{"id":1273,"date":"2013-03-09T15:42:09","date_gmt":"2013-03-09T20:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2019-09-12T18:09:23","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T22:09:23","slug":"happy-birthday-83-and-82-ornette-coleman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2013\/03\/happy-birthday-83-and-82-ornette-coleman.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy birthday 83 &#8212; and 82 &#8212; Ornette Coleman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/ornettecakemini.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1274\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/ornettecakemini.jpg\" alt=\"ornettecakemini\" width=\"288\" height=\"216\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ornettecoleman.com\/\">Ornette Coleman<\/a> turns 83 today &#8212; and is celebrating it privately. That&#8217;s unusual, as he has thrown great parties, often full of live music (at his former Harlem Studio and one year at Joe&#8217;s Pub), always attended by fabulously interesting people &#8212; like the one last year for his 82nd birthday, Friday, March 9, 2012 held at his loft in Manhattan&#8217;s West 30s. I was pleased to be invited (I&#8217;ve blogged about<a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/03\/happy_birthday_ornette_roots_a.html\"> OC&#8217;s birthday before<\/a>), and wrote the following in afterglow.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Some 100 individuals, many involved with jazz and\/or other highly creative, determinedly individualistic pursuits, came to eat, drink, hobnob and bask in the generous presence of America&#8217;s #1 advocate of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Free-Jazz-US-Release\/dp\/B00124FT5O\/?tag=howardmacom-20\">free imagination at play<\/a>. Coleman is the Texas-born, bluesy and worldly saxophonist-trumpeter-violinist, composer, improviser, bandleader, prophet of the unified field music theory harmolodics (which he now calls &#8220;sound grammar&#8221;), idealist and oracle.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly past 8 p.m. a smartly dressed young woman, guest-list on clipboard, stands inside double glass doors of a non-descript office building, checking off attendees. A strapping lad, late-teens\/early 20s, points to the elevator up \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he&#8217;s Ornette&#8217;s grandson. His father Denardo, Ornette&#8217;s son, is 55 and has been a drummer for his father since he was 10. Denardo is the party&#8217;s host, welcoming us in as the door of the elevator opened directly into a loft designed for circular flow.<\/p>\n<p>The loft has lots of open space, seating scattered throughout, all surrounding a kitchen area, behind which are closed off rooms. Coats go on metal rack in the hall alongside those private rooms, leading to the bathroom. There&#8217;s a pool table, its felt covered by plastic in protection against spills. Massive bold paintings line the walls, including one that was the cover for Coleman&#8217;s album <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Body-Meta-Ornette-Coleman\/dp\/B00000473V\/?tag=howardmacom-20\"><em>Body Meta<\/em><\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Unknown.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1275\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Unknown.jpeg\" alt=\"Unknown\" width=\"226\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Unknown.jpeg 226w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Unknown-70x70.jpeg 70w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Unknown-110x110.jpeg 110w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Linda Goldstein<\/strong>, sometimes Ornette manager and always <strong>Bobby McFerrin<\/strong>&#8216;s, is here. Percussionist and improv orchestra conductor <strong>Adam Rudolph<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who I know from his &#8217;80s Chicago band the <strong>Mandingo Griot Society<\/strong> and more recently his NYC improvising <strong>Organic Orchestra<\/strong>, is talking to a singer who introduces herself as <strong>Sherry Joy. Larry Blumenfeld<\/strong>, jazz journalist with his wife<strong> Erica Zelinksi<\/strong>, who has been general manager of the Lincoln Center Festival is getting a photo of <strong>Sam<\/strong>, their son who&#8217;s three or four, with Ornette himself.<\/p>\n<p>Ornette, in a conservative business suit, gets on his knees to be at Sam&#8217;s level. His deeply etched, shy but open, kindly face catches the light; his eyes, which seem to see through everything and everyone, are shaded by angled brows and eyelid folds. He smiles weakly. He doesn&#8217;t much like being photographed, though he&#8217;s been subject of dozens of fascinating photos. He does like kids and people behaving with natural ease, so the photo is taken.<\/p>\n<p>I show Ornette my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Korg-MONOTRON-16-Key-Synthesizer\/dp\/B003DX96TW\/?tag=howardmacom-20\">Korg Monotron<\/a>, a palm-sized ribbon synthesizer, capable of making any sound from a single sawtooth sound wave. But when I click it on what comes out isn&#8217;t loud enough, doesn&#8217;t project. Ornette says &#8220;That&#8217;s really something,&#8221; looks away. I adjust its controls, without improvement \u00e2\u20ac\u201c nothing impressive coming out. Portrait photographer <strong>Carol Friedman<\/strong> asks how many sounds are loaded in the Monotron. None. It generates one wave and enables its frequency modulation and filtering.<\/p>\n<p>Pianist <strong>JoAnne Brackeen<\/strong>, tall, thin, her streaked wave of grey curls a crown, admires my turquoise African batik shirt. I admire her waist-length jacket of long-haired fur. <strong>Chantal Phaire<\/strong>, artists manager, joshes with us. The loft is filling up. Bassist <strong>Tony Falanga<\/strong>, a classical player in Ornette&#8217;s most recent quartets. Keyboardist <strong>David Bryant<\/strong>, of Ornette&#8217;s &#8217;90s band <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Tone-Dialing-Ornette-Coleman\/dp\/B0000046Z6\/?tag=howardmacom-20\">Prime Time<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0(the second iteration)\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>with <strong>Tom Hall<\/strong>, a saxophonist\/professor at Brandeis and author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Free-Improvisation-A-Practical-Guide\/dp\/0615328628\/?tag=howardmacom-20\"><em>Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide<\/em><\/a> &#8212; both down from Boston. Guitarist <strong>Kenny Wessel<\/strong>, also of Prime Time as well as Adam Rudolph&#8217;s orchestra and Karl Berger&#8217;s Creative Music Studio workshops at the Stone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is here with his wife <strong>Diane<\/strong>, anthropologist-turned-school teacher. Teaching school requires all her anthro chops, she says. I say hi to composer <strong>Carman Moore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>I get some spiked red punch. &#8220;It&#8217;s <em>very<\/em> spiked&#8221;, I&#8217;m told, &#8220;and hang onto the glass&#8221; &#8212; which<em> is<\/em> glass &#8212; &#8220;for refills.&#8221; Hello to <strong>Skotto<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c owner of a <a href=\"http:\/\/skotogallery.com\/about\">Chelsea gallery for contemporary African arts<\/a>, his inaugural show 20 years ago was curated by Ornette. <strong>Dan Melnic<\/strong>k, Absolutely Live concert and festival producer, stops in in on his way to Carnegie Hall, where he&#8217;s putting on a 10 p.m. show featuring vocalist <strong>Gretchen Parlato<\/strong> and guitarist <strong>Lionel Loueke<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1276\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ornette-Coleman-1-email.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1276\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1276\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ornette-Coleman-1-email-300x272.jpg\" alt=\"Ornette Coleman 1 email\" width=\"300\" height=\"272\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ornette-Coleman-1-email-300x272.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Ornette-Coleman-1-email.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1276\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ornette Coleman, photo by Michael Jackson<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On a sofa in the corner, <strong>Muhal Richard Abrams<\/strong>, eminence of the <a href=\"http:\/\/aacm-newyork.com\/\">Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM),<\/a> NEA Jazz Master and composer-pianist of distinction, sits with his wife <strong>Peggy<\/strong>, daughter <strong>Richarda<\/strong> and AACM pianist-organist-singer <strong>Amina Claudine Myers. James Jordan<\/strong>, Ornette&#8217;s cousin, producer-consultant and ex-music program director at the New York State Council on the Arts, who&#8217;s with his wife, turns to me: &#8220;This is the only place I get to see all the folks together.&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2012\/12\/jayne-cortez-poet-activist-muse-of-the-avant-garde-dies-age-76.html\"><strong>Jayne Cortez<\/strong><\/a>, poet, bandleader and cultural activist &#8212; Ornette&#8217;s \u00c2\u00a0ex-wife and Denardo&#8217;s mother \u00e2\u20ac\u201c sits aside Muhal, too. Her husband, sculptor <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.meledwards08.com\/ \">Melvin Edwards<\/a><\/strong>,\u00c2\u00a0is circulating.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Author <strong>Quincy Troup<\/strong>e \u00e2\u20ac\u201c poet and <strong>Miles Davis<\/strong> co-writer, with his wife <strong>Margaret<\/strong>; they run a weekly Harlem literary salon. Other side of the room &#8212; <strong>Stanley Crouch<\/strong>, critic\/author. My pal <strong>Ashley Kahn<\/strong>, author of books on Miles Davis&#8217; <em>Kind of Blue<\/em>, John Coltrane&#8217;s <em>A Love Supreme<\/em>, a history of Impulse Records, hanging with <strong>Jason King<\/strong>, artistic director of Clive Davis School of Recorded Music at NYU. <strong>Brent Hayes Edwards<\/strong>, prof from Columbia University&#8217;s Center for Jazz Studies joins their conversation. Arriving: guitarist <strong>Brandon Ross<\/strong>, turtablist and artists&#8217; manager <strong>Velibor Pedevski (aka, DJ Hardedge<\/strong>), ethnomusicologist of Soundscape fame <strong>Verna Gillis<\/strong> with free jazz trombonist <strong>Roswell Rudd<\/strong> (see their Kickstarter campaign for Rudd&#8217;s upcoming <em>Trombone for Lover<\/em>s recording and Verna&#8217;s &#8220;tactile manifestation&#8221; Kick Butt \u00c2\u00a0Ball.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"400\" height=\"225\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/o5SMmZOvcmE?hl=en_US&amp;version=3&amp;rel=0\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Rudd tells me about a Tibetan store in the upstate town of <strong>Rosendale<\/strong>, and how it&#8217;s among several towns in the area that have regenerated themselves as arts communities, with theater for local productions, etc. I tell him whenever I&#8217;m feeling U.S. politics have become completely hopeless I listen to the Charlie Haden-Carley Bley<a href=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/35078121\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #333333; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none;\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Liberation-Music-Orchestra\/dp\/B000VRWRVC\/?tag=howardmacom-20\"><em>Liberation Music Orchestra<\/em><\/a> album of 1969, wherein Rudd takes a hearty &#8216;bone solo on a rendering of &#8220;We Shall Overcome&#8221; that emerges from a tone poem or the chaotic <strong>Democratic National Convention<\/strong> police riots of the year before. He says I ought to tell Haden, he&#8217;ll be thrilled.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/liberation-music.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1277\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/liberation-music.jpeg\" alt=\"liberation music\" width=\"227\" height=\"222\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In comes vibist-pianist-educator <strong>Karl Berger<\/strong> with his wife <strong>Ingrid Sertso<\/strong>, a vocalist. Berger has said that when they first heard Ornette&#8217;s record <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Shape-Jazz-Come-Ornette-Coleman\/dp\/B000002I4W\/?tag=howardmacom-20\"><em>The Shape of Jazz To Come<\/em><\/a> in the early &#8217;60s, the couple left their native Heidelberg to find him, and within a few weeks coincidentally ran into Ornette&#8217;s trumpeter <strong>Don Cherry<\/strong> at a caf\u00c3\u00a9 in Paris. Berger subsequently recorded with Cherry and emigrated, setting up the Coleman-inspired <strong>Creative Music Studio<\/strong> in <strong>Woodstock<\/strong>, NY. Later this month he and Ingrid revive their CMS Workshop Orchestra, which had an eight-month weekly run at<strong> the Stone<\/strong>. This time they&#8217;ll do every other Tuesday night, at the <strong>Jazz Gallery<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Guitarist <strong>Chris Rosenberg<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Kenny Wessel&#8217;s partner in Prime Time, which usually had two guitarists, two electric bassists, tabla (hey, where&#8217;s <strong>Badal Roy<\/strong>?) and drums, maybe keyboards and Ornette &#8212; explains he&#8217;s now teaching at the Manhattan School of Music and has taken up painting, with watercolors and acrylics. <strong>Bern Nix<\/strong>, unique guitarist in Ornette&#8217;s<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Dancing-Your-Head-Ornette-Coleman\/dp\/B00004STMT\/?tag=howardmacom-20\"> <strong>first convening of Prime Time<\/strong><\/a>, is recovering from several months of poorly diagnosed health issues. He&#8217;s with videographer <strong>Susan Yung<\/strong>. Nix calls the party a meeting of <strong>&#8220;Harmolodics <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dancing.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1278\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dancing.jpeg\" alt=\"dancing\" width=\"224\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dancing.jpeg 224w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dancing-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dancing-70x70.jpeg 70w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/dancing-110x110.jpeg 110w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/a>Anonymous.&#8221;<\/strong> His joke is that once exposed and enlisted in Ornette&#8217;s point of view, musicians often find themselves commercial outcasts. It&#8217;s really that they&#8217;ve become so open to the basics of sound that they have little patience for conforming to state conventions. Harmolodics is a conflation of harmony, motion and melody into a mutually reinforcing system that justifies and resolves collective improvisation while upending traditional Western music precepts. Many well-educated musicians can&#8217;t get with harmolodics at all.<\/p>\n<p>But<strong> Charnett Moffet<\/strong>, occasionally Ornette&#8217;s bassist and son of the late <strong>Charles Moffett<\/strong>, another of Ornette&#8217;s drummers, talks about his all-solo, short tracks project upcoming from <strong>Motema Records.<\/strong> Ornette&#8217;s frequent upright bassist <strong>Greg Cohen<\/strong> is here, too \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he tends to be timekeeper while Tony Falanga solos, arco or pizzicato. And <strong>Mari Okubo<\/strong>, whose pure and silvery voice embodies Ornette&#8217;s lyrics and prevails within harmolodic arrangements on <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cosmic-Life-Mari-Okubo\/dp\/B000UNYRHY\/?tag=howardmacom-20\">Cosmic Life<\/a>,<\/em> a 2004 album she gives to me to take home. Iranian saxophonist <strong>So Sa La<\/strong> (aka Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi) also gives me his CD, <em>Nu World Trash<\/em>. It&#8217;s dedicated to The New Iran and has shout outs to <strong>Sato Hironobu Sensei<\/strong>, <strong>Salif Keita<\/strong> and Ornette.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2013\/01\/butch-morris-musical-artist-and-friend-mourned-widely.html\"><strong>Butch Morris<\/strong><\/a>, who has developed the spontaneous improvised ensemble art he calls <strong>&#8220;conduction,&#8221;<\/strong> shows up with his longtime friend saxophonist <strong>David Murray<\/strong> and Murray&#8217;s wife <strong>Valerie<\/strong>, plus guitarist-singer <strong>James &#8220;Blood&#8221; Ulmer<\/strong>. Ulmer, described by Ornette three decades ago as naturally harmolodic, just did a two-night stand with a big band convened by Murray at Iridium jazz club in midtown. <strong>Mingus Murray<\/strong>, David&#8217;s guitarist-son, early 20s, is here, too \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he was in the big band, adding rhythm accompaniment a la &#8217;70s funkateers, filling in after Blood&#8217;s quirky lead-and-wander lines. He wears silver shoes with pointy toes.<\/p>\n<p>Photog <strong>Alan Nahigian<\/strong>, who I&#8217;d seen at Iridium and the next day told me I&#8217;d missed the better second set, points me back to Muhal, saying he&#8217;s talking about Blood and the blues. Muhal, South Side of Chicago born-and-bred, asserts, &#8220;Blood <em>is<\/em> the blues. He just is <em>it<\/em>. I told him that. The blues is like the neighborhood, you know, that we all grew up in. We grew up with the blues, everybody did, with it and in it. I wouldn&#8217;t know how to get home without it.&#8221; Jayne Cortez nods in emphatic confirmation.<\/p>\n<p>Recently retired producer <strong>Robert Browning<\/strong> of the <strong>World Music Institute<\/strong> &amp; his wife\/partner <strong>Helene<\/strong> mention they&#8217;ve been going through the WMI&#8217;s mostly audio archives, looking for ways to make the music and in some cases video available. <strong>Symphony Space<\/strong>, where some of the WMI concerts occurred, has an app that can be the platform for some of the audio. Has Robert heard of Wolfgang&#8217;s Vault? Has he been in touch with Ornette&#8217;s former Artists House producer <strong>John Snyder,<\/strong> who is issuing musical master class videos from special performances of <strong>New York University&#8217;s jazz program?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The food: passed hors d&#8217;ouevres of garlicky vegetarian stuffed mushrooms and spicy turkey meatballs. A platter of complicated tuna (salmon?) salad. Deviled eggs. Hushpuppies.<\/p>\n<p>Ornette&#8217;s sometimes electric bassist <strong>Albert McDowell<\/strong> says he&#8217;s been running a recording studio. <strong>Chris Walker<\/strong>, another ex-Ornette electric bassist, explains he&#8217;s been Al Jarreau&#8217;s music director for umpteen years. Drummer <strong>Warren Benbow<\/strong>, who&#8217;s lately stirred up a Facebook group discussion on East Coast Drummers, says hi, goes over his past (including his stint with Blood), and says he&#8217;s playing more r&amp;b, less hard-core jazz now. Valerie, David Murray&#8217;s wife, mentions the project they&#8217;ve pushing for the summer isn&#8217;t the Ulmer big band, but his tour as music director with <strong>Macy Gray<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one track of which has been released, but I miss the title. Maybe &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B007K3UG2M\/?tag=howardmacom-20\">Love Lockdown<\/a>&#8220;?<\/p>\n<p>Guitarist <strong>Vernon Reid<\/strong> of <strong>Living Colour<\/strong>, <strong>Defunkt<\/strong> and <strong>Ronald Shannon Jackson&#8217;s Decoding Society<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all Ornette Prime Time spinoffs &#8212; has a camera with a wide-angle lens. He&#8217;s produced Blood Ulmer&#8217;s last several albums, playing second guitar in Ulmer&#8217;s blues combo, and has also delved into <strong>Tony Williams&#8217; Lifetime<\/strong> material in a quartet called <strong>Spectrum Road<\/strong> with all-stars <strong>John Medeski<\/strong> (organ\/keyboards), <strong>Cindy Blackman<\/strong>, drums and <strong>Jack Bruce<\/strong>, Lifetime&#8217;s original bassist\/singer. Reid talks with producer <strong>Brian Bacchus<\/strong> about the power of the sheer truth in a lyric <strong>Donny Hathaway<\/strong> sang in &#8220;Someday We&#8217;ll All Be Free,&#8221; free of melodic embellishment or interpretation but full of Hathaway&#8217;s belief in the words.<\/p>\n<p>A steam table is groaning with rice &amp; red beans, greens, a clam-mussels &amp; chicken stew; there are red velvet (chocolate) cupcakes and later a b-day cake white and chocolate layers interspersed. Is that sharp-nosed, dark-skinned older woman <strong>Ornette&#8217;s sister?<\/strong> Here&#8217;s <strong>Danny Kapillian,<\/strong> concert producer with his wife and seven-year-old son in an Indian brocade yarmulke. Saxophonist <strong>James Carter<\/strong> gives me a surprise backrub.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bassist Henry Grimes and his wife\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Margaret Davis Grimes\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>are here. Guitarist <strong>Marc Ribot<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0is talking about his upcoming gig at <strong>Village Vanguard<\/strong>, with Grimes and drummer <strong>Chad Taylor<\/strong> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c &#8220;both are so intuitive.&#8221; <strong>Lidija\u00c2\u00a0Pedevska-Redman<\/strong>,\u00c2\u00a0widow of <strong>Dewey Redman,<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Ornette&#8217;s longtime co-saxophonist, asks about <strong>my daughter &#8212; <\/strong>she is<strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0Velibor&#8217;s sister, and Velibor has a daughter Rosie&#8217;s age. Trumpeter <strong>Graham Haynes<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0is standing nearby. I recall Graham played with Dewey, Charlie Haden and I think it was <strong>Jack DeJohnette<\/strong> at that Ornette birthday party at Joe&#8217;s Pub. Poet <strong>Amiri Baraka<\/strong> is in conference, laughing, with Jayne Cortez. Music reporter <strong>Vivian Goldman<\/strong> walks up, \u00c2\u00a0with a plate of red velvet cake.<\/p>\n<p>I can only hear snatches of background music, mostly recognizing Ornette&#8217;s recordings with Prime Time. <strong>Antoine Roney<\/strong> and his wife attend with their young son &#8212; is he 10? I&#8217;m told by some of the musicians this boy is a drum prodigy. Radio show host <strong>Phil Schaap<\/strong> is here. And there&#8217;s a bearded, long-haired gent who looks familiar. I ask Ashley Kahn if he knows his name.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know I&#8217;m in a jazz party when everybody asks me who<strong> Steve Earle<\/strong> is,&#8221; Ashley replies.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s late. The punch <em>was<\/em> spiked. I&#8217;m going home.\u00c2\u00a0I&#8217;ve talked to almost everyone, and they all love Ornette. We&#8217;ve all had a happy Ornette birthday, hope he has, too, and hope he&#8217;ll have many more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.howardmandel.com\" target=\"blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">howardmandel.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/JazzBeyondJazz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Subscribe by Email or RSS<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/archives.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> All JBJ posts <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ornette Coleman turns 83 today &#8212; and is celebrating it privately. That&#8217;s unusual, as he has thrown great parties, often full of live music (at his former Harlem Studio and one year at Joe&#8217;s Pub), always attended by fabulously interesting people &#8212; like the one last year for his 82nd birthday, Friday, March 9, 2012 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-kx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1870,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2015\/06\/ornette-coleman-returned-music-to-freedom-and-basics.html","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":0},"title":"Ornette Coleman returned music to freedom and basics","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"June 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Sad news this morning: Ornette Coleman died at age 85. Triumphant news: Ornette Coleman returned music to its free-from-cant basics, emphasizing emotional communication and intuitive human interactions over any other elements in the dynamic, multi-faceted, immediate art form. I included several interviews with Ornette -- whom I consider the most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ornette-halo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":341,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/09\/video_for_fans_of_sonny_rollin.html","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":1},"title":"Video for fans of Sonny Rollins &#038; harmolodics","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"September 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1782,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2015\/03\/ornette-honored-and-playing-in-prospect-park-june-2014.html","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":2},"title":"Ornette honored and playing in Prospect Park June 2014","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of Ornette Coleman's 85th birthday (today, March 9), here's my report from the last time he performed in New York City -- at an extraordinary concert in his honor with Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Thurston Moore, Nels Cline, Sonny Rollins and many more at Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Originally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ornette-threadgill-murray-roney-e1404264891893.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ornette-threadgill-murray-roney-e1404264891893.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ornette-threadgill-murray-roney-e1404264891893.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ornette-threadgill-murray-roney-e1404264891893.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ornette-threadgill-murray-roney-e1404264891893.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/ornette-threadgill-murray-roney-e1404264891893.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":227,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/08\/best_review_ever_of_miles_orne.html","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":3},"title":"best review ever of Miles Ornette Cecil &#8212; Jazz Beyond Jazz","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"August 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm humbled by writer-poet-performance artist\u00c2\u00a0Kirpal 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/03\/happy_birthday_ornette_roots_a.html","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":4},"title":"Happy Birthday Ornette Coleman, roots avant-gardist","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/03\/breadth-of-jazz_radio_wkcr_fet.html","url_meta":{"origin":1273,"position":5},"title":"Breadth-of-jazz radio WKCR fetes Ornette, Bix","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;main&quot;","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for ornette himmel small.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/assets_c\/2010\/03\/ornette%20himmel%20small-thumb-200x300-13696-thumb-240x360-13697.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}