{"id":1606,"date":"2014-05-06T16:13:10","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T20:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2019-09-12T15:56:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T19:56:58","slug":"celebrating-ornette-from-philly-in-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2014\/05\/celebrating-ornette-from-philly-in-photos.html","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Ornette! from Philly, in photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ornette<\/a>Ornette Coleman, genius musician and major inspiration<\/a> to this blog and blogger<\/a>, turned 84 on March 9. His son Denardo threw a family ‘n’ friends party in celebration, which I was privileged to attend. Denardo graciously allowed me to bring\u00c2\u00a0Hungarian photographer S\u00c3\u00a1nta Istv\u00c3\u00a1n Csaba<\/a>, who created this portrait of one of the creative heroes of the 20th and 21st century (and all other photos on this page, except for Sound Evidence’s image of Ben Schacter and Jamaaladeen Tacuma).<\/p>\n

Ornette Coleman has\u00c2\u00a0exemplified\u00c2\u00a0the big, natural, fundamental idea of making music (and indeed any art, or for that matter life itself) as much as possible personal, responsibly collaborative, \u00c2\u00a0free of constraints, spontaneous and open to emotional expression. He recognizes beauty everywhere and in everyone.<\/p>\n

\"denardo<\/a>Denardo has played drums since age six, recording a full album,\u00c2\u00a0The Empty Foxhole<\/a>,<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0 with his father and bassist Charlie Haden when in 1966, when he was 10 (ammd \u00c2\u00a0it’s just been announced his Denardo Coleman Vibe will perform at the Prospect Park Bandshell in the\u00c2\u00a0Celebrate Brooklyn! festival on June 12<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0admission free). Back\u00c2\u00a0then his introduction to the scene caused controversy (everything Ornette did then caused controversy)\u00c2\u00a0and even\u00c2\u00a0outright derision, which has resulted in his being under-appreciated for decades. But that’s wrong. He long ago developed his unique skills and style, both at traps kit and as a key player in all projects harmolodic.<\/p>\n

Denard’s\u00c2\u00a0fast moves, keeping of a constant pulse, dynamic approach to cymbals and\u00c2\u00a0lighter drum timbres\u00c2\u00a0provide\u00c2\u00a0significant propulsion to everything I’ve heard him do. For revelatory \"CelebratingOrnette1\"<\/a>listening,\u00c2\u00a0find\u00c2\u00a0Prime Design<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>Ornette’s\u00c2\u00a0full\u00c2\u00a0length\u00c2\u00a0composition for\u00c2\u00a0Denardo and string quartet, recorded at the opening of Caravan of Dreams in the Coleman family seat of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1987.<\/p>\n

Earlier — starting in the mid ’70s — Denardo had been\u00c2\u00a0at the core of Prime Time, Ornette’s\u00c2\u00a0combustible ensemble \u00c2\u00a0of two electric guitars, two electric basses and usually two drummers he typically\u00c2\u00a0led\u00c2\u00a0while soloing on alto sax, violin and trumpet. That edition of Prime Time’s other principals — guitarist Bern Nix, bassists Jamaaladeen Tacuma and Albert McDowell, among them — also played with Denardo in the Firespitters<\/a>, backing up poet\/ nchantress\u00c2\u00a0Jayne Cortez, his mother. Except for that, Denardo has seldom performed without Ornette, a situation remedied at\u00c2\u00a0Celebrating Ornette! a spirited legacy tribute produced in Philadelphia on March 21 through the combined efforts of the Painted Bride, Philadelphia Jazz Project, Ars Nova Workshop, Bobby Zankel and \"denardo<\/a>musicians organized by a Philly-based force unto the\u00c2\u00a0music world, aforementioned electric bassist extraordinaire Jamaaldeen Tacuma.<\/p>\n

Denardo’s\u00c2\u00a0quintet had an innovative lineup: electric guitarist Charlie Ellerbee (another Prime Time vet), electric bassist McDowell (who Ornette had first plucked from a NYC high school band class) and upright bassist Tony Falanga (who had played an orchestral gig that afternoon) along with tenor\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0saxophonist Antoine Roney.\u00c2\u00a0Roney\u00c2\u00a0on tenor has a\u00c2\u00a0grainy, open-plains\u00c2\u00a0bluesiness reminiscent of Dewey\u00c2\u00a0Redman, Ornette’s longtime confrere,\u00c2\u00a0but even more Ornette-ish was\u00c2\u00a0Denardo’s\u00c2\u00a0concentration of\u00c2\u00a0activity in low registers. \"CelebratingOrnette4\"<\/a> Ornette has always had brilliant bassists (Charlie Haden, Scott LaFaro, Jimmy Garrison, David Izenzon, Chris Walker) and he likes to hear the bottom on top. Denardo’s\u00c2\u00a0three\u00c2\u00a0string-instrumentalists, who represented an enormous range of variety in their individual inclinations and sounds, tumbled around each other non-chalantly, shifting octaves and responsibilities for\u00c2\u00a0anchoring, soloing and counterpoint mid-improvisations.<\/p>\n

McDowell was very\u00c2\u00a0much the electric bass\u00c2\u00a0guitarist<\/em>; Falanga\u00c2\u00a0bowed with him, sometimes\u00c2\u00a0floating his pitches just above McDowell’s.\u00c2\u00a0Ellerbee played a \"charlie<\/a>variation\u00c2\u00a0of\u00c2\u00a0r&b rhythm gtr chucka-chucka chords,\u00c2\u00a0introducing Ornette’s most famous theme, “Lonely Woman,” with an unaccompanied, abstracted, rubato melody interpretation had me imagining a person distraught unto despair, lost in the ozone, chilled to the existential bone.\u00c2\u00a0Falling in behind the deadpan Ellerbee, the band — spurred by Denardo — wailed.<\/p>\n

\"CelebratingOrnette6\"<\/p>\n

Jamaaladeen Tacuma — the most ecstatic, elastic, groove-laying, funkily free, deep electric bassist on the planet\u00c2\u00a0–followed with his For the Love of Ornette band (titled the same as his most recently released album, with mostly the same\u00c2\u00a0personnel). Ever since his mid ’70s debut (under another name) with Ornette on Dancing In Your Head<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>Jamaaladeen has been a bubbling spring of bluesy, out-bound movement, and his set starting with his “Tacuma Song” <\/a>exemplified his style. Backed by powerhouse and tone-color-conscious drummer G. Calvin Weston, his frequent rhythm partner, JT established the catchy theme guitaristically on his blond Gibson ax<\/del> his self-designed TacumART bass<\/a>, then opened space for unrestricted solos by Wolfgang Puschnig on alto sax, Ben Schacter on tenor sax and Yoichi Uzeki, pianist.<\/p>\n

\"jamaladeen<\/p>\n

These musicians seemed to revel in their opportunity to play before the full house (approx. 250) of Philly’s aficionados, devotees and performers (including pianist Dave Burrell) of Coleman-inspired arts. Uzeki, for instance, dismissed any contradictions implied by his classical training addressing\u00c2\u00a0the free jazz imperatives, applying a\u00c2\u00a0keyboard touch from spare to florid to the rambunctious group sound. Schacter, in from California,\u00c2\u00a0deployed\u00c2\u00a0a big, rangy tone that had some\u00c2\u00a0swagger, quoting several of Ornette’s famous motifs with reverent tenderness.\u00c2\u00a0Puschnig, an Austrian who in the ’80s co-founded the Vienna Art Orchestra, exemplified a cheerfully renegade approach to all his horn-playing, continuously spouting\u00c2\u00a0unpredictable melodies on alto as well as flute and hojak, a short Korean double-reed instrument.<\/p>\n

\"jamaaladeen<\/a>

Ben Schacter and Jamaaladeen Tacuma photo by Sound Evidence<\/p><\/div>\n

The four players kept their minds on the songs that launched them, even while exploring\u00c2\u00a0how far those songs would take\u00c2\u00a0them away. They were fearless and intrepid — attitudes that were contagious, enlisting\u00c2\u00a0the listening crowd’s participation. The band performed the For The Love of Ornette title song, with spoken word by Wadud Ahmad, and some Coleman-penned curiosities, like the sketchy yet complete riff Jamaaladeen explained Prime Time had performed when guesting on Saturday Night Live. <\/em><\/p>\n

\\At least some of the basis of \u00c2\u00a0Ornette’s love for Jamaaladeen was evident all the time: the bass guitarist has live-wire energy that surges\u00c2\u00a0confidently underwhatever sounds rise\u00c2\u00a0into the air. Nothing fazes him, and he can marshall\u00c2\u00a0fragments that\u00c2\u00a0might seem to issue from random\u00c2\u00a0corners into purposeful\u00c2\u00a0wholes. \"CelebratingOrnette9\" Of the highlights: Asha Puhtli, the remarkable Indian-emigre diva who indelibly committed\u00c2\u00a0two of Ornette’s most ravishing songs on\u00c2\u00a0his album Science Fiction<\/em> in 1971, crooned “What Reason Could I Give<\/a>” <\/a>for the first time in 40 years. The\u00c2\u00a0horns’ parts\u00c2\u00a0wrapped\u00c2\u00a0sinew-like around her rich, warm voice, JT coursing like blood aboil through\u00c2\u00a0it all, into a\u00c2\u00a0duet with Schacter that segued into\u00c2\u00a0a dramatic blues stomp and concluded with luscious chorale finale.\u00c2\u00a0Wow. Exhilarating. See it here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ornette Coleman wasn’t in the audience, but he was surely felt\u00c2\u00a0as present\u00c2\u00a0in the hall, brought by the artists and audience he’s affected to our core. “Denardo is Ornette’s son,” Jamaaladeen proclaimed after the drummer’s performance, “but we are, too,” he said, gesturing to his band waiting in the wings, and he could have opened the gesture up to include everyone convened (yes, also daughters).<\/p>\n

Maybe he did — probably he meant to. It seemed like everyone there loved Ornette. As all people should: He’s a\u00c2\u00a0man who has freed music, for and within us.<\/p>\n

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Ornette Coleman recognizes beauty everywhere and in everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1620,"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":false,"_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-1606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/ornette-portrait-santa-e1398543336666.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-pU","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":1606,"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 "main"","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":73,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/03\/ornette_speaks.html","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":1},"title":"Ornette speaks!","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"In Portland, Ornette Coleman and his drummer son Denardo sat for an hour-plus public interview with me. We talked about music, sound, love, death, race relations, progress and\/or the lack of, language, the alphabet -- Ornette's frequent topics. Here's the whole thing, as an audio file recorded by KMHD-FM. howardmandel.com\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/10\/colbert_coleman_name_that_tune.html","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":2},"title":"Colbert & Coleman: Name that tune","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u00c2\u00a0of 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","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":1606,"position":3},"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 "main"","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":[]},{"id":1991,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2016\/03\/ornette-day-bits-of-wisdom-with-video-clips.html","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":4},"title":"Ornette Day, bits of wisdom with video clips","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Ornette Coleman's birthday is today, and his son Denardo has invited everyone to a walk with him from noon to three in\u00c2\u00a0Woodlawn 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"imgres","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/imgres.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":75,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/03\/ornette_at_town_hall_and_in_ja.html","url_meta":{"origin":1606,"position":5},"title":"Ornette at Town Hall and in Japan","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Further Ornette sightings: the prophet of life-beyond-conventions returns on Friday to New York's Town Hall, where he's suffered and triumphed throughout his career. Internationally acclaimed as an enquiring multi-instrumentalist, composer and conceptualist, Ornette has a special place in his heart for Town Hall, the historic midtown Manhattan venue where he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","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=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}