Ornette Coleman: An Innovator of the First Order, But Certainly No Messiah

At the remove of sixty years, there is a temptation to say, "Ornette Coleman, so what?" His early music does not sound particularly out there. And by contemporary standards, it is not. The initial shock of Ornette Coleman in the mid 1950s wore off decades ago. Some of his compositions have passed into the standard repertoire. Coleman may have been a founding member of the Free Jazz Movement, but Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler among others, moved beyond abandoning Western harmony and rhythmic constraints.

Coleman is in The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2002) even if his theory of "harmolodics" is not. So, perhaps with a little more perspective, we can parse Cannonball Adderley's evaluation of Coleman as an innovator, but not a Messiah. That seems fair enough. Certainly, the reactions of traditionalists like Roy Eldridge, "he's jiving" were extreme. Even Miles Davis, not above controversial innovation himself, said Coleman was not in his right mind. A bridge too far, surely.

Something Else
Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds
2023

Something Else came with the coveted imprimatur of Nat Hentoff, who provided major support to other young artists like Sonny Rollins . While Hentoff never employs the term harmolodics, he makes a pretty strenuous effort to try to explain what Coleman had in in mind, plastic horn aside. In simple terms, Hentoff emphasized that Coleman thought melody came first. It determined appropriate pitch, of which, of course, there was more than one. "He is not too far," said Hentoff, "from certain contemporary composers."

Others thought he had simply abandoned the tempered scale, either because he would not or could not play in tune. Charles Mingus went so far as to say he doubted Coleman could execute a C major scale on the alto even remotely in tune. Whatever one's thoughts on this (or the reality) may be, Coleman pretty clearly thought differently about the matter, which was a big deal. But in other ways, especially on Something Else, it was easy to exaggerate how novel Coleman's writing and playing were. A tune like "Chippie," dedicated to Ed Blackwell's son, might have ridiculously up-tempo, but there is a sense of deja vu around it because it is rhythm changes, hardly unfamiliar to anyone with bop chops. "Alpha" seems to come from "What is This Thing Called Love," and it is there, even if the precise changes or cadences are not, another characteristic of Coleman's that clearly bugged a few listeners. Some tunes end on the tonic, and, of all things, one ends on a flatted fifth.

While it is all too easy to get annoyed at Coleman's mannerisms, drummer Billy Higgins does nothing, if bring a listener back to reality. After a bit—and this is admittedly unfair—it is hard not to think that the recording sounds like a far less practiced version of what Curtis Amy and Dupree Bolton would produce in Katanga (Pacific Jazz, 1963). Which may simply be another way of saying that Coleman's innovations had been thoroughly assimilated within a decade. Deeply radical change in music, or even religion, for that matter, usually takes far longer to find purchase. Even the instrumentation of Coleman's quintet was standard fare for the day. Could it have been that Ornette was really not terribly radical, but that quite a few of his listeners were either hidebound, or, Heaven forbid, envious of his celebrity? It happens. Musicians are human too.

Ornette Coleman
!Tomorrow is the Question!
Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds
2023

We are on somewhat familiar ground with !Tomorrow is the Question!Side One opens with the title track and then moves on to one of Coleman's tunes that has entered the standard repertoire, "Tears Inside." Dangerously different, right? So different you can buy the lead sheet on the internet. The rhythm may be a little tricky, but have you listened to Thelonius Monk lately?

At the risk of sounding partisan, "Tears Inside" is a great 12-bar blues to blow on, and listening to Don Cherry and Percy Heath interact is scintillating, not to mention Heath and Coleman. "Compassion" may not be quite as tuneful, but Coleman's sincerity is evident throughout. Coleman's comment on the tune is revealing: "written for a pianist who wanted to play [with emotion] but had the wrong idea." The truly tragic demise of pianist Lorraine Geller is the motivation for "Lorraine," a mournful if nevertheless energetic elegy that frames a drum solo by Shelly Manne, who brings an altogether different quality to the music than did Billy Higgins.

No mistake, Manne could swing as hard as anyone, but played with a subtlety that eludes most jazz drummers. He also handles the changes of tempo and syncopation behind Coleman masterfully. It is difficult to imagine anyone else doing as well. Mingus had "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat," a composition of the same vintage as "Lorraine"; it hung together better, true enough, but had much the same emotional heft of "Lorraine." It is not hard to see why Mingus clearly felt a certain sympathy for Coleman. It is, of course, true that this is all early Coleman. He continued along varied paths for another sixty five years, achieved iconic status and passed at the estimable age of 85. Ornette Coleman's opening sally continues to be worth listening to, even if it is much closer to the world of bop than one is accustomed to think in thinking of Coleman.

Craft Recordings does its usual excellent job with 180G vinyl recordings that will allow a listener with good ears to really appreciate what Coleman was struggling to express. Weird tricks of pitch and all.

Tracks and Personnel

Something Else

Tracks: Invisible; The Blessing; Jayne; Chippie; The Disguise; Angel Voice; Alpha; When Will The Blues Leave?; The Sphinx. .

Personnel: Ornette Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, trumpet (pocket cornet); Walter Norris, piano; Don Payne, bass; Billy Higgins, drums.

!Tomorrow is the Question!

Tracks: Tomorrow is the Question; Tears Inside; Mind and Time; Compassion; Giggin; Rejoicing; Lorraine; Turnaround; Endless.

Personnel: Ornette Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, trumpet (pocket cornet); Percy Heath, bass; Red Mitchell, bass; Shelly Manne, drums.

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