Ornette Coleman Music

A collection of musical cues from various film noir scores, but imaginatively assembled to constitute a new score for a nonexistent movie. Cleverly done, choosing from excellent sources, and not going for the easy or the obvious. It's exciting to hear someone making a connection between Bernard Herrmann and Angelo Badalamenti.

If you're like me and you have a hankering for "film noir music," you're probably thinking of a lonely sax playing an urban, 3 AM melodic line, backed by some bluesy chords from a small jazz ensemble. Like John Barry's excellent theme from "Body Heat," for example, or something like Jerry Goldsmith's theme for "Chinatown."

Never mind the fact that the great majority of films noir from the classic period (1941-1955) didn't have jazzy background music like that at all, but was usually scored with quasi-classical romantic string music (with a solo violin) or bombastic, brass-heavy instrumentals.

Anyway, this CD isn't the 3 AM sax stuff.

Not to say that there isn't some of that on here. You might like "Godfather" (not, however, the theme you're thinking of from the Francis Ford Coppola Godfather films), or "Blues for Guylaine," or even the bluesy passages from Bernard Herrmann's "Taxi Driver" suite.

But there's some odd stuff on here that causes me to wonder how, precisely, it qualifies as "film noir."

For instance, the dreamy carnival music from "The Elephant Man," or the angular string music in "Buckets of Blood" (from "Carrie," not the Roger Corman film). Seems like a reach. The first cut, "Turning Pages" had me unpleasantly surprised, and triggered my I've been ripped-off alarm. And "Chop Shop" has a wah guitar that sounds a lot more like a 70's blaxsploitation film than film noir.

The inclusion of Angelo Badalamenti helps redeem the collection; his music for "Twin Peaks," "Fire, Walk With Me" and "Mulholland Drive" redefines what a noir theme should sound like.

This CD is odd, no doubt about it. "Godfather," which sounds decidedly noirish, is from a comedy/drama film about a man who's paid to impregnate lesbians. "The Wrong Man" music is relentlessly perky but comes from a bona fide noir. (Okay, a Hitchcock noir, not quite the same thing.)

The key here, I guess, is to enlarge the scope of what you think noir film music ought to be... But perhaps a better title for this collection of music might have been "Neo-Noir!"

Still, credit must be given to liner notes writer Eddie Muller and his Film Noir Foundation for at least directing the current noir wave. His book "Dark City" turned me - and probably many others - to noir. Long may his tribe increase!

Summary: If you're looking for classic/sterotypical, 3 AM wet-pavements-in-the-Dark-City noirish stuff, try John Barry's "Body Heat," which I enthusiastically recommend. Barry practically *owns* that silky/sexy slow sax genre.

the opening track, Voice Poetry, is one of the great Ornette tracks. The Beefheart comparisons are somewhat apt -- multi-rhythmed, multi-tonal guitar driven funk seem like they might, in some convoluted way, be indebted to Beefheart's Troutmask-era music (which itself was profoundly influenced by Ornette, later Coltrane stuff, and others from the jazz field).

However, for all the delicious confusion here, this music is suave, coming out of a harmonically complex jazz tradition, played by highly skilled players. Where the Magic Band's reed playing consists exclusively of squalls, burbles and shrieks, Ornette's playing is all about lyrical melodies, sweet ones, playful ones, bluesy ones, held together by themes and moods, by the way they bounce off the collective improvisations of his band.

Anyway, "Voice Poetry" is worth the price of the album.

The rest of the album isn't bad at all, uptempo numbers, though they seem less noteworthy.

i also like the way this and 'Dancing in your Head' are recorded, very clean, present and transparent, none of the unfortunate studio production ideas that mar some of the later Prime Time efforts.

Have to admit, I like the acoustic stuff better, maybe because Ornette doesn't use electronic instruments to their fullest potential, like Miles and Jimi did. But nevertheless this one rocks like The Dead or Beefheart, but Ornette's frenetic alto drives the sound into crazier territory than either of those did (but CB came close...), but I can't give it a higher rating. If you're a rock fan and want to find out more about Ornette (welcome!!!), go for _^The Shape of Jazz to Come_ , _Tone Dialing_,or _At the Golden Circle_ (2 cd's). This cd may disappoint you.

This album was the 1st ever to be released on the Artist's House label back in 1978, & that translates literally to the cover of Body Meta, a gatefold featuring 4 works by different artists, that one on the front is by a tribal leader, probably from when Ornette went to Morrocco to see the Jajouka musicians which inspired Dancing In Yr Head & this [others like Brian Jones, William Burroughs & Lee Ranaldo have taken this enlightening pilgrimage], & the credits are saved for an insert which also features a great poem 'Conversation For A Song' & a then complete discography + the sheet music for the song Fou Amour from this excellent disc. Staccato drums then guitars open the album on Voice Poetry, & it flows along brilliantly to feature this new band of guitarists Bern Nix & Charlie Ellerbee, bassist [electric that is] Jamalaadeen Tacuma & drummer Shannon Jackson for a couple of minutes before the arrival of the man himself. The he is the star & his playing is as pure & soulful as it was back on the Shape of Jazz to Come, & in a way it's unfortunate that everything else gets buried underneath it after this but it works well. The comparisons to the Trout Mask Magic Band do make sense although this is not as cacaphonous & seemingly chaotic [Beefheart although being highly influenced by Coleman, like to only have himself allowed to improvise while his groups must stick strictly to what he composed & his personality is a bit more obsessive too], Body Meta is one of the rare things worthy of being played directly after that in-a-world-of-its-own masterpiece. Each track here is around 8 minutes which is enough time to explore without losing the listening audience. The next 2 tracks move along nicely in a similar vein whilst Fou Amour [i.e. Mad Love] is a ballad & the guitars are playing parts normally designed for a piano. European Echoes if I'm not mistaken was an older tune from the Golden Circle & is rather graceful but thankfully lets loose a bit on the outro, by which time I want to spin the whole platter again which I could do for hours on end. This is music of pure soul expression & deserves a lot of repeated listening, it's highly danceable/funky too. I would highly recommend it to anyone & everyone. For the body & the mind. Long live Ornette & all of his players.

From the Bo Diddley-influenced "Voice Poetry" to "European Echoes," this is some brain-frizzling stuff. Even though Ornette uses electric guitar and electric bass here, this can't really be compared to the other "jazz fusion" that came out in the 70s. This is more personal and very individualistic. Where most fusion bands were trying to sound like John Coltrane gone electric, Prime Time and Ornette drew on basic rock/r&b forms here, and then bend them beyond recognition. If you're a big fan of acoustic jazz, chances are you won't like much here. However, if you have an open ear and are familiar with bands like Captain Beefheart and Pere Ubu, you will immediately click with this. Ornette sounds great here and it's fascinating to hear him playing over, under and around the electric guitars, bass and drums. On the liner notes Ornette says the music is "...not jazz, classical, rock, or blues...it is pure Harmolodic where all forms can exist in the now..." This is exactly true. The music on here is unclassifiable and if you pay attention to it, it unfolds before you in strange beauty. One of Ornette's best, I think.

As good as his first Atlantic album was, this 2nd album with the same personnel is maybe Ornette's best for that label. One reason is that the writing and playing is even better that the first outing. Tunes like "Una Muy Bonita" or "The Face of the Bass" have that tunefulness that is reminscent of Monk. Also Billy Higgins is on board again and though I did like his replacement, Ed Blackwell on drums--I missed Billy's light as feather accompaniment behind Ornette. If you want an introduction to Ornette's music--start with this one.

Change of the Century, Ornette's 4th album is a work of stunning brilliance. Any doubts that because it is sandwiched between the definitive classic The Shape Of Jazz To Come & the revolutionary Free Jazz that it would be somewhat lesser can be thrown right out. This is a great a jazz album as any ever made & amongst the greatest of any music, seriously all the labels, genre-specificness & niche marketing should be thrown right out, like OC fan Captain Beefheart meant when he said "Lick my decals off, baby!", I'm sure Ornette would agree. 1st of all there is the striking stark portrait of the man himself by Lee Friedlander to get yr attention, I've seen a book full of her photography & it's good stuff [note the similar style on Miles Davis' Greatest Hits lp cover of the late 60s]. Then there are the liner notes explaining the philosophy driving the music, Ornette believes deeply in what his group were doing [I should now mention that drummer Billy Higgins recently died & a sad shame it is, also the great Don Cherry has been gone since 1995], the bold titles of the albums were not an exercise to build an ego but just great confidence in the power of the music. Now, Ramblin' which opens the album is something that should be listened to every day to wake you up & get you in the mood for lifeliving, very catchy & great playing from all members, pure genius. Free is the name of the next track & it's worth noting this is preceding the term 'free jazz' slightly, the intro of it really superb, a streaming sea of sound & then of course there is a lot of free group improvisation. The Face Of The Bass highlights the talents of Charlie Haden [& rightly so!], daring to give him an extended solo before the whole band jumps in again. Una Muy Bonita is an overwhelmingly joyous tune but never embarrassingly so, another classic. The only tune to not grab you immediately & predict the more out there abrasiveness of the free jazz scene is the title track which closes the lp, it is also the shortest track here. The other songs are top notch too of course, particularly Forerunner. Like Ornette says in the liner notes, music can't be analysed too much or it loses what makes it great in the 1st place, so all I can say is it's something I highly recommend & yr ears will thank you for it. P.S. [3 months after initial write-up]: THIS IS THE PINNACLE, IT DOES NOT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!! An absolute classic that can be played every day & is always compelling. That's not to say there's not a whole lot more worth checking out, the electric Body Meta & semi-orchestral Chappaqua Suite are brilliant too. Start here though.

I must admit I'm not very much experienced with free jazz; I listened to some Pharoah Sanders and to some of Miles Davis' experiments with this style ("Cookin' at plugged nickel" or something like that...). Well, I was moderatly impressed and moderately confused. I have also listened to some of the more recent jazz explorations by Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, as well as some recordings by Art Ensemble of Chicago and Wayne Shorter's latest explorations that go beyond most traditional achievements,,,
It therefore seemed about time I went to the source...

First of all, I am impressed by the level of expressiveness of this music; it is no accident that Coleman's liner notes mention New Orleans jazz - some of his (but also Cherry's) solos have brought back some of the tonal features that started to disappear as early as the swing era...
I'm not an expert but I'm almost certain I heard Ornette produce some blue notes on his plastic instrument!

Naturally, New Orleans style is one of the styles in jazz in which collective improvisation was not so uncommon, so it is no wonder that, in the attempt to free jazz from Charlie Parker's magnificent shadow, Ornette at times went to the sources of jazz. In addition to that, the occasional "ethno" influences on this album (not only in the last song)are a continuation of the usual manners in which jazz musicians tried to infuse new ideas into their music; Ellington, Gillespie and others were particularly impressed by Latin America(s), there were even some Middle East experiments, but it was about time in the late 50's someone shows the influences of South Asia and other sources...

However, I must admit I still dig Ornette's explanations much more than I dig the music... This is fine jazz, with strong sense of swing and, at least occasionally, with fine drive, but all in all, I'm not hypocritical enough to hide my opinion that the band at times rambles a bit too much...

Also, keeping the format of innitial and concluding statement of...well...anti-melody at some songs also doesn't seem such a good idea . I think that much better, or at least "freer", is the approach on "Change of the Century"...

Perhaps if I devote more time to this style I would get used to it or discover more beauty, but as for now, 4 stars is the maximum I can give...
Even that is a bit far fetched, rewarding the courage and determination to follow original path (regardless of the number of followers)...

This is a classic recording, only slightly less compelling than Coleman's SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME. If you like SHAPE, you'll certainly like CHANGE. These of course were recorded within a few months of each other, by the same legendary group (Coleman, Cherry, Haden, Higgins). To these ears, this remastered version is a big improvement (higher resolution) over the original CD. Same goes for the remastered version of SHAPE. These are both from the ATLANTIC MASTERS series (Warner Jazz), made in Germany. I haven't heard the much more expensive Japanese imports, but I expect the German ones may be hard to beat. The only downside is that you almost need a microscope to read the liner notes, and there's quite a bit to read.

Following up a classic album is always a difficult endeavor. Certainly to do so when that album was revolutionary and influential is even harder. Our natural tendency as listeners and amateur critics is to compare albums to each other, particularly those that are relatively contemporary to each other. Such is the case with Ornette Coleman's "Change of the Century", followup to "The Shape of Jazz to Come". Released just five months later, it finds Coleman's quartet (the leader on alto sax, Don Cherry on cornet, Charlie Haden on bass and Billy Higgins on drums) in full flight-- more comfortable as a unit, in some ways, the performance is tighter and better than "The Shape of Jazz to Come", but as a result of this, in some ways it seems to lack the urgency and immediacy of the album it followed.

Still, lacking immediacy doesn't make a bad album, and there's plenty of good material on here-- the fractured title track largely represents everything critics of Coleman have to say about him-- its disjoint theme and following solos are unpredictable, even on repeated listens, and manage somehow to be stunning each time, no dobut due to the sympathetic playing of Haden and Higgins. Likewise, on "Una Muy Bonita" and "The Face of the Bass"-- the two of them strike a delicate mix between free association with the soloist and swing that keeps things together and coherent. And check out Cherry and Haden together on "Ramblin'"-- clearly the two of them have developed an unusual rapport that they can utilize to great effect.

All in all, "Change of the Century" a good followup to "The Shape of Jazz To Come"-- not quite the masterpiece that album is, but a worthwhile listen. Recommended.