 1959), The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic, 1959), Change of the Century (Atlantic, 1959) and This is Our Music (Atlantic, 1959). Had Coleman done nothing else but release these first five recordings, his legacy as one of the pioneers of free jazz would still be assured. But on Free Jazz Coleman took that final step into the chaos of untethered group improvisation and in doing so took the "free" in free jazz as far as it would go. Tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, taking his own route, would do the same five years later with Ascension (Impulse!, 1966). If following the cause-and-effect explanation for the development of free jazz, Coleman's music was an evolved response to the highly structured be bop of the late 1940s and early 1950s and swing-era big band jazz before that. Unlike Coltrane, free jazz's other high priest, Coleman did not have a slew of recordings before he began disassembling the genre. 

Coleman emerged anxious and impatient with the music when he started to record in 1958. Coleman's creative evolution in free jazz lasted a mere three years and was dense and rapid. Coleman took a hard right emerging from This is Our Music, increasing the size of his standard ensemble to his "double quartet." In this, Coleman solved his problem of employing sympathetic drummers Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell and bassist Charlie Haden and Scott LaFaro by simply using them all. Coleman retains trumpeter Don Cherry, adding trumpeter Freddie Hubbard as Cherry's cohort and taking on no less than multi-reedist Eric Dolphy as his own. The modus operandi of Free Jazz is even simplier than what trumpeter Miles Davis famously employed three years earlier, when he and his famous sextet recorded Kind of Blue (Columbia, 1959): Coleman sketched out a brief and dissonant fanfare to introduce and separate solo sections of his mass improvisation and then they entered the studio and blew. This might stand as a last vestige of the traditional jazz "head-solo-head" configuration. You have to start and end somewhere. No matter how you cut it, Free Jazz cannot be heard in a post-modern vacuum. Without context, this "music" is effectively un-listenable. 

Apologists for free jazz dismiss this characteristic as part of the music's experimental nature. Needless to say, this "experimental nature" renders this music less appropriate for consideration over a glass of neat single malt and more at home with Fantasia on the television with the sound muted, under the influence of ergot's muse. That is not to imply that Free Jazz has no artistic merit, only that a bit of background more fully enhances the experience. Starting with the premise that Free Jazz, after the briefest of direction, devolves into an eight-part improvisation with all parts equally independent, observations may be noted. While nature, when left to her own devices, typically migrates from a state of order to greater disorder, the musical synthesis on Free Jazz tends to go into the opposite direction: from a greater disorder to order. "Free Jazz" begins as a schizophrenic note salad, borne in chaos and given only a whiff of direction. The music may best be described as the best New Orleans Dixieland exposed and mutated by radiation exposure. It is the phenomenon where the music, at first blush, sounds completely untethered, at least until ideas begin to coalesce. Once the piece is started in earnest, certain characteristics begin to manifest. Among these is Coleman's experiences playing blues. It saturates his playing and is present throughout the piece. Cherry's and by proxy, Hubbard's hard bop bona fides reveal themselves potently. From an ensemble point of view there is a migration through evolution, where the elements of swing can be heard in call-and-response phrasing and some natural Count Basie big band riffing emerges naturally among the horns. Also revealed is the innate sense of humor of the musicians, heard in the quotes of nursery rhymes and other jazz pieces. Again, this music is meaningless in a vacuum.

The musical environment improves as the 37-minute plus piece evolves. The end section contains provocative bass and drum interplay, occurring after the horns make their combined and separate statements. On that note, let there be no doubt that Eric Dolphy possessed the freedom vision, seemingly from the very beginning, and Freddie Hubbard's post bop experience prepared him well also. From a full-ensemble direction, it is instructive to listen to the 17-minute plus "First Take" to hear the dry run of what would become Free Jazz.

It is readily evident that the longer version benefited from a run through showing that some ideas solidified between the two versions.  Free Jazz may exist as a piece of music to possess for historic reasons rather than aesthetic musical ones. If a lesson exists in this music it is that context is always important and a little knowledge about that music is not a dangerous thing, but a catalyst to further investigation and listening. In that, lies the values of Free Jazz. ~ C.Michael Bailey   http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=40430&pg=1#.Uxz13IVZhhk

Personnel: Ornette Coleman: alto saxophone; Don Cherry: pocket trumpet; Eric Dolphy: bass clarinet; Freddie Hubbard: trumpet; Scott LaFaro: bass; Charlie Haden: bass; Billy Higgins: drums; Ed Blackwell: drums.

Free Jazz