Ornette Coleman

[Late]

OK, never mind the fact that this week pretty much the only threads I've been bumping up are the Ornette threads and that I didn't post once in the Pulitzer thread. Also, never mind the fact that CAMO 24 oz. fortified malt liquor, with not one but FIVE X's, doesn't taste too bad on a Friday afternoon when the blues are too much, and one needs/thinks they need the taste of beer.

What do you really think of this album? If you take the trumpet and violin playing for what it is, this album is close to a bad mo(ther)fo. Ornette Denardo Coleman is actually not bad in the ensemble playing. His "solos" leave something to be desired, but when he's playing behind his dad, it really ain't so bad. BUT, the big revelation comes when you listen to Charlie Haden. He's playing some Danny D'Imperio (e.g. DEEP) shit on this album, even making use at times of Mingus's sliding octave riff — listen to the guy on this record, and you won't need to say anything. Charlie Haden has no ass after this record, because HE PLAYED IT OFF. Really. Just listen to him.

I tried (but probably failed, even with the CAMO) to make this post sound like Clem/Chew, but what I'm saying is: THIS IS THE CHEEDLY-BEEDLY-SHEET. 1966, and there are no — absolutely NO — documented recordings, live or studio, or in the woods (yeah, whatEVUH Bread and Bennink) of Ornette in 1963 ... even if Michael Fitzy sez there are ... but I wonder what Ornette was doing in '63 when my brother was being born.

OK, never mind, and I apologize in advance, but I wonder what you think of THE EMPATHY FOXGLOVES.

Elder Don Whittimore Coleman the IV

[jazzbo]

I've always liked it. And I agree about Charlie.

[David Ayers]

Charlie Haden has no ass after this record, because HE PLAYED IT OFF. Really. Just listen to him.

Well, he's trying to compensate for the drummer and hold the whole thing together.

[brownie]

That would have been a great album if Ed Blackwell had been on drums onit!

[clifford_thornton]

Also, never mind the fact that CAMO 24 oz. fortified malt liquor, with not one but FIVE X's, doesn't taste too bad on a Friday afternoon when the blues are too much, and one needs/thinks they need the taste of beer.

I remember having a "Full-Metal Militia Drink-off" at 19 or so, ingesting a fair amount of Camo. It did what it had to do...

Haven't listened to the Ornette LP in question in quite some time, but it's a wonderful disc, for the reasons mentioned here. Denardo's playing had improved by the time of the Impulse! dates, though.

[Late]

Phew — for some reason, I'm not hungover. Maybe it was all the trans-fat in the Totino's pizza I ate. Jeebus, momentary throwbacks to being 21 are strange, and not necessarily recommended ...

Anyway, now that that's out of my system, I hear this session — and maybe it's for the very fact that Denardo's playing drums — as a prime, or at least uncluttered, example of what Ornette's trying to do/say with harmolodics (yes, whatever that really means). Pitches don't have to take their place in any kind of diatonic, or even "atonal," system of intervals — they just are what they are: pitches. This leaves Ornette to do what (as it's been mentioned many times already by other musicians and writers) some country blues musicians do — inflect sound. And when Ornette inflects, it's often a sound of joy. Likewise, I'd venture, when Coltrane "inflects," it's a sound of seriousness and enterprise, and for Rollins it might be a sound of wit and seasoned playfulness. The "intervals" that Ornette plays generally seem to have, as their conscious or subconscious base, a folk quality to them (which I'm thinking of as fundamentally "major" with occasional transitions to "minor" — though those very words go against the whole idea of harmolodics, I guess).

In the end, of course, none of that matters, and that's the beautiful thing about music — words always, without question, fail it. That's why the business of writing about music always strikes me as odd. As a result, I tend to require for myself, as only one listener of this music, that I try to maintain a necessarily naive (simply in the sense of being open) approach to hearing sound. In this way, when I feel, for whatever reasons, compelled to write something about music, I don't ask myself to turn to any kind of "knowledge" of the "history" of "jazz," but rather that raw, un-scholarly engagement: enthusiasm.

[AndrewHill]

I bought this when it came out on cd back in '94 and its interesting at best. There are many other Ornette titles I reach for before this one, but I do dig this session if I'm in the mood for it. Good Old Days and Zig Zag are standouts for me. I agree with Brownie that Ed Blackwell would've lifted this album from just ok to really good. Oh well, what can you do? This is what we're left with, and I'm happy to own it. I just try to not let Dernado's drumming get to me, only then can I really appreciate the music. Besides, I really dig the album cover art; I wish Ornette would've done some more painting, if I understand correctly that he did paint it. I think Reid did the graphics.

[bluesbro]

I love this album. I think going after the drummer is the obvious thing to do. Ornette knew his kid was no Max Roach, this works on a more basic level. For some strange reason, this album reminds me of Elvis Sun sessions. Something about playing just for the fun of it...