What's the Latest on Ornette Coleman?

[Justin V]

It seems that Ornette hasn't been very active recently. I check his website pretty often and don't usually see anything on his itinerary, and his website is down today (presumably for maintenance). Is he taking a break, or has he retired? Although I haven't had the good fortune to see him perform in person yet, it'd be nice to know that he is still performing somewhere. As a side note, when I saw the impressive Moutin Reunion Quartet last month, Francois and Louis did a fun duo tribute to Ornette.

Does anyone know what's going on with him? I hope that he is doing well.

Edited July 10, 2013 by Justin V

[kh1958]

Not sure, but here's an account of his 82nd birthday party.

http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2013/03/happy-birthday-83-and-82-ornette-coleman.html

[jlhoots]

Jayne Cortez has died since the 2012 birthday.

A source (not sure how reliable) claims that Ornette has early dementia.

Hope not.

[paul secor]

Not sure, but here's an account of his 82nd birthday party.

http://www.artsjournal.com/jazzbeyondjazz/2013/03/happy-birthday-83-and-82-ornette-coleman.html

Seems as if it was an interesting party - or at least attended by interesting people. I don't think I've ever read an article that dropped more names than Mandel did in this one.

[robertoart]

Nix calls the party a meeting of “Harmolodics Anonymous.” His joke is that once exposed and enlisted in Ornette’s point of view, musicians often find themselves commercial outcasts. It’s really that they’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’t get with harmolodics at all.

Crouch was sitting on the couch

[David Ayers]

Overclaim about harmolodics, which - as Cecil Taylor noted - is usually rooted in conventional triads. Taylor's attempt to play with OC reportedly ended in acrimony for this reason - it is in the notes to a CT LP, just don't recall which one but I've got it here.

[robertoart]

Overclaim about harmolodics, which - as Cecil Taylor noted - is usually rooted in conventional triads. Taylor's attempt to play with OC reportedly ended in acrimony for this reason - it is in the notes to a CT LP, just don't recall which one but I've got it here.

Really?

It's definitely rooted in The Blues and collective improvisation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0HB8ybKJzo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsT5J6TJIkk

Edited July 8, 2013 by freelancer

[David Ayers]

I know Ornette's music relatively well and for years he was my favorite. He's basically a melodist, his ideas are rooted in triadic harmony, in fact his music is easy on the ear although the electric bands are a bit noisy (and live unbearably noisy). I like his music, his core idea of free jazz gave rise to many things and was an incredible inspiration, but it is also clear to me - and I think this is what Taylor was getting at - that he doesn't proceed far beyond his initial assumptions and that a more conscious and constructivist approach is required to "break with Western traditions" - if we are to use that nonsensical phrase which ignores that the tradition of Western modernity has never been about anything other than constant innovation....

[robertoart]

I know Ornette's music relatively well and for years he was my favorite. He's basically a melodist, his ideas are rooted in triadic harmony, in fact his music is easy on the ear although the electric bands are a bit noisy (and live unbearably noisy). I like his music, his core idea of free jazz gave rise to many things and was an incredible inspiration, but it is also clear to me - and I think this is what Taylor was getting at - that he doesn't proceed far beyond his initial assumptions and that a more conscious and constructivist approach is required to "break with Western traditions" - if we are to use that nonsensical phrase which ignores that the tradition of Western modernity has never been about anything other than constant innovation....

Indeed, I accept what you're saying. But is the Harmolodic aspect really more about the interaction and rhythmic displacement of the ensemble, rather than the triadic harmony basis of the individual lines or melody. The so called Harmolodic bands announced a difference from the previous Ornette bands. The whole approach and instrumentation is something else to the Science Fiction School Days era that proceeded it. And it's easier for 'straight heads' to approach that music accordingly (a pinnacle of creative music though it is).

The thing that changed from the 'classic' quartet and the expanded horn ensembles was that with the introduction of the guitars and double drums and bass the collapsing cacophony effect became more pronounced. It's more than the effect of just being a bit noisy. It's an ensemble sound that alienates before it reconstructs in your head as disparate melody/cry of Jazz-Blues integrity.

It's just as viable and confronting as Miles Agartha/Dark Magus period, although from another angle. The way this music cross-polinated with the No-Wave New-Wave Post-Punk scene (inauthentically actually), has done it a disservice historically I think.

Edited July 8, 2013 by freelancer

[Gheorghe]

I love everything he did, from the first quartets/trios to the electric stuff.

And yeah, you can dig Ornette´s electric stuff like you should dig Miles´Agartha stuff.

[David Ayers]

Just playing Virgin Beauty - quite pretty, head structures, nice tunes...

[John L]

Try telling Ornette what you think that harmolodics really is. He will tell you that you are wrong.

I have never gotten harmolodics, but that doesn't keep me from loving Ornette's music.