RIP Ornette Coleman

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 06/11/2015 at 22:22 • Filed to: rip, ornette coleman

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Jazz giant Ornette Coleman has died at age 85. The world of music would have been a very different place without him. One of American’s most innovative jazz musicians and composers, you can hear where Coleman was going in The Shape of Jazz To Come (1959), as he starts to do things and think thoughts that nobody had done before. And there are some really heavy hitters on this record. Listen especially to Charlie Haden on bass. Haden himself is a fascinating story. Haden died last year.

Ornette Coleman - alto saxophone
Don Cherry - cornet
Charlie Haden - bass
Billy Higgins - drums

While The Shape of Jazz to Come pushed at the boundaries of jazz, Coleman shattered them with Free Jazz (1960) , an album that started an entire movement, though Coleman was a bit chagrined at the way the term caught on, because in spite of the title of his album, there is actually serious, if incredibly complex, composition and structure to the music. It’s easy to listen to this (well, it’s not really easy) and dismiss it with our 2015 ears, but in 1960, Coleman was telling people that anything was possible, and forcing us to re-evaluate just what “music” means. Again, Coleman surrounded himself with some of the finest jazz musicians of his day.

Alto Saxophone — Ornette Coleman
Bass — Charlie Haden, Scott La Faro
Bass Clarinet — Eric Dolphy
Drums — Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell
Trumpet — Freddie Hubbard
Pocket Trumpet — Don Cherry
Written-By — Ornette Coleman

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > ttyymmnn 06/11/2015 at 23:07

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Sad day. I think the first time I heard him was on Song X with Pat Metheny. Incredible musician

Trevor Slattery, ACTOR > ttyymmnn 06/11/2015 at 23:09

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Nicely done. Huge Scott LaFaro fan.

ttyymmnn > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua 06/11/2015 at 23:18

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I’ll be honest, I’m a classically trained musician and don’t particularly enjoy his music. But I do recognize just how incredibly important he and the musicians who worked with him are to the history of jazz and music in general. And as an armchair historian, it’s equally important to understand the era when he was writing. I would love to have been born in about 1945, but alas, I was 20 years too late.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > ttyymmnn 06/11/2015 at 23:26

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I played jazz guitar for a few years. I got heavy into avant garde for a while, like Sun Ra

ttyymmnn > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua 06/11/2015 at 23:28

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I have always wanted to be able to play jazz, but as you know, it takes a level of dedication and study that is equal to any other music discipline. I can swing, but don’t ask me to play changes.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > ttyymmnn 06/11/2015 at 23:34

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I pretty much started taking jazz lessons right after I picked up guitar, and I was still not very good. I enjoyed improvising but I’m not great at music theory. I mostly played standards and blues with my friends. We tried playing avant garde once and nobody knew what to do

ttyymmnn > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua 06/11/2015 at 23:42

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We tried playing avant garde once and nobody knew what to do

Isn’t that kind of the point? I understand theory, but I could never think fast enough. I’ve said before that it’s important to remember that “amateur” comes from Latin word meaning “love.” It’s taken on a meaning of something that is done poorly, but being an amateur really means that you are doing what you love. So play on!

Trevor Slattery, ACTOR > Santiago of Escuderia Boricua 06/11/2015 at 23:44

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBNTfX…

The more I dig into Sun Ra the more I believe he actually did go to Saturn. He wrote some amazing music. Wow.

Santiago of Escuderia Boricua > ttyymmnn 06/12/2015 at 08:28

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You need a lot of skill to be able to play together without the typical framework that a song provides. Jazz masters playing like that is like their minds are linked.