Ornette Coleman Music

A compilation of leftovers from Ornette Coleman's tenure on Atlantic (1959-1961), "Twins" is a piece whose value has diminished. This was far and away the most productive time of Coleman's career, he recorded six albums worth of material, including at least two classics ("The Shape of Jazz to Come", "Free Jazz"), and there was enough leftover material to produce three albums of reasonable quality and include half a dozen extra tracks on top of that in a boxed set. Given that this represents about a third of his recorded output over his nearly fifty year recording career, there's something to be said for this material.

The album received its name from the inclusion of the rehearsal take of "Free Jazz", cleverly titled "First Take". Featuring two quartets playing together-- one of Coleman's then working band of himself on alto, Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass and Ed Blackwell on drums and a second quartet of Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, soon-to-be Coleman bassist Scott LaFaro and former Coleman drummer Billy Higgins. The piece has the same general setup as "Free Jazz", but everything is cut in half in terms of solo space-- the interactions, structures, etc. are all still there. But this really isn't all that valuable since it's included as a bonus track to the "Free Jazz" release.

As such, the value of the record now lies in the other four tracks, leftovers from sessions during his Atlantic tenure. The problem is they FEEL like leftovers-- Cherry runs out of steam on his solo on "Little Symphony", "Check Up" is lifeless barring LaFaro's unnervingly brilliant playing, and "Joy of a Toy", while nicely performed, isn't among the better of Coleman's material. The exception to all of this is "Monk and the Nun", leftover from the first session on Atlantic-- Coleman and Cherry both take superb solos after the chirping theme is stated.

Granted, none of it is unlistenable, it's just not that excited, and with a large portion of it duplicated elsewhere, it's totally unnecessary. If you're into Coleman enough to check out this obscure record, I'd advise looking into the boxed set "Beauty is a Rare Thing", which collects all the material from these sessions.

This album contains the most impressive version of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" I have ever heard.

I feel Jennifer Koh is a great preformer. This CD shows off her talent. Uchida is an excellent pianist. Together this makes for a great combination and listening pleasure.

This is worth the money, buy it now!

The reason why I bought this CD was Schubert's Violin Fantasy. In my opinion, not that many great (or should I say "big-name") violinists are not recording Schubert's Violin Fantasy because it is dreadfully long. As a violinist, I understand this problem since Schubert's Violin Fantasy is not everyone's typical violin piece that would captivate audiences with violinist's virtuosity. In fact, this piece does not allow violinists to show off their skills. This is conflicting since we live in this world where the violinists are expected to be virtuosic/ostentatious/splashy.
However, this Violin Fantasy is different, and I think this is one of the reasons why I love listening to Schubert's works. His works are controlled and not too extravagant (though somewhat repetitive at times).
To simply put, I think my 24 minutes are well spent whenever I listen to Jennifer Koh's recording of Schubert's Violin Fantasy. She plays it flawlessly. I think she played this piece exactly in a way Schubert would have originally intended. Ms. Koh does not rush: she takes her time and tries to fully appreciate this piece while maintaining synchronization with her pianist, Reiko Uchida. As a result, I can take great pleasure in listening to this great album.

This winning CD contains beautiful, melodic masterpieces which are performed magically and superbly by Jennifer Koh ! A must have for a music & violin lovers !!

I loved this album! Great pieces and the amazing performances!!! I love this CD!!!

Five WONDERFUL Stars!! These four invigorating classical "fantasy" compositions are brilliantly performed by the wonderful violin virtuoso Jennifer Koh in solo, and with Reiko Uchida's amazing virtuoso pianism as a truly 'Dynamic Duo'. Since there is an entire world of "fantasy" compositions to choose from, the choices Ms Koh made are very interesting indeed. The Schumann, Schoenberg, and Schubert fantasies are adroitly performed by the duo and the Coleman fantasy is a marvelous solo performance by Ms Koh. And there is an interesting development when comparing the Coleman and Schoenberg fantasies.

Robert Schumann's "Fantasie in C Major for Violin and Piano, Op 131" had to survive the scrutiny of Schumann's widow and protege' Brahms who were culling out unworthy pieces following his death. Thankfully it did and in this superb performance, we find Ms Koh spinning off an elegant 14-note theme that is wonderfully recapitulated and recast over shifting time signatures with Ms Uchida. This is 15 minutes of pure joy and beauty, as the two performers solo and support each other in a splendid, nuanced manner.

Next, Franz Schubert's "Fantasie in C major for Violin and Piano, D.934" is a marvelous piece of writing and is given a great performance. The mid-portion around 11 minutes beginning at Ms Koh's arco then pizzacato section behind Ms Uchida is fiery and wonderful as they trade leads for the next few minutes leading to the violin soliloquy: MARVELOUS ! During the debut performance in 1828 some of the audience, for whatever reason, left the concert area early. I think Ms Koh and Ms Uchida would have kept that impatient audience nailed to their seats in 1828 with this superlative performance.

The adventuresome Ms Koh gives Ornette Coleman's "Trinity", Fantasy for Solo Violin, a bravura multi-part reading which is surprisingly very lyrical and smooth, almost autumn-like in character. Mr Coleman, the legendary reed, trumpet, and violin "Free Jazz" and classical composer (remember his monumental "Skies of America" with the London Symphony Orchestra?) must be proud of Ms Koh's wonderfully free but disciplined exploration of his work; possibly the best to date. When they met, Mr Coleman's advice to her was "never get tied down by the notes", and she uses that as major musical advice to SOAR pristenely in this beautiful performance.

Arnold Schoenberg's "Phantasy", oddly enough, has the very qualities that one would have expected from the Ornette Coleman piece with it's artful separation between the piano and violin with lots of bombast, sudden single and double stops, and interesting dissonances. All of which, in the end, finally add up to pure Schoenberg 'serialism' and angular beauty. A SENSATIONAL performance.

These two award-winning young ladies are rising virtuosi in the classical world who have shown they can handle difficult compositions with aplomb. Individually, Ms Koh is phenomenal and was recently called "a fearless soloist" by the New York Times, and Ms Uchida has technique and firepower that simply amazes. Together, they are a Dynamic Duo who wowed audiences across America in 2006. Truly enjoyable!! Bravo, ladies! My Highest Recommendation. Five BEAUTIFUL Stars!!!

(Notes:
*this review is based on an ITunes digital download.
*Ms Koh "lost two friends in close succession", prior to this recording and it is dedicated to them "and to the celebration of life" itself. A wonderful sentiment.
* Ms Koh plays the 1727 Ex Grumiaux Ex General DuPont Stradivarius violin.)

This was introduction to later period Ornette Coleman, and to my ears remains one of his better electric recordings. Ornette and Prime Time really cook up a storm on this release of mostly short numbers. Jerry Garcia (!) from the Grateful Dead even sits in on a couple of selections and feels right at home. The music is well played and loaded with feeling, especially the untitled, mostly solo closing track.

If you are in the same ballpark as I, then you'd love this album. For many years I've been trying to get into true Jazz recordings, but unfortuantely I live in modern America, where there is no more true jazz. But, when my uncle handed me this and many other Ornette albums, I was immediately turned on. This album is extremely accesible and now that I am well informed in the world of jazz, I must say this is one of the best. Ornette takes the best of his electric jazz and blends it with small amounts of rock and funk. The addition of Jerry Garcia is what Jerry Garcia always adds to music, NOTHING!! Luckily, Ornette wrote all the music, so it doesn't really matter who plays it. Very good album.

How can this review express how cool this album is? Ornette and Prime Time go OFF! This album has everything, even Jerry Garcia!

The most underated album of the 1980s!

Vigin Beauty has some of Ornette's best Harmelodic funk tunes (Healing the Feeling), Harmelodic country tunes (Happy Hour) and those intensely beautiful harmelodic ballads (Virgin Beauty, Chanting & Unknown Artist).

Buy it...learn the tunes, regardless of whether yhou play an instrument or not!

This was introduction to later period Ornette Coleman, and to my ears remains one of his better electric recordings. Ornette and Prime Time really cook up a storm on this release of mostly short numbers. Jerry Garcia (!) from the Grateful Dead even sits in on a couple of selections and feels right at home. The music is well played and loaded with feeling, especially the untitled, mostly solo closing track.

If you are in the same ballpark as I, then you'd love this album. For many years I've been trying to get into true Jazz recordings, but unfortuantely I live in modern America, where there is no more true jazz. But, when my uncle handed me this and many other Ornette albums, I was immediately turned on. This album is extremely accesible and now that I am well informed in the world of jazz, I must say this is one of the best. Ornette takes the best of his electric jazz and blends it with small amounts of rock and funk. The addition of Jerry Garcia is what Jerry Garcia always adds to music, NOTHING!! Luckily, Ornette wrote all the music, so it doesn't really matter who plays it. Very good album.

How can this review express how cool this album is? Ornette and Prime Time go OFF! This album has everything, even Jerry Garcia!

The most underated album of the 1980s!

Vigin Beauty has some of Ornette's best Harmelodic funk tunes (Healing the Feeling), Harmelodic country tunes (Happy Hour) and those intensely beautiful harmelodic ballads (Virgin Beauty, Chanting & Unknown Artist).

Buy it...learn the tunes, regardless of whether yhou play an instrument or not!

Forget the sound quality which is'nt that bad...this is superb Ornette music...Ornette is great on violin and trumpet as well as alto,Dewey Redman burns on tenor, and Haden and Blackwell are ,as always,the perfect rhythm section for this music.