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.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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 self-produced a genre-defying concert in December, 1962.<\/p>\n
“I took all my life savings,” he told me (as I quoted him in my Having just turned 78 years old, still Ornette performs with uniquely penetrating power on saxophone and usually violin and trumpet, too. As recently reported on this blog, he was in fine form in February at the Portland Jazz Festival, and he re-tuned my ears to the expansive sounds of the world, leading an ensemble of three bassists (including Charnette Moffett, son of his late drummer Charlie) and his own son Denardo on drums. The sold-out show was held in a former movie palace, and was the launch of a tour that got as far as the Far East and New Zealand.<\/p>\n Denardo recently sent me a link to a clip of Ornette on a previous Asian tour. Here’s his “Dancing In Your Head”<\/a> band Prime Time on Youtube<\/a> at the Jazz Under the Sky Tokyo jazz festival of 1986. Denardo himself and electric bassist Albert McDowell (playing with Ornette again now) appear with guitarists Charlie Ellerbee and Bern Nix, electric bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma and drummer Kamau Sabbir. The band nails its de facto theme song in a version, and Ornette’s explosive post-genre alto saxophone is captured perfectly. He starts with a childlike riff, churns it into a windmill, fragments it through multiple dimensions in a manner he’s described as “harmolodic” (for the fundamental union of harmony, melody and motion). Then he offers an episode of ripping violin, a blast of urgent trumpet, a return to the head — which the super-tight ensemble has been holding firm and infinitely expanding — then the end.<\/p>\n At seven minutes, it’s bracing, a jolt, a lift.<\/p>\n howardmandel.com<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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-75","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1i3CL-1d","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2008\/10\/colbert_coleman_name_that_tune.html","url_meta":{"origin":75,"position":0},"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":328,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/07\/italy_here_i_come.html","url_meta":{"origin":75,"position":1},"title":"Italy here I come","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"July 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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).\u00a0Can you suggest unmissable music in Tuscany (or Vetirbo through July 31? In Siena I'll talk and show brief bits\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "main"","block_context":{"text":"main","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/category\/main"},"img":{"alt_text":"siena square.jpeg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/siena%20square.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":171,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2009\/03\/reasons_to_be_cheerful_wynton.html","url_meta":{"origin":75,"position":2},"title":"Reasons to be cheerful: Wynton books Ornette","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"March 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Wynton Marsalis has high regard for the music of Ornette Coleman -- as demonstrated by Jazz at Lincoln Center's just-released 2009-2010 concert schedule, which begins next September 26 with a single performance by Coleman's quartet featuring two bassists and his son Denardo on drums.\u00a0This booking might seem like a point\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":1870,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2015\/06\/ornette-coleman-returned-music-to-freedom-and-basics.html","url_meta":{"origin":75,"position":3},"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":1606,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2014\/05\/celebrating-ornette-from-philly-in-photos.html","url_meta":{"origin":75,"position":4},"title":"Celebrating Ornette! from Philly, in photos","author":"Howard Mandel","date":"May 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Ornette Coleman recognizes beauty everywhere and in everyone.","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\/2014\/04\/ornette-portrait-santa-e1398543336666.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/2010\/03\/happy_birthday_ornette_roots_a.html","url_meta":{"origin":75,"position":5},"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 "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\/75","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=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/jazzbeyondjazz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nbook<\/a>), “wrote a string quartet, hired a rhythm and blues group, and had [bassist] David Izenzon, [drummer] Charlie Moffett and myself. . . and that night there was a subway strike, a newspaper strike, a taxi strike . . . I hired a guy to record it for me, and [later] he committed suicide. . . I could tell you a lot of tragedies.” He claims the production was a financial rout and went unreviewed, but nonetheless, ESP Disks released a portion of the tapes and they became known as a breakthrough album<\/a> that scuttled previous easy definitions or rigid requirements of “jazz” limiting a musician’s scope and freedom. Coleman revisited Town Hall thereafter with somewhat better attended result, to perform Song X<\/i><\/a> with Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnnette in 1986, and with an extraordinary double bill of his “classic quartet” and his wildly tight septet Prime Time, celebrating In All Languages<\/i><\/a>, in 1987.<\/p>\n
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