AOTW September 17-23

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Hi, this is the first time I've done this, and I forgot it was my turn until I was gently reminded, and I think I've done as much of a search to avoid a duplicate AOTW as I can.

Soooooo, now that I'm off on the wrong foot, the hoopla about the new Ornette Coleman LP has made me think of one of his more obscure albums, "Virgin Beauty", or "The One with Jerry Garcia". Now out of print, I'm not sure it has aged well, especially with the bright, shallow production and synthetic drums. Perhaps a remastering would bring out it's charms like "Song X"?

Anyhoo, being totally unfamiliar with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, I can't hear anything about his guitar playing that he brought to the session that would make one sit up and take notice. The three tracks he plays on sound little different from all the others. On the one hand, maybe Jerry absorbed Ornette's methods and fit in seemlessly with Bern Nix and Charles Ellerbee--or those licks really were Nix and Ellerbee and I'm just not "hearing" Garcia. Was this just a record company idea?

Am I missing something, or is this LP a disappointment? Any Deadheads out there who can enlighten me on the connections between Ornette and the Dead?

Edited September 18, 2006 by Hoppy T. Frog

[ep1str0phy]

I'm actually a fan of Virgin Beauty, although not so much the dead...

It is somewhat anomalous in the Coleman discography--not so much for the glossy, synthetic nature of the instrumentation (In All Languages had that, too--and it's probably one of the finer Prime Time albums), but rather for the uncomplicated, extremely minimal improvisatory content and almost self-consciously simplistic quality of the compositions and arrangements. It hews very, very close to a pop instrumental album--but this is still Ornette and still Prime Time, and, ultimately, there's only a slight barrier of glibness to separate this from, say, Of Human Feelings. i.e., there's still the same disoriented, grotesque sort of ironic disco going on here as on any of the other Prime Time albums, and I'm happy for it.

Re: Garcia--I think the point is that he falls into the ensemble line, although there are a few moments where (in the way of dynamics and timbre) he jumps straight out. Perhaps it was a marketing ploy, but I'd say that it didn't affect the character of the music too much...

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Funny, I quite liked In All Languages, but maybe it was due to the thrill of hearing the same songs done by both Prime Time and the "Original Quartet". I haven't listened to Of Human Feelings enough to make a comparison, but those earlier Prime Time records have an excitement and energy that seems to lack here. Maybe that whole area of exploration had run its course by then, and new fields awaited, like the duet with Joachim Kuhn (which I loved).

Edited September 19, 2006 by Hoppy T. Frog

[B. Clugston]

Any Deadheads out there who can enlighten me on the connections between Ornette and the Dead?

There may be a mention in John Litweiler's Ornette bio. If I recall correctly, Ornette checked out a Dead concert and was impressed with the whole Deadhead scene.

[Hoppy T. Frog]

Any Deadheads out there who can enlighten me on the connections between Ornette and the Dead?

There may be a mention in John Litweiler's Ornette bio. If I recall correctly, Ornette checked out a Dead concert and was impressed with the whole Deadhead scene.

Thanks. I have the book, haven't gotten round to reading it yet.

[Spontooneous]

Ornette played onstage with the Dead twice, in '93.

(Just for segments of the second set. Recordings circulate. Unfortunately, neither show catches the Dead in good form.)

[Spontooneous]

You can stream the concerts here. It takes some wading and tolerance to get to the Ornette segments:

2-23-93

12-9-93

BTW, Ep1str0phy hit the nail on the head in his last paragraph.