Results tagged “Ornette Coleman” from Jazz Beyond Jazz

A 1990 interview with drummer Rashied Ali, about his relationship with John Coltrane.

August 13, 2009 1:37 PM | | Comments (2)
I'm humbled by writer-poet-performance artist Kirpal Gordon's appreciation of and insight into my book on the avant garde through the models of Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, in the just-posted NOLA issue of Big Bridge magazine. He's captured my intent and says I accomplished what I meant to. See if you agree. 
 
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August 2, 2009 12:47 PM | | Comments (0)
Mostly Other People Do The Killing is a super-serious-with-a-sense-of-humor Philadelphia-based  quartet paying homage to Ornette Coleman with its hot new album This Is Our Moosic.The cd's cover photo cops and mocks the oh-so-cool look of Coleman's earth-shaking quartet on its classic 1960 release This Is Our Music 

 

-- but more impressive is the young band's music, which in its leader's explicit liner notes endorses Coleman's revolutionary "free jazz"  concept and in ensemble play expands upon it without being imitative. A nominee for best album of the year? 
November 11, 2008 4:45 PM | | Comments (1)
A reader asks: "Could you please post the name of the [Ornette] Coleman song sampled for that sketch" on Steven Colbert's Comedy Central show of October 9?

Colbert pulled one of his trademark reverses, ridiculing the vast emptiness of smug superiority by goofing on a 10-second snatch of the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician's live recording Sound Grammar. Research suggests the excerpt Brother Steve C swung along to so sillily before remarking, "God, that's unbearable. Ergo it must be good!" was from the first track on the album, "Jordan" (named for Coleman's cousin and longtime consigliere James Jordan, former director of the New York State Council on the Arts' music program). It seems to occur about 4 minutes 50 seconds in, at the climax of a duet of acoustic bassists Greg Cohen and Tony Falanga, driven by drummer Denardo Coleman.

Listening again, I admit an error: I don't think Ornette's playing violin on this, but rather it's the interaction of the two bassists, bowing very high and walking very fast, without him on violin or sax. To hear OC's violin in its first bloom and full glory, check out "Snowflakes and Sunshine" from his 1963 album Live at the Golden Circle, Vol. 2; for an early example of his harmolodic string concept, there's "Dedication to Poets and Writers" from Ornette Coleman, Town Hall 1962

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October 16, 2008 3:37 PM | | Comments (0)
Steven Colbert plays a pointed dance on the funny-bone, but misled his "nation" unintentionally at least once  last night in the segment "Who's Not Honoring Me Now." At 12 minutes into the show, he sniffed at the MacArthur Foundation's award of a $500,000 fellowship to saxophonist Miguel Zenon, tongue-in-cheeking "Never give money to a jazz musician -- they'll just blow it on heroin and berets." 

Then he listened to a moment of Zenon's mellifluous style, boppin' along to it. But: "It's not genius level jazz if it sounds like music," Colbert went on; "Ask Pulitzer Prize-winning saxophonist Ornette Coleman." Ten seconds of Ornette, from his Pulitzer-Prize winning album Sound Grammar. "God, that's unbearable. Ergo, it must be 'good.'"

Slight correction: the "unbearable" excerpt featured Ornette playing violin, which even for fans of jazz beyond jazz can be an acquired taste. That's okay, we know the truth, as opposed to the truthiness, of this bit. Colbert loves jazz -- enough to make fun of it. 

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October 10, 2008 5:48 PM | | Comments (3)
An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 listeners of all ages, genders, races, religions -- Americans and visitors from abroad, too -- enjoyed the directly expressive, highly personalized music of Pulitzer Prize-winner Ornette Coleman as the finale of the outdoor Chicago Jazz Festival last Sunday night. The attentive, mellow and celebratory audience response, including a standing ovation throughout the 5000 seats nearest the bandshell in Grant Park, suggested that improvisation created without a priori conventions or artificial constraints, which Coleman throughout his remarkable career has alluded to as "free jazz," "harmolodics" and "sound grammar," upon easy access and unpressured exposure, is as natural as breathing, feeling and talking. As Coleman declared on one of his recordings almost 50 years ago, This is our music.
September 1, 2008 11:30 AM | | Comments (3)

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Howard Mandel HM2.for%20web.jpg I'm a Chicago-born and New York-based writer, editor, author, arts producer for National Public Radio -- for more than 30 years, a freelance arts journalist working on newspapers, magazines and websites, appearing on tv and radio, teaching at New York University and elsewhere. I'm president of the Jazz Journalists Association. more

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Rashied Ali (1935 - 2009), multi-directional drummer, speaks 

A 1990 interview with drummer Rashied Ali, about his relationship with John Coltrane.

On The Corner program notes, Merkin Hall concert 5/25/09 

Miles Davis intended On The Corner to be a personal statement, an esthetic breakthrough and a social provocation upon its release in fall of 1972. He could hardly have been more successful: the album was all that, though it has taken decades for its full impact to be understood.

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