Rooster_Ties Posted July 25, 2003 Report Share Posted July 25, 2003 What 'covers' of Ornette tunes, that include piano, work best in your opinion, and why??? And I guess while we're at it -- which one's DON'T work (with piano), and why??? -- as a parallel discussion. ========== AND, while we're at it - let's also talk about Ornette's few recordings with piano, both very early in his career (including the bootlegs of Ornette's original quartet, with Paul Bley in I think it's 1959), and then again pretty recently - with the pair of "Sound Museum" releases, and the album with Joachim Kühn. How well does piano work in Ornette's context?? What about it works well, and what doesn't?? How have different players approached his idiom on piano?? I guess then, the question really is... What the hell is "harmolodic" piano anyway?????? Discuss... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooster_Ties Posted July 26, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2003 Geri Allen, with Charlie Haden & Paul Motian: Segments (DIW, 1989) ..... Anyone here know this album?? I don't, but I stumbled on it while looking on-line for covers of Ornette with piano. They cover one of my alltime favorite Ornette tunes "Law Years". How is it?? That said, it appears that Geri Allen is one of a very small number of pianists who have taken up Ornette's concepts and really run with them. I'll dig out both volumes of "Sound Museum" (which I haven't heard in at least two years), give them a spin today, and report back my findings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Fitzgerald Posted July 26, 2003 Report Share Posted July 26, 2003 I saw Kenny Barron playing with Ornette at Avery Fisher Hall a few summers ago, with Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins. It can work. I think that some people believe that it can't because when the first Ornette stuff was happening, the piano players hadn't figured out how. Now (45 years later), people know. Keith Jarrett is an amazing Ornette-style player (though I don't think he's ever actually recorded an Ornette tune), check out his American quartet stuff with ex-Colemanites Redman and Haden. The Hillcrest recordings are from fall 1958. Earlier that year there are the sessions with Walter Norris for Contemporary. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Late Posted July 26, 2003 Report Share Posted July 26, 2003 This is not really responding to the question at hand, but since Mike mentioned the date with Walter Norris, I thought I'd chime in and say that I've always been a huge fan of Something Else!!!, and I don't even know why. It would seem like Tomorrow is the Question would be the "better" record of Coleman's two Contemporary sessions, as his musical vision seems more developed here, but the debut recording has always had a special place in my listening to Ornette. The piano here seems to work (though I've read elsewhere that it was "already" gratuitous), and the compositions ... that's why I like this album so much. Beginning with "Invisible" (which I'm guessing is what Ornette felt a lot like at the very beginning of his career), the ride gets even better. This session has additionally seemed to me like a good example of Billy Higgins' freer side, even though it's 1958. I've never heard him quite play like this on any other session. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted July 26, 2003 Report Share Posted July 26, 2003 Nice version of "Turnaraound" by Haden & Hawes on THE GOLDEN NUMBER. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Man with the Golden Arm Posted July 26, 2003 Report Share Posted July 26, 2003 RT, That "Segments" is a fine disc, along with perhaps it's B-side- "Etudes" - on Soul Note. She hit's 'Lonely Woman' right off the top, and better yet a great take on 'Shuffle Montgomery'. Let me know if you need these as I think they might be htf or oop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 How is the SOUND MUSEUM cd? I've got a used copy on hold at the local record shop and am going to get it regardless, but thought I'd throw out the question here anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Impeccable, imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cali Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 This one. A nice loping, funky feeling to the title track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Soul note is available through emusuc and etudes is highly recommended. Shuffle Montgomery! I didn't read the track listings very carefully after purchasing this album on vinyl and was very surprised to hear this tune by this trio. Very nice. And the baby loves this record! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.:.impossible Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Nice version of "Turnaraound" by Haden & Hawes on THE GOLDEN NUMBER. also on "As Long As Theres Music" on Artist House iirc. How do the versions compare? I've only listened to the former once or twice and my memory of the music is that it is sort of hazy. I'll put the lp on tonight to revisit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 How is the SOUND MUSEUM cd? I've got a used copy on hold at the local record shop and am going to get it regardless, but thought I'd throw out the question here anyway. Get it. Really nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clifford_thornton Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Any thoughts on the Paul Plimley/Lisle Ellis Ornette covers record? I've always thought it a little too icy, but I do enjoy Plimley with McPhee on that Sweet Freedom disc. Mike's right about Jarrett, esp. as Keith was (early on, especially) a very Bley-styled pianist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazaro Vega Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 In the liner notes to Joachim Kuhn's album "Piano Works I / Allegro Vivace" on ACT records he claims to know "a substaintial repertoire of 'over 150 pieces' by the alto saxophonist, many of which haven't appeared on CD releases." On that album Kuhn records "She and he Is Who Fenn Love" and "Allotropes, Elements Different Forms or Same" by Coleman. Additionally, Kuhn taught one of those unrecorded Coleman melodies to Bobo Stenson who recorded it on the recent trio album "Cantando" (ECM). It's called "A Fixed Goal." Interesting that previously unrecorded, or undocumented, Coleman compositions are entering the world as piano repertoire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Goren. Posted August 25, 2009 Report Share Posted August 25, 2009 Geri Allen plays Lonely Woman (with Haden and Motian) on this CD (Etudes): Recommended, not only because of Lonely Woman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffcrom Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 Lots of mention of Geri Allen here, with good reason - she's one of the best pianistic interpreters of Ornette's music. But nobody has mentioned her mid-90s Blue Note album Eyes in the Back of Your Head. It includes two duets with OC, "Vertical Flowing" and "The Eyes Have It," both co-credited to Coleman and Allen. I don't like the way Ornette's saxophone is recorded, but the music is excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffcrom Posted August 26, 2009 Report Share Posted August 26, 2009 Can't believe I forgot this one yesterday - Marian McPartland's Twilight World album (recorded when she was 89!) contains versions of "Turnaround" and "Lonely Woman." Both are very original, while true to the spirit of Ornette's tunes. I expected "Turnaround" to just be another blues in C in Marian's hands, but nope - it's definitely a very idiomatic improvisation on the OC piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlhoots Posted August 27, 2009 Report Share Posted August 27, 2009 I like the Plimley / Ellis mentioned earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMP Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 Marion McPartland has a nice, but fairly conventional, "Ramblin'." (And so does David Sanborn, now that I think about it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ep1str0phy Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 Jack Wilson also did a version of "The Sphinx" that I'm partial to, and there was also Hutcherson's boppish take on "Una Muy Bonita," which is fantastic in its own way. A lot of "mainstream" folks took to Ornette's themes like fish to water (did I just mangle that idiom?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bip Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 Apart from Kuhn, the pianist I associate most closely with Coleman's work is Bobo Stenson. In addition to the Coleman piece mentioned upthread, Stenson has recorded a number of others. On the album War Orphans we hear "All My Life" and the title track, which features Anders Jormin slowly moving from rhythmic to melodic playing in a way I really like. Stenson's albums Goodbye, Underwear, and Very Early also feature Coleman tunes, as well as a couple more within the group led by Don Cherry's on Dona Nostra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted August 29, 2009 Report Share Posted August 29, 2009 (edited) Jack Wilson also did a version of "The Sphinx" that I'm partial to, and there was also Hutcherson's boppish take on "Una Muy Bonita," which is fantastic in its own way. A lot of "mainstream" folks took to Ornette's themes like fish to water (did I just mangle that idiom?). Some early versions of OC tunes on the Night Lights Ornette Coleman Songbook show (including the Wilson recording--but somehow I overlooked Bobby H.'s...from STICK-UP, right?). Edited August 29, 2009 by ghost of miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randyhersom Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 Art Pepper recorded a couple, Tears Inside is the one that jumps to mind first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Dryden Posted September 1, 2009 Report Share Posted September 1, 2009 I like Marian McPartland's version of "Turnaround." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnlitweiler Posted September 2, 2009 Report Share Posted September 2, 2009 "Ornette Coleman Anthology" by Aki Takase and Silke Eberhard is an Intakt 2-disk set of 33 Coleman songs played by pianist-arranger and alto saxist-clarinetist. The whole album is a delight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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