Ornette Coleman - Virgin Beauty (1988)

1. Wishes
2. Bourgeois Boogie
3. Happy Hour
4. Virgin Beauty
5. Healing The Feeling
6. Singing In The Shower
7. Desert Players
8. Honeymooners
9. Chanting
10. Spelling The Alphabet
11. Unknown Artists

Bern Nix - guitar

Calvin Weston - drums

Chris Walker - bass

Denardo Coleman - percussion, drums, keyboards

Ornette Coleman - trumpet, performer, arranger, violin, saxophone

Jerry Garcia - guitar

Al Macdowell - bass

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Ornette Coleman - Skies of America (1972)

"The history of attempts to fuse jazz and classical music has been long and ignominious. From the plasticizing efforts of George Gershwin and Paul Whiteman, through the rarefied preciousness of much of the "Third Stream," right on up to today's proliferating concertos for "jazz band and chamber orchestra," the tendency has been to abandon the strengths of both species for the weakness of a mutant. The first thing that needs to be said about Skies of America is that it transcends these previous attempts to such a degree that it has nothing whatever to do with them. It stands on its own as a work worthy of the most serious consideration, and it translates its composer's individuality as an improviser into orchestral terms.

Coleman's sound and style is one of a handful of truly distinctive contributions to the history of jazz. Bix, Louis, Bird, and Trane have all had their legions of copyists, but few players have been able to recreate the peculiar Coleman timbre, or to reproduce Coleman licks. Skies of America demonstrates that Coleman's uniqueness as a player is a facet of a highly personal musical conception; he manages to make the London Symphony Orchestra into an extension of his unique sensibility Coleman calls the theory that underlies his compositional endeavors "harmolodic." His modulations have a fresh, sometimes abrupt sound which seems to be a result of subordinating the chordal underpinning on which most music is based to the movement of melody. A certain melodic interval thus suggests a number of different chord changes, any one of which is "correct."

Because the piece represents America's skies, the parts are written in the higher ranges of the instruments. This unity of range and intent holds the piece together as much as the few themes which reappear. Coleman's alto enters halfway through the first side and his improvisations, some of which are pristinely clear a cappella statements, also help cement the work. Certain sections are optional or interchangeable, and the piece is designed to accommodate additional soloists. While a great deal of variety is present, from the openended, long-lined melodies of the opening and closing movements to the bright, tumbling parade sounds of some of the middle sections, the personal dimension permeates Skies on all levels, as one can discern quote after quote from Ornette's previous work. Certain heavy densities are reminiscent of the Greek composer Xenakis, and occasionally a jumble of melodies brings Charles Ives to mind, but the densities and jumbles all break down into individual lines that could only have been written by Ornette Coleman.

The most impressive quality of Skies of America is its emotional weight. The blues quality of much jazz playing is almost impossible to render into symphonic writing, but Coleman has long been known as a player of blues feeling rather than blues form, and he employs in Skies certain intervals that have "a human quality," intervals he originally discovered on his horn. This music will leave few listeners unmoved, and it leaves room for a multitude of personal reactions to the negative and positive qualities of life under America's skies. (RS 115)"

BOB PALMER, in rolling stone magazine, RS115

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ORNETTE COLEMAN - SKIES OF AMERICA (1972)

1. "Skies of America" — 2:49
2. "Native Americans" — 1:10
3. "The Good Life" — 1:33
4. "Birthdays and Funerals" — 3:13
5. "Dreams" — 0:51
6. "Sounds of Sculpture" — 1:20
7. "Holiday for Heroes" — 1:10
8. "All of My Life" — 3:08
9. "Dancers" — 1:17
10. "The Soul Within Woman" — 0:47
11. "The Artists in America" — 3:54
12. "The New Anthem" — 0:31
13. "Place in Space" — 2:44
14. "Foreigner in a Free Land" — 1:19
15. "Silver Screen" — 1:10
16. "Poetry" — 1:15
17. "The Men Who Live in the White House" — 2:48
18. "Love Life" — 4:34
19. "The Military" — 0:32
20. "Jam Session" — 0:39
21. "Sunday in America" — 4:29

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The Ornette Coleman Trio - At the Golden Circle Vol. 1 (1965)

Ornette Coleman's 1965 trio with bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett is easily the most underrated of all his bands. Coming off the light of the famed quartet in which Don Cherry, Eddie Blackwell, and Charlie Haden shone, anything might have looked a bit dimmer, it's true. But this band certainly had no apologies to make. Coleman was deep into creating a new approach to melody, since Haden and Cherry had honed his harmonic sensibilities. Izenzon proved to be the right bassist for Coleman to realize his ambitions. A stunning arco as well as pizzicato player (check his solo in "Dawn") Izenzon offered Coleman the perfect foil. No matter where Coleman's soloing moved the band, Izenzon was there at exactly the same time with an uncanny sense of counterpoint, and he often changed the harmonic mode by force. The first of these two volumes from December 3 shows Coleman in a playful, mischievous frame of mind, toying with the trio ads well as the audience on "Faces and Places" by inserting standard bop phrases and song quotes into the heart of his free soloing. On "Dee Dee," Coleman moves along to rhythmic counterpoint by Moffett, pushing Izenzon into the unlikely role of beat-keeper -- not simple for such an amazing improviser. But it's on the closer, "Dawn," that the band gels as one inseparable, ethereal unit, cascading through scalar invention and chromatic interplay as if it were second nature. - Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

Ornette Coleman: Alto Sax
David Izenon: Bass
Charles Moffett: Drums

1. Announcement

2. Faces & Places

3. European Echoes

4. Dee Dee

5. Dawn

6. Faces & Places (alternate take)

7. European Echoes (alternate take)

8. Doughnuts

Tracks #1-5 originally released by Blue Note in 1965.
Tracks #6-8 previously unreleased.

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Ornette Coleman - Sound Museum: Hidden Man (1994)

When Ornette Coleman debuted his electric Prime Time band, 20 years ago, its amplified guitars, electric bass, and funky beat alienated many of his oldest fans. His two splendid new releases, Sound Museum: Three Women and Sound Museum: Hidden Man (Harmolodic/Verve), feature a new acoustic quartet with pianist Geri Allen, bassist Charnett Moffett, and drummer Denardo Coleman -- and will undoubtedly win some old fans back. But don't be misled by the title or the instrumentation. This museum is not about preserving the past. The music sounds closer in spirit to Prime Time than to Coleman's original piano-less quartets of the late '50s and early '60s.

Without question, the primary reason these two albums sound so modern and so little like Coleman's earlier quartets is the presence of his son, Denardo, on drums. In the denser, more tangled ensemble of Prime Time, it's harder to hear exactly what Denardo contributes. On these albums, it's evident how essential he is to Ornette's music. Denardo is often criticized for not swinging, and he doesn't in any usual sense. He isn't a funk or rock drummer. His sense of time entirely his own. Although he is unique -- even eccentric -- he is also a sensitive musician. He reacts to the music around him instantly, but his responses are hardly ever the expected ones.Without question, the primary reason these two albums (which include different takes of the same pieces and are sold separately) sound so modern and so little like Coleman's earlier His fills, which can sound as random as tumbling rocks or falling boxes, are in reality exactly positioned and never interrupt the flow of the music.

If Denardo provides a rhythmic link to Prime Time, the quartet's ensemble approach also recalls the orchestral sound of the electric group. With Allen playing both chords and single-note lines, and Moffett alternating between plucking and bowing, the density of sound is always in flux, and a variety of textures are woven through the fabric of the music -- just as guitars, keyboards, and percussion vary the density and textures in Prime Time. As is the case with the electric band, each member of the quartet can move at his or her own tempo, and the rhythmic center of the music disperses and converges as the players move in and out of synch. On the version of "Women of the Veil" on Hidden Man, Moffett shadows Ornette while Allen creates soft clouds of sounds by playing chords with the damper pedal down. When Moffett switches to dark, sinuous bowing, Allen responds with single-note lines that penetrate the thick mass of sound. Denardo rushes to double the time, then backs off. Ornette has said that Prime Time is an outfit composed all of leaders; so are the members of this quartet. They are a group making a music with four centers, yet they remain committed to collective unity.

Ornette himself reveals a freshness that belies his years (he's 66). When he plays, there are seemingly no barriers between feeling and sound, or thought and sound. And he never repeats himself. The two versions of the Mexican-flavored "P.P. (Piccolo Pesos)" are a good example. On Three Women, his improvisation is a nimble folk dance that flows around Denardo's colorful array of cowbells, wood blocks, and rumbling toms. Hidden Man's version finds Ornette pecking at the notes of the solo in a series of nervous hops and jumps while Denardo clumps and cantors beneath. In contrast, Hidden Man's "Monsieur Allard" is elliptical and purposely disjointed. Ornette plays variations on the theme, discards them for a seemingly unrelated set of themes and variations, shifts into long rapid sequences of squiggles and squeals, and ends with sotto voce mutterings that fade into the ensemble. Whether his solo is simple or complex, Ornette's every note is drenched in the blues, evoking the power of the human voice.
The tunes played on the Sound Museum CDs are the same, except for one track on each: Hidden Man features a variation on "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"; Three Women includes "What Reason," with vocalists Chris Walker and Lauren Kinhan. There are several new compositions, but Coleman has recorded much of the material before. "European Echoes" dates back to his 1965 trio recordings, Live at the Golden Circle (Blue Note). He recorded "Home Grown" and "Macho Woman" with Prime Time on Body Meta in 1975. (Body Meta and another Artists House release, Soapsuds, Soapsuds, a duet with bassist Charlie Haden, are both slated for reissue by Harmolodic/Verve in September.) But in turning to older material, Coleman is not reviving the past so much as celebrating the present and welcoming the future.

1. Sound Museum
2. Monsieur Allard
3. City Living
4. What Reason
5. Home Grown
6. Stopwatch
7. Women Of The Veil
8. P.P. (Picolo Pesos)
9. Biosphere
10. Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow
11. European Echoes
12. What A Friend We Have In Jesus (Variation)
13. Mob Job
14. Macho Woman

Ornette Coleman: saxophone, trumpet, violin
Denardo Coleman: drums
Charnett Moffett: bass
Geri Allen: piano

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