Results for "Ornette Coleman"

Ornette Coleman

Born: March 9, 1930

Early on in his career, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, recorded an album entitled, The Shape of Jazz To Come. It might have seemed like an expression of youthful arrogance - Coleman was 29 at the time - but actually, the title was prophetic. Coleman is the creator of a concept of music called "harmolodic," a musical form which is equally applicable as a life philosophy. The richness of harmolodics derives from the unique interaction between the players. Breaking out of the prison bars of rigid meters and conventional harmonic or structural expectations, harmolodic musicians improvise equally together in what Coleman calls compositional improvisation, while always keeping deeply in tune with the flow, direction and needs of their fellow players. In this process, harmony becomes melody becomes harmony. Ornette describes it as "Removing the caste system from sound." On a broader level, harmolodics equates with the freedom to be as you please, as long as you listen to others and work with them to develop your own individual harmony.

Ornette At 12, Crisis To Man On The Moon, Revisited

Label: Ezz-thetics
Released: 2023
Track listing: C.O.D.; Rainbows; New York; Bells and Chimes; Broken Shadows; Comme Il Faut; Song for Che; Space Jungle; Trouble in the East; Man on the Moon; Growing Up.

Bobby Zankel: The Inside Story of 'A Change of Destiny'

by Victor L. Schermer
September 21, 2023

Saxophonist, bandleader, composer and arranger Bobby Zankel has been making jazz in many ways with diverse cohorts for over a half-century. He has found his own way to create music that is both advanced and very listenable at the same time. He is loved and revered by the many musicians who have performed with him and ...

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

by Richard J Salvucci
September 20, 2023

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. ...

Vilhelm Bromander: In This Forever Unfolding Moment

by Chris May
September 15, 2023

Ornette Coleman's haunting “Lonely Woman" is becoming something of a 2023 soundtrack. At the time of writing, we have had memorable versions from Kahil El'Zabar's Ethnic Heritage Ensemble on Spirit Gatherer (Spirit Muse), and Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter on The Iridescent Spree (Edition), plus another couple of efforts about which the less said the better. ...

Irreversible Entanglements: Protect Your Light

by Chris May
August 24, 2023

If ever there was a band which screamed to be taken up by Impulse! (or Strata-East back in the day), it is the semi-free agit-jazz quintet Irreversible Entanglements. Now, after three albums with the on-song but tiny International Anthem label, it has happened and, hopefully, greater exposure and recognition will follow. IE came ...

Kris Davis: Diatom Ribbons Live At The Village Vanguard

by Mike Jurkovic
August 24, 2023

Rogue pianist and noted polymath Kris Davis exercises the mercurial fluidity of her future-forward-thinking quartet, Diatom Ribbons--drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, turntablist and electronic musician Val Jeanty, and bassist Trevor Dunn--ushers guitarist Julian Lage into the maelstrom and voila! Another memorable Live at the Village Vanguard emerges boldly and triumphantly. As befits Davis and company, ...

Two-Fer's: Geri Allen, John Zorn, Jonathan Blake, Gonzalo Rubalcaba

by David Brown
August 22, 2023

This week, a program of two-fer's. Songs that are linked either by artist, themes, instrumentation or whatever works. More jazz for your buck. Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 01:00 Nicole Zuraitis “The Good Ways" from How Love Begins (Outside in Music) 03:00 John Zorn “Functives" from Multiplicities ...

Roots Magic Sextet: Long Old Road

by Mark Corroto
August 8, 2023

The poet Jayne Cortez once wrote “I'm taking the blues back to where / the blues stealers won't go / I'm talking the blues back home." For Roots Magic, back home isn't the crossroads where Robert Johnson made that infamous deal with the devil, but the peninsula in Southern Europe we call Italy. Long Old Road ...

Patrick Brennan: Tilting Curvaceous

by John Sharpe
July 26, 2023

In spite of being active on the NYC scene since the mid-'70s, alto saxophonist and composer patrick brennan (he prefers his name spelled entirely in lowercase letters) has a relatively sparse discography, to which tilting curvaceous constitutes a splendid addition. It constitutes the seventh release by his S0nic 0penings band since Introducing S0UP (Deep Dish, 1981), ...