LCJO Plays Ornette

[7/4]

  Christiern said:

Apropos the LCJO audience, I think the following from Ratliff's piece indicates that some of the regulars probably do come to the hall with a somewhat closed (Heaney-like) mind:

• "...It ["Ramblin'"] started with some free improvising by the orchestra's new pianist, Eric Lewis, who made thrashing, wavelike gestures over the keyboard and scratched the strings inside the piano. (I heard a lot of nervous giggles and "What's he doing?" Shades of Mr. Coleman's shocking opening at the Five Spot in 1959.)"
  

Ratliff tends to approach Wynton's performances with less than candor, but here, at least, he does not fall at his feet.

Probably someones date.

[7/4]

  Alexander said:

I am not suggesting that either you or anyone else who expressly went to see Ornette is "uber-conservative" (which I mean musically, by the way, not politically).  But there are, you'll admit I'm sure, season ticket holders and other culture-fans who would go see ANYTHING the LCJO did.  THAT is the conservative audience I was referring to.  Most hard-core avant-gardists I know don't make the LCJO a priority...

I wonder if this was a sub event?

Alexander, I'll admit I over reacted.

But I can't say I'm all that interested in the reaction of a clueless audience member who's there for the wrong reason. "What's he doing?" seems like an inocent question. "What is this shit, it doesn't sound like what Winton normally plays." is another story.

[Free For All]

Sound like the arranging duties were passed around a bit, which is good. I don't know that I'd be comfortable with Wynton doing ALL the charts. My main concern with a project like this is "how are they going to make these tunes work with the large ensemble?". When arranging Ornette tunes for a big band, you'd have to commit to specific voicings for the sections, and it would seem that such a "harmonic commitment" would defeat the purpose of many of these tunes, which seem to revel in their harmonic ambiguity.

I've contemplated attempting to arrange some Ornette for big band, such as "Bird Food" or maybe "Una Muy Bonita" or maybe "Broadway Blues". Some Ornette tunes, however, would seem to be too confined by the specific harmonies required to create a structured big band arrangement.

I'll be curious to hear the opinions of the concerts.

Edited February 22, 2004 by Free For All