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You are here: Home / Archives for Ornette Coleman

Appreciating Charnett Moffett as a solo bassist

April 14, 2022 by Howard Mandel

Saddened that bassist Charnett Moffett has died of a heart attack at age 54, I post this appreciation -- also serving as a profile -- written in 2013 to annotate his solo bass (!) album The Bridge, which he described as "my most personal and challenging release so far." Solo bass records are rare, and might seem to appeal mostly to bassists and bass aficionados. But on The Bridge Charnett Moffett, the charismatic bass virtuoso with an impressive past and equally brilliant future, has proven here -- without benefit of a band -- … [Read more...]

Four months of jazz adaptation, resilience, response to epidemic

July 2, 2020 by Howard Mandel

In early March - only four months ago - I flew between two of the largest U.S. airports, O'Hare and JFK, to visit New York City. I stayed in an East Village apt. with my daughter and a nephew crashing on her couch. We ate barbecue at a well-attended Jazz Standard performance by drummer Dafnis Prieto's sextet, and the next day I went to a celebration of Ornette Coleman's birthday, his demise five years ago and his ongoing spirit, hosted by his son Denardo at the Coleman's midtown loft. Noted improvisers David Murray, Graham Haynes, … [Read more...]

Transcending Toxic Times with street poetry & music

July 10, 2019 by Howard Mandel

My DownBeat article about Transcending Toxic Times, the compulsively listenable, critically political album by the Last Poets produced by electric bassist/composer Jamaaladeen Tacuma, includes a lot of quotes from my interviews with him and poet Abiudon Oyewale. I reproduced some of the searing imagery/lyrics on the recording, and provided background on how these men have been calling out American mendacy and hypocrity for half-a-century, as black street seers emerging in the late 1960s -- before poetry jams, signifyin' djs or rappers -- … [Read more...]

Jazz Congress, Winter JazzFest, shape of jazz to come

January 28, 2018 by Howard Mandel

The first Jazz Congress co-hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center and JazzTimes magazine Jan 11 and 12, 2018 and the 14th annual Winter JazzFest Marathon produced in downtown Manhattan Jan 12 and 13, offered contrasts and prompted crosstalk. It wasn't like these were conventions of different parties, but different narratives were going down. The Congress's sessions included JALC managing and artistic director Wynton Marsalis speaking on race and jazz, women in jazz announcing "yes, we're here," and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar keynoting about his love of … [Read more...]

Great new jazz photography — Dee Kalea’s campaign

July 6, 2017 by Howard Mandel

Dee Kalea of Creative Music Photography is old school, in that she's created black and white images of jazz musicians in performance, closeup, usually one-to-a-frame. The passion she's captured, however, is timeless. How she became alert to the precise moment of creative rapture, and intimate with the music beyond the musicians themselves, is a story she tells best herself, in her intro and slide show for the Indegogo campaign she's mounted to raise funds for printmaking, support of public presentations and archival preservation of … [Read more...]

Ornette Day, bits of wisdom with video clips

March 9, 2016 by Howard Mandel

Ornette Coleman's birthday is today, and his son Denardo has invited everyone to a walk with him from noon to three in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, where his father, the prophet of Harmolodics, is interred near Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Celia Cruz -- a very good neighborhood. In Ornette's honor here are excerpts of his talk from my book Miles Ornette Cecil -- Jazz Beyond Jazz. Also, how I came to love his music, and two videos: a choice "free" solo performance with a rare piano episode (from Berlin, 1972) and a prime example … [Read more...]

Last glance 2010: great performances and best beyond jazz

December 31, 2010 by Howard Mandel

There's not much time left, so here are three of my best memories of live music over this crazy year, and a couple handfuls of favorite recordings that promise to be listenable for quite a while forward --  … [Read more...]

If videos of Sonny are removed, will the legend grow?

September 15, 2010 by Howard Mandel

Gone from Youtube are two brief but vivid excerpts from Sonny Rollins' 80th birthday concert at the Beacon Theater on Sept. 10 -- one showing the great tenor saxophonist in duet with percussionist Sammy Figueroa, the second documenting the surprise, climactic contributions of Ornette Coleman to the set, and Rollins' inspired improvised responses. What a shame! -- from at least one perspective. Or should those visuals never have been made public without the artists' permissions?  … [Read more...]

Video for fans of Sonny Rollins & harmolodics

September 14, 2010 by Howard Mandel

Too good to not post: Ornette Coleman was surprise guest with Sonny Rollins at his fast-become-famous Beacon Theater 80th birthday party on September 10 (backstage there was birthday cake shaped like a saxophone, made of marzipan). Note SR's quote at about 10 minutes in of "I'll Take Manhattan," which he certainly did. [[As of 9/15/2010 this video has been removed from Youtube by it's "user." Research will follow.  … [Read more...]

Sonny the sax king

September 11, 2010 by Howard Mandel

At age 80, Sonny Rollins is indisputably the greatest living jazz tenor saxophonist, proved last night throughout a 2-hour set at New York's sold-out Beacon Theater in which harmolodic sage Ornette Coleman sat in, backed by drummer Roy Haynes and bassist Christian McBride, on "Tenor Madness."  "Sonnymoon For Two". Rollins was hunched and hobbled when he came onstage, but once he started blowing he stood upright and blasted his big bold sound with energy that brooked no diminishment of strength or inspiration, bending only to fire … [Read more...]

Italy here I come

July 21, 2010 by Howard Mandel

The Siena Jazz Workshop has me present my book Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (buy it for your Kindle!) Sunday, July 25 at 10 am (yes, in Siena, Italy). Can you suggest unmissable music in Tuscany (or Vetirbo through July 31? … [Read more...]

Happy Birthday Ornette Coleman, roots avant-gardist

March 9, 2010 by Howard Mandel

Composer, conceptualist and multi-instrumentalist Ornette Coleman, b. March 9 1930, is widely known for "free jazz" -- which is routinely depicted as the most abstract and daunting music to emerge from the U.S. But this overlooks Ornette's deep roots in blues from the Southwest and his fealty to the freedom of expression, mobility and individuality that has made the U.S. great. … [Read more...]

Breadth-of-jazz radio WKCR fetes Ornette, Bix

March 3, 2010 by Howard Mandel

Next week WKCR-FM 89.9 www.wkcr.org, promises all-day music of Ornette Coleman and Bix Beiderbecke, linking the "free jazz" iconoclast (turning 80 Mar 9) to the Roaring '20s jazz-mad kid cornetist/pianist (who would be 107 on March 10, if he hadn't drunk himself to death at age 28 in 1931). Mark your calendars now! … [Read more...]

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Howard Mandel

I'm a Chicago-born (and after 32 years in NYC, recently repatriated) writer, editor, author, arts reporter for National Public Radio, consultant and nascent videographer -- a veteran freelance journalist working on newspapers, magazines and websites, appearing on tv and radio, teaching at New York University and elsewhere, consulting on media, publishing and jazz-related issues. I'm president of the Jazz Journalists Association, a non-profit membership organization devoted to using all media to disseminate news and views about all kinds of jazz.
My books are Future Jazz (Oxford U Press, 1999) and Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (Routledge, 2008). I was general editor of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz and Blues (Flame Tree 2005/Billboard Books 2006). Of course I'm working on something new. . . Read More…

About Jazz Beyond Jazz

What if there's more to jazz than you suppose? What if jazz demolishes suppositions and breaks all bounds? What if jazz - and the jazz beyond, behind, under and around jazz - could enrich your life? What if jazz is the subtle, insightful, stylish, … [Read More...]

@JazzMandel

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Interviews & Articles

ESP Disks — origins of jazz beyond jazz

Reviewing a sleeping giant, ESP Disks before its early '00s revival  Howard Mandel c 1997, published in issue 157, The Wire It was a time before psychedelics. Following the seismic cultural disruptions of the mid '50s, rock 'n' roll had hit a … [Read More...]

William Parker, my DownBeat feature from 1998

Howard Mandel c 1998/published by DownBeat, July 1998, under headline Beneath the Underdog (the editor's reference to Charles Mingus's autobiography): There's an anchor for New York's downtown free jazz and improv "wild bunch": his name is William … [Read More...]

Matthew Shipp, my feature for The Wire, 1998

[contextly_auto_sidebar id="IFeXJPobvykRyuU4dU68FilRPv0EE8oC"] This is a complete version of the feature on pianist Matthew Shipp I wrote for The Wire, published in February, 1998 Is this the face of New York's jazz avant now? Pianist Matt … [Read More...]

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

A 1990 interview with drummer Rashied Ali, about his relationship with John Coltrane. … [Read More...]

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 … [Read More...]

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