Re: Ornette Coleman

[sfsup!mingus@shemp.cs.ucla.edu]

> wimp@sphinx.UUCP (Jeff Haferman) (in <1584@sphinx.uchicago.edu>):
> My question (for all you real hep jazz cats), is can
> you draw for me a visual spectrum of jazz, placing various artists at
> various points along the spectrum?  That is, Ornette Colemann seems to me
> to be way out there, playing really freely, but still holding the entire
> band together very tightly.  Who has he been influenced by? 

This question is meaningless in that defining a "right wing/left wing"
spectrum of jazz is self defeating. Some of the most avant-garde players
around are busily re-examining the jazz tradition, freed from slavish
regard to harmony, and looking to relearn how to swing and burn. Conversely,
bebop, the music of rebellion forty short years ago, is now completely
in the Establishment, a rather conservative one at that.

Ornette, specifically, is really descended from Thirties bluesmen in that
for him formal and exact aspects of music are secondary to playing what
he feels. So his tunes have only an apparent chord structure and only
approximately follow a given time signature. Compare that with such
bluesmen as Son House, Blind Lemon Jefferson or Robert Pete Johnson,
for whom the 12 bar structure was something foreign. If their music happened
to fit a 12 bar structure, fine. But if the needs of what they wanted to
communicate required an 11 or 13 or 15 bar chorus, well, so be it.

Ornette has transcended the tyranny of the chord change, saying "if I'm
going to play chords, I may as well write out my solo." He was a pioneer
in the use of microtones (tones falling between notes on the tempered
scale) in jazz, saying "a note played as part of a tune called 'COngeniality'
should not sound the same as the same note played in a tune called
'Peace'" and "you can play sharp in tune and you can play flat in tune."
All of which, of course, marks an explicit affirmation of what has been in
his tone always. As drummer Shelly Manne said admiringly in 1958 "he sounds
like he's crying, or laughing, or talking."

It's probably best to hear Ornette chronologically, because his later work
expands on ideas he developed for his horn and small bands. His earliest
albums are SOMETHING ELSE and TOMORROW IS THE QUESTION, on Contemporary.
While very good, they are marred by inflexible, though sympathetic, rhythm
sections. An even earlier session also exists under pianist Paul Blay's name.
It is not well recorded, and Bley and Coleman get in each other's way.
He rarely used a piano after that. The breakthrough occurred when Ornette
moved to New York in 1959 and started a residency at the Five Spot.
The series of albums he recorded over the next three years set the jazz
world upside down. They easily rank with Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven
recordings, and with Parker's Dial and Savoy material in importance.
They are THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME, CHANGE OF THE CENTURY, THIS IS OUR MUSIC,
ORNETTE!, ORNETTE ON TENOR and THE ART OF THE IMPROVISERS. There is also
TO WHOM WHO KEEPS A RECORD, issued only in Japan, and withdrawn
at Ornette's request. It is exceedingly rare (I'll give serious $$$
to anyone with a mint copy.) FREE JAZZ completes the revolution, with
themeless improvisation, a free rhythmic direction that both leads and
supports the soloists, as well as defining its own directions. The
soloists themselves are free to interject, interrupt, comment on, and
generally complement each other. That the thing not only is not chaos,
but swings like crazy, is both a tribute to the validity of the idea
and to Ornette's genius.

After 1962, Ornette started demanding the kind of money his stature should
guarantee him. Of course, the only thing it guaranteed him was obscurity.
He recorded for Blue Note in 1965 (LIVE AT THE GOLDEN CIRCLE), 1966
(THE EMPTY FOXHOLE) and 1969 (NEW YORK IS NOW). He was also recorded
in 1963 in London with his trio, and for one long suite, a string
quintet. The concert was finally released on Arista in 1975. ORNETTE AT
12 (Impulse 1968) is a weird date, featuring the drumming of his 12 year
old, untutored son Denardo. CRISIS on Impulse! documents a comeback concert
at NYU in 1969. Atlantic issued TWINS in 1971 (it had been recorded as
part of the FREE JAZZ sessions.) He was comissioned to write the music
for a movie, but it was decided that the music overwhelmed the movie, so
it was not used. The music was issued as CHAPPAQUA SUITE, but it is now
very rare. Around the same time he started to refine harmolodic theory,
which formalizes his ideas about the equal role in improvisation of
harmony, melody and rhythm. He wrote extended symphonic works for
harmolodic orchestra, which are available as SCIENCE FICTION and
SKIES OF AMERICA. The records did not sell, and he lost his recording contract.
Ornette reappeared in 1975 on A&M with Prime Time, a new band featuring
a decidedly electric sound. Hear them on DANCING IN YOUR HEAD,
a monstrous record, which demonstrates plainly just how much impish,
danceable, funky free music can be. The band also recorded BODY META
on Ornette's own Artists House label. He was featured on one tune in
Charlie Haden's THE GOLDEN NUMBER, and did a whole album of duets with Haden
on SOAPSUDS, SOAPSUDS on Artists House. He was also working again with
Prime Time, with whom he recorded the equally monstrous OF HUMAN FEELINGS in 1979.
This album refines the harmolodic funk concept into shorter tunes
and a more concentrated groove. Naturally, he got screwed again, as no
record label would pick it up until Antilles did in 1982, only to
do absolutely no promotion and to consign it to cutouts a year later.
Also in 1982, Columbia issued some miscellaneous stuff as BROKEN SHADOWS,
which includes an excellent early take of what became "Theme from a symphony"
or "Dancing in your Head."

Most recently, Ornette has recorded with Pat Metheny, who admires him
greatly. SONG X is a commercial risk for Metheny, but will be worth
it if even a few of his fans are pulled to Ornette's music. The record
is excellent, a true merging of musical talents. The framework is
Ornette's, but Metheny admirably stands his ground. It is for me one of
the best records of 1986.

Check this man out!
-- 
Marcel-Franck Simon				attunix!mingus
		" Marabou de mon coeur, au sein de mandarine "....
		" Tu es le boeuf sale', dont mon coeur est la couenne "
		" L'acassan au sirop qui coule dans ma garganne "