Looking for jazz CDs?
|
Looking for jazz books ?
 |
|
by Robert Stubenrauch (rstubenr@iicm.edu)
Ornette Coleman: as, ts, tp, violin, composer; born March 19, 1930 (according to J.Litweiler, Coleman's sister gives March 9, 1931).
Free jazz pioneer; first records 1958. In early 1960s Coleman lead a famous quartet with trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden (subsituted by Scott LaFaro or Jimmy Garrison on a few occasions), and Billy Higgins or Ed Blackwell on drums. The album entitled "Free Jazz", recorded December 1960 gave name to a new music style. It was a free improvisation performed by a double quartet including, in addition to the regular band members, Eric Dolphy and Freddie Hubbard. The complete recordings of Ornette Coleman done for the Atlantic label are available on a 6 CD box. After this success Ornette retired for 2 years to start learning the trump and the violin and to compose pieces for chamber orchestra.
Ornette Coleman had his comeback in 1962 with a trio of David Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums. This was the start of a fruitful period of consolidation and international success, well-documented on a number of excellent live recordings done in 1965 for various labels (among them Blue Note) on the occasion of a European concert tour. The trio also recorded soundtracks for the avantgard films "Chappaqua Suite", supported by a large classical ensemble, and "Who's crazy".
The following years brought a variety of activities including another European tour with two bassists (Haden and Izenton), a record containing solely "classical" compositions performed by woodwind and string chamber ensembles (plus sax improvisations by Coleman), and a trumpet contribution to a Jackie McLean album.
In 1968 Coleman found a new partner in tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman with whom he recorded for Blue Note (with John Coltrane's sidemen Elvin Jones on drums and Jimmy Garrison on bass) and the Impulse label (with Haden on bass and Ornette's 12 year old son Denardo on drums). From 1969 on Coleman's regular group would consist of Redman, Haden, and again Ed Blackwell on drums; this band would continue to give acclaimed performances until 1972. In 1971 and 1972 Coleman had a contract with major label CBS for which he recorded his ambitious full-orchestra piece "Skies of America" and two albums with various high-class ensembles, partly reuniting with trumpeters Don Cherry and Bobby Bradford in an - almost - double quartet (just one bassist, though).
1973 to 1975 was a quiet period for Coleman in which he once again re-orientated his music. In 1974 he did a concert tour (not officially recorded) with guitarrist James Blood Ulmer who would become another long-time associate. After an inspiring visit to Morroco where he had played - and recorded - with the Joujouca Musicians, by the end of 1975 he came back with a radically new electric band comprising two guitarists, Jamaladeen Tacuma on electric bass, and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums; this electric band (and all its followers) was soon to be known as "Prime Time". His music now reflected the contemporary streams in jazz-rock and funk but was a totally fresh and unique reaction - and may we say so: opposition - to them. However, Coleman also recorded a very intimate accoustic duo record with Charlie Haden and reunited his "original quartet" from the early 1960s in 1986, opposing it to his current Prime Time band on a double album. A co-operation with guitarist Pat Metheny in 1985 resulted in a CD and a world tour.
Coleman's recorded output from that time (until the mid-1980s) suffered from his association (and in part personal involvement) with short-lived record companies such as Artists House and Caravan of Dreams. Almost all those recordings have been unavailable until recently and many are still so.
Between 1988 and 1995 there was again a period of silence in Coleman's live, only interrupted in 1991 by an interesting co-operation with Howard Shore on his soundtrack to the movie "Naked Lunch" (after a novel by beat author William Borroughs). In 1995 Coleman was offered a generous contract with major label Verve. Since then he runs his own sublabel Harmolodic on which he has issued a number of new recording plus has reissued some of the long unavailable 1970s recordings. The new activities have resulted in a new Prime Time recording "Tone Dialing" (presented on tour in a multi-media show plus dancers), two acclaimed accoustic quartet albums with pianist Geri Allen, and a live CD of a duo with German pianist Joachim Kühn. He was in the studio to record with Indian musicians (yet unreleased) and presented his various streams of music in the form of extended projects at a number of jazz festivals around the world.
In recent years Ornette Coleman was awarded major prizes and has won a number of critics polls. So, finally he seems to be one of the first to gain wide public appreciation for uncompromised musical expression.
© Copyright by Robert Stubenrauch. This material
may be freely distributed for private non-commercial use only. For any
commercial use on whatever medium please contact the author.
Photo: Hans Kumpf