Film Footage of Ornette

[kh1958]

The photo on the cover of Opening the Caravan of Dreams is a photo of the dome on the roof. James Blood Ulmer on his LP cover is also standing on the roof of the club.

The record label didn't last very long, only a couple of years or so. I believe that In All Languages was the last recording issued. The first issue was the Ornette, Opening the Caravan... At some point they issued Prime Design Time Design (an Ornette string quartet), the James Blood Ulmer album (that was his second appearance there--he played first with the Odyssey trio, then returned with that trio plus a bassist (this was the recording)). There were two live and one studio Ronald Shannon Jackson releases; a third live recording later came out on the Knitting Factory label. I recall there being notices of additional Ornette live recordings to be issued (Prime Time and also the symphony performance), but they never materialized.

I recall there were a couple of other releases I don't have, Eartha Kitt and a spoken word William Burroughs LP. Only three of the releases came out on CD on the label, In All Languages, and two of the Shannon Jackson's (When Colours Play and Texas).

As for the people who ran the club, all I can say is thanks! They never bothered me at all and in fact were rarely present in the club.

[Pete C]

and it said Blood was 'singing the Blues' as well

I wish he wouldn't.

If Eartha Kitt and William S. Burroughs did an album together, I'd buy it. But I'd probably rather hear Eartha singing Lonely Woman.

Edited August 6, 2012 by Pete C

[JSngry]

As for the people who ran the club, all I can say is thanks! They never bothered me at all and in fact were rarely present in the club.

I had various experiences with waitstaff, club bookers, in-house recording studio staff, etc. To say that there was a broad range of skill level would be putting it mildly but on the whole it was never actually unpleasant (except once, when an "administrative assistant" started mocking my stuttering, at which point she learned that most people who stutter don't have any problem with when cussing out an ignuntass fool..probably cost me a gig, but fuck it, ya' know?). It was definitely not a "professionally run" operation in the sense of having well-trained people in well-defined roles executing a well-defined mission, but that might have been as much or more a blessing than a curse, at least short term.

Did hear some really weird stuff about the theater company, but, then again, I've yet to be around a theater company without hearing about some weird stuff going on. Guess that's why they call it drama!

I think what happened was that the Dallas Morning News ran a really sensationalistic series about the alleged cult activity (of which I'm almost certain that there was some, although you can always count on the DMN to make a thunderstorm out of a stray waterdrop) & Bass's ties to it. After that, it seemed like everything started getting lower and lower key, until there was no jazz at all, and finally it was just another local music joint with sloppy workings all around. Bass, it seemed, moved on to other, less "controversial" ventures, and that was that.

But while it lasted in its original glory, it was indeed quite the thing!

[kh1958]

I recall that right after the "cult" article ran, I went there to see Philip Walker (a West Coast blues guitarist), and there were only three people in the audience in the club, counting me.

The place was definitely run by amateurs spending someone else's money.

The only play that I saw, Celestial Navigation, was atrocious. The music (Ornette and Prime Time, except Jamaladeen Tacuma was not there) was fantastic. It looks like there were New York performances.

http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?pagewanted=print&res=9906E0DF1138F937A15751C1A962948260

and it said Blood was 'singing the Blues' as well

I wish he wouldn't.

If Eartha Kitt and William S. Burroughs did an album together, I'd buy it. But I'd probably rather hear Eartha singing Lonely Woman.

Two separate LPs.

[Pete C]

Two separate LPs.

I figured, but one can always dream.

[JSngry]

I recall that right after the "cult" article ran, I went there to see Philip Walker (a West Coast blues guitarist), and there were only three people in the audience in the club, counting me.

I've always wondered how much of that article was fact, how much was exaggeration, and how much of it was "the powers that be" making mischief for what was beginning to become a high-profile performance venue for mostly African-American musicians.

Is that paranoid? Perhaps. But perhaps not. Not in the DFW area.

You can never be too paranoid in the DFW area!

[kh1958]

There was probably a meeting of the DFW powers that be:

Agenda item 1: A DFW powerbroker businessman has gone off the rails by supporting the non-approved arts (something other than the symphony, opera or museums)--it must be stopped!

Agenda item 2: Let's build a really expensive and stupid bridge and a toll road in a flood zone.

[Chuck Nessa]

Wish I could remember what and where but I heard lots of "cult" rumblings back in the day and I had no Texas connections.

[robertoart]

and it said Blood was 'singing the Blues' as well

I wish he wouldn't.

If Eartha Kitt and William S. Burroughs did an album together, I'd buy it. But I'd probably rather hear Eartha singing Lonely Woman.

I'd prefer my Eartha without Burroughs. But then again, I prefer my everything without Burroughs. as for Blood and the Blues, with regard to the album in question - the song 'Cheering' is shit hot. Especially with Charles Burnham's violin. This was Blood 'singing the blues', before he was actually 'singing 'The Blues" - if you know what I mean

[Hoppy T. Frog]

The cult has a one-entry blog!

[robertoart]

The cult has a one-entry blog!

And no comments either. This is pretty opaque stuff. Even for cult-talk

Cult-talk concrete.

Harmolodic cult-talk.

Edited August 11, 2012 by freelancer

[david weiss]

The Caravan of Dreams opened in September of 1983 with an appearance by Ornette Coleman and Prime Time. In addition, at about the same time, Ornette performed his Skies of America Symphony in Fort Worth with the Fort Worth Symphony.

The Caravan was in Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth. It was a beautiful club, with great sound, built with financial backing by one of members of the Fort Worth Bass family (Ed Bass).

On the second floor of the building, there was a small theater, and on the roof, a geodesic dome and bar.

Shirley Clarke was there filming the performance of Ornette and Prime Time on the opening weekend. Also, the recording, Opening the Caravan of Dreams was made that weekend and released a couple of years later when the club started its own record label. The club was designed to record live performances. Their sound man denied, however, when I asked him, that they recorded everything played there. I was skeptical of his denial, though. For a couple of years during the mid-1980s, the club did radio broadcasts on the local public radio station. I believe they did record Ornette on subsequent appearances, but no other live recordings of Ornette were ever released. Also, I recall being present for live recordings of David Newman with a very young Roy Hargrove, and for the Charles Moffett Family Jazz Band, also never released. Filming activity was not the norm; it's not true that most performances there were filmed. I recall that an impromptu set of Ornette Coleman with the Charles Moffett Family Jazz Band was filmed, but that was unusual.

By the end of 1983, I had already seen there (in addition to Ornette), Jack Dejohnette's Special Edition, the Mingus Dynasty, Phil Woods, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, McCoy Tyner, David Newman (with Elis Marsalis), and James Blood Ulmer.

1984 was amazing, reviewing my notes, I saw there, Jimmy Rogers, Quest, Arthur Blythe, Cedar Walton, Paquito D'Rivera, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Fenton Robinson, Toshiko Akiyoshi (in a trio), James Blood Ulmer, Ornette Coleman and Prime Time (return appearances) Dewey Redman, Woody Shaw, Oliver Lake, Horace Silver, John Blake, Jack Dejohnette's Special Edition (with David Murray), McCoy Tyner, David Murray Octet (with Juliius Hemphill), Vienna Art Orchestra, Abbey Lincoln, Willie Dixon, Mose Allison, Ornette Coleman and Prime Time (performing music for a play in the theater), Paquito D'Rivera and David Newman.

The club continued to book top flight jazz and occasional blues at a high rate through 1987; jazz bookings started to slow down in about 1988 (but they still had Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor and Ronald Shannon Jackson and others that year). Jazz continued at a modest pace there through 1992 (Sonny Rollins!). After that, the club remained open and jazz became rare. The last I recall is Cassandra Wilson in 1996. The club closed in 2001.

I was in college when all this started and was the music director of the school radio station so I was invited to all the opening events.

I went to Skies of America concert with the Fort Worth Symphony and went to the opening night of the club with Ornette playing.

It was funny to see the worlds colliding a bit. There were a few older guys with cowboys hats who would whoop it up and bang on the table every time Ornette honked a note.

Ornette was very influential in the booking of the club for the first year or so.

The big talent would come down there and play Thursday-Sunday and for the most part they would use local bands on Monday-Wednesday.

I had a band that was in the regular rotation there from the time it opened until I graduated and left for New York in 1986.

Since I spent a lot of time there, I got to know a lot about the goings on there.

I saw almost all the bands mentioned above.....

Jack Dejohnette's Special Edition, the Mingus Dynasty (with Johnny Coles and maybe Rickey Ford), Phil Woods (with Tom Harrell), the Art Ensemble of Chicago (they supposedly ran up a $10,000 food and drink bill, lots of champaign, that made the club reassess their food and drink policy in regards to the talent), McCoy Tyner, and James Blood Ulmer.

Quest, Arthur Blythe (the tuba band), Cedar Walton, Paquito D'Rivera, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Toshiko Akiyoshi (in a trio with Bob Moses), Dewey Redman (with Charnett Moffet), Woody Shaw (with Benny Green and Ronnie Burrage), Horace Silver (with Brian Lynch and Ralph Moore) and Vienna Art Orchestra (a special one night engagement if I recall correctly).

I met of lot of these guys for the first time seeing them here.

[david weiss]

Can't tell the full Caravan Of Dream story without including the tales of Ed Bass, Biosphere, John Allen/Johnny Dolphin , Synergetic Civilization, the theater group that existed alongside the music club, rumblings of the whole thing being a front for some really nasty cult activity and all that.

http://articles.lati..._1_biosphere-ii

http://news.google.c...pg=4019,2574137

http://articles.orla...ze-mars-ecology

http://articles.orla...-carbon-dioxide

And so forth.

I met John Allen in the club and he told me the plan of colonizing the moon or Mars.

The dome on the roof was a small prototype for the Biosphere bubble (phase two) and then of course, the next phase was on Mars or the moon or what have you.

Calling it a cult might be a bit of a stretch but John Allen/Johnny Dolphin was the leader of whatever it was.

They started in a ranch in New Mexico and at some point Ed Bass joined the party and they suddenly had financial backing and Caravan of Dreams was built and they all moved to Forth Worth. I believe the complex was built on land owned by the Bass family that wasn't being used. Some of the crew (I can't call them cult members) lived on the top floor and the rest including some locals who were hired to work at the club or theater all lived in a former nursing home also owned by the Bass family that was closed and hadn't been in use. The "cult activity" at that point just was daily "acting/exercise" classes that the staff had to participate in and where other issues were worked out and tempers sometimes flared and there were stories of John Allen or the theater director sometimes hitting someone to help them get to their inner core or something. One of the members left in a huff over something and was the main voice from the inside in those Dallas Morning News pieces. I guess it was a little sensational at the time but it didn't really phase me because it all seemed a bit of a joke to me.

There was a dance floor of sorts directly in front of the stage and sometimes the staff would all run on the floor and start dancing around (including Bass). We weren't exactly playing dance music but they had a fun time anyways......

I was pretty friendly with one of the staff who was with them since New Mexico and a few of my friends from school got jobs there as well. The "cult members" were assigned jobs in the club out of the blue sometimes. The one I was friendly with was suddenly given the job of booking the club one day and didn't know where to start (though getting recommendations from Ornette seemed to be a good place to start). Later she was one of the "engineers" who was part of the team that went in the Bioshere bubble.

In the end, I did a lot of gigs there and saw a lot of great music. They also had a good film series at times.....

Edited November 24, 2012 by david weiss

[kh1958]

The Caravan of Dreams opened in September of 1983 with an appearance by Ornette Coleman and Prime Time. In addition, at about the same time, Ornette performed his Skies of America Symphony in Fort Worth with the Fort Worth Symphony.

The Caravan was in Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth. It was a beautiful club, with great sound, built with financial backing by one of members of the Fort Worth Bass family (Ed Bass).

On the second floor of the building, there was a small theater, and on the roof, a geodesic dome and bar.

Shirley Clarke was there filming the performance of Ornette and Prime Time on the opening weekend. Also, the recording, Opening the Caravan of Dreams was made that weekend and released a couple of years later when the club started its own record label. The club was designed to record live performances. Their sound man denied, however, when I asked him, that they recorded everything played there. I was skeptical of his denial, though. For a couple of years during the mid-1980s, the club did radio broadcasts on the local public radio station. I believe they did record Ornette on subsequent appearances, but no other live recordings of Ornette were ever released. Also, I recall being present for live recordings of David Newman with a very young Roy Hargrove, and for the Charles Moffett Family Jazz Band, also never released. Filming activity was not the norm; it's not true that most performances there were filmed. I recall that an impromptu set of Ornette Coleman with the Charles Moffett Family Jazz Band was filmed, but that was unusual.

By the end of 1983, I had already seen there (in addition to Ornette), Jack Dejohnette's Special Edition, the Mingus Dynasty, Phil Woods, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, McCoy Tyner, David Newman (with Elis Marsalis), and James Blood Ulmer.

1984 was amazing, reviewing my notes, I saw there, Jimmy Rogers, Quest, Arthur Blythe, Cedar Walton, Paquito D'Rivera, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Fenton Robinson, Toshiko Akiyoshi (in a trio), James Blood Ulmer, Ornette Coleman and Prime Time (return appearances) Dewey Redman, Woody Shaw, Oliver Lake, Horace Silver, John Blake, Jack Dejohnette's Special Edition (with David Murray), McCoy Tyner, David Murray Octet (with Juliius Hemphill), Vienna Art Orchestra, Abbey Lincoln, Willie Dixon, Mose Allison, Ornette Coleman and Prime Time (performing music for a play in the theater), Paquito D'Rivera and David Newman.

The club continued to book top flight jazz and occasional blues at a high rate through 1987; jazz bookings started to slow down in about 1988 (but they still had Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor and Ronald Shannon Jackson and others that year). Jazz continued at a modest pace there through 1992 (Sonny Rollins!). After that, the club remained open and jazz became rare. The last I recall is Cassandra Wilson in 1996. The club closed in 2001.

I was in college when all this started and was the music director of the school radio station so I was invited to all the opening events.

I went to Skies of America concert with the Fort Worth Symphony and went to the opening night of the club with Ornette playing.

It was funny to see the worlds colliding a bit. There were a few older guys with cowboys hats who would whoop it up and bang on the table every time Ornette honked a note.

Ornette was very influential in the booking of the club for the first year or so.

The big talent would come down there and play Thursday-Sunday and for the most part they would use local bands on Monday-Wednesday.

I had a band that was in the regular rotation there from the time it opened until I graduated and left for New York in 1986.

Since I spent a lot of time there, I got to know a lot about the goings on there.

I saw almost all the bands mentioned above.....

Jack Dejohnette's Special Edition, the Mingus Dynasty (with Johnny Coles and maybe Rickey Ford), Phil Woods (with Tom Harrell), the Art Ensemble of Chicago (they supposedly ran up a $10,000 food and drink bill, lots of champaign, that made the club reassess their food and drink policy in regards to the talent), McCoy Tyner, and James Blood Ulmer.

Quest, Arthur Blythe (the tuba band), Cedar Walton, Paquito D'Rivera, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Toshiko Akiyoshi (in a trio with Bob Moses), Dewey Redman (with Charnett Moffet), Woody Shaw (with Benny Green and Ronnie Burrage), Horace Silver (with Brian Lynch and Ralph Moore) and Vienna Art Orchestra (a special one night engagement if I recall correctly).

I met of lot of these guys for the first time seeing them here.

Yes, that was Ricky Ford with the Mingus Dynasty, plus Richard Davis on bass and Horace Parlan on piano, and Dannie Richmond. That place was great; I could just walk in and sit in the front row pretty often. I probably went there a couple of hundred times during its life. I should have gone more often.

[johnlitweiler]

Texans, thank you for describing the Caravan Of Dreams, its people, and Ornette's relationship with it/them. I should have been suspicious of the articles in the DMN and the Fort Worth papers. From what you all say, the Dolphin-Allen cult aspect seems to have been overstated, at least in relation to Ornette and the Caravan.

Yes, "cult" is a loose term.

Loved the Naked Lunch movie a couple decades ago but I also had come to despise Wm. Burroughs by then.

[JSngry]

I should have been suspicious of the articles in the DMN and the Fort Worth papers. From what you all say, the Dolphin-Allen cult aspect seems to have been overstated, at least in relation to Ornette and the Caravan.

You should be suspicious of everything in the DMN, even if you saw it happen yourself and it looks like they got it exactly right (not that that will ever happen). Just sayin'...

OTOH, "cult" may or may not be too strong of a description for a group that has regular, forced meetings where "issues" regarding the "inner core" are are "worked out" and the leader has free reign to smack people as they see fit, but "abusive and manipulative" probably isn't. I'd throw in "unhealthy" as well, just because...it is.

Not that any of that had to do with Ornette or the music/musicians booked there. No doubt it didn't, and I never thought that it did. But when it comes to "Caravan Of Dreams" as a whole, you can't tell the whole story without including that part of it.