Pat Metheny and John Zorn? What are both musicians famous for? Metheny constructs compositions spun from gorgeous and seemingly endless long-form melodies. Zorn shakes the noise from film noir, Klezmer, jazz, and blues. If you give both artists a superficial read, the areas of overlap aren't obvious. A deeper look reveals this: Ornette Coleman. In addition to his phenomenal collaboration [...]
We admit it: We’re not generally fans of jazz poetry. The stuff tends to deserve the bad rap it gets. However, the work of Jayne Cortez is a blazing exception. With the help of George Scala , we've put together this memorial post paying tribute to her undersung work - work that melded free jazz, funk, and searing poetry into unique and combustible songs. Cortez was a published poet who received awards from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation; a spoken word artist; [...]
"The midnight cry of a blood red bird brought this sleeplessness on..." Presenting part two of a feathered six pack. Bird is the word. Collage once again by the mighty Tinca. Buy some of her exquisite art why don't you. Smog - Blood Red Bird The Holy Modal Rounders - Bird Song The Anomoanon - Bird Child Fun Things - When The Birdmen Fly The Upsetters - Bird In Hand [...]
The Ornette Coleman Trio - European Echoes Meanwhile, in Stockholm...
SKIES OF AMERICA Ornette Coleman and Prime Time Verona Jazz Nettles : 1996 (rec. 1987) OC, alto sax; Bern Nix, Charles Ellerbee, guitar; Al MacDowell, Chris Walker, bass; Calvin Weston, Denardo Coleman, drums; with the Orchestra Sinfonica Dell'Arena di Verona, John Giordano, conductor. There's been an unrelenting succession of bad news for jazz fans lately with the deaths of musical giants John Tchicai, David S. Ware, Borah Bergman, Sean Bergin, Byard Lancaster, and Ted Curson. [...]
Ornette Coleman shot by Lee Friedlander for Atlantic Records
Nine-piece Tel Aviv funk band The Apples chat about their new album.
The notion of perennial underachiever Neneh Cherry teaming up with Nordic jazz ensemble The Thing to pluck a bunch of preferred tracks from respective record collections to then mash, mangle and reinterpret in an overtly avant-garde manner in a four-day, free-jazz jam may initially seem unnecessary at best and mildly obscene at the other end of opinion. It's not that it's an ill-advised nor entirely unexpected pairing (the Stockholm songstress' trumpeting dad Don inspiring and indirectly entitling her now collaborators, with his very own Golden Heart here operated upon) but more that enduring the regurgitation of [...]
NYC has been in a splooge-filled flutter this week largely due to the Refused reunion shows that hit on Sunday and Monday. Only a scant few of us didn't get to see one of these seminal events, but rest assured if you're among the shmucks who didn't make it out there are still tickets [...]
MOON OVER MOSCOW FARMER ALFALFA HOME IS WHERE THE HEARTH IS Perry Robinson 4 Funk Dumpling Savoy : 1962 PR, clarinet; Kenny Barron, piano; Henry Grimes, bass; Paul Motian, drums . Welcome to LOST TONES which features tracks from hyper-rare recordings that aren’t available anywhere else on the web. These treasures are courtesy of George Scala, who runs the invaluable Free Jazz Research site . He’s generously [...]
In the never ending battle between time and money, I will take time every time. I will also take content over technology. Even though I lost my job a few months ago and money is tight, having extra time to get re-acquainted with old gems on my LP shelves has been very rewarding. The self titled 1979 album from a band of Ornette Coleman alumni called Old And New Dreams has always been a favorite of mine but it was unplayed for many years. Now with the luxury of time on my hands it's back spinning [...]
C.O.D. BELLS AND CHIMES Ornette Coleman Ornette at 12 Impulse : 1968 OC, alto, violin; Dewey Redman, tenor; Charlie Haden, bass; Denardo Coleman (credited as "Ornette Denardo"), drums. You're going to like this or you're not. But try not to be put off by the Curious Case of the Twelve-Year-Old Drummer; there's more here than that red herring. Some great soloing by Dewey Redman, for one thing. [...]
The very first album by a revolutionary jazz saxophonist: an insurrection simmering below the surface. It is a truism that change is hard for most folks. The first time you taste asparagus: blech. Down the line, it's as delicious as caramel. And in music it's true, too. Stravinsky was unlistenable in 1913, but by the 1950s, he was a concert staple. Elvis was sexual dynamite in 1955 and unhip pap by the early '70s. Perceptions change, but so do artists. Something Else is the remarkable 1958 debut recording by the...
An all-star cast showed up to wish Sonny Rollins a Happy 80th.
A review of classics by Ornette Coleman, Chet Baker, Thelonious Monk, and Ella Fitzgerald with Joe Pass.
THE SUNDAY AFTERNOON JAZZ SOCIETY BLUES LONELINESS John Carter & Bobby Bradford Self Determination Music Flying Dutchman : 1970 JC, alto sax, flute; BB, trumpet, glockenspiel; Tom Williamson and Henry Franklin, bass; Bruz Freeman, drums. As Josh Sinton made plain in his recent guest post on Ed Wilkerson , jazz has been, and remains, a music with regional differences. The world may be flat and all [...]
Coleman's first record as a band leader, and what a debut it is.
Jazz great Ornette Coleman's debut album is the newest reissue in the Original Jazz Classics Remasters Series.
A saxophonist known for his immersion in Coltrane tackles the melodic approach from the other side of "free jazz". When I first heard Ornette Coleman, I thought, "That is some seriously weird stuff." All I could hear was what was missing -- such as the supporting harmonies that tended to make jazz sound logical or pretty even amidst fairly crazy improvising. Also absent was a perfectly steady sense of swing, even though I could tell that the bass player was cooking. But if that music was a map, then all the boundaries seemed to...
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