Ornette Coleman Quartet

Ahhh, glorious, simply glorious. Coleman's turn of the '70s, pre-Prime Time quartet with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell always felt somewhat overshadowed in his discography - it was the Skies of America era, too, and the expanded lineups for the Science Fiction/Broken Shadows sessions - so this more than welcome spotlight on that unit is exactly what a veteran Ornette Coleman hand would hope for. There's nothing remotely bootleg about the sound quality, the jacket photos by Val Wilmer are great, the liner notes informative enough, and the music simply exceptional. Two pieces were staples of his concert repertoire for this 1971 tour, and another pair ("Silhouette" and "Summer-Thang" - ouch) apparently listed as untitled improvisations or compositions in discographies, were as fresh to the players then as it is to the listener now…

Like many of Ornette Coleman's Atlantic sides, The Art of the Improvisers was recorded in numerous sessions from 1959-1961 and assembled for the purpose of creating a cohesive recorded statement. Its opening track, "The Circle with the Hole in the Middle," from 1959, with the classic quartet of Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell, and Charlie Haden, is one of Coleman's recognizable pieces of music. Essentially, the band is that quartet with two very notable exceptions: The last tracks on each side feature a different bass player. On the end of side one, the great Scott LaFaro weighs in on "The Alchemy of Scott La Faro," and Jimmy Garrison weighs in on "Harlem's Manhattan" to close the album out. These last two sessions were recorded early in 1961, in January and March respectively…

Ornette Coleman's first album in several years and first recording for a major label in quite some time features his 1995 version of Prime Time with two guitars, two bassists, son Denardo Coleman on drums and Badal Roy on tables and percussion. In addition the band includes Dave Bryant, Coleman's first keyboardist in decades (although his part is actually fairly minor). The ensembles are funky and quite dense, Coleman really wails on alto (also playing a bit of violin and trumpet) and, despite the inclusion of one obnoxious rap, this free funk set is well worth picking up by open-minded listeners.

Ornette Coleman - Quartet 1971 (1991) {Black Bird}
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© 1971, 1991 Black Bird / Barna Records | [none]
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone / Violin / Trumpet

It's a superb performance, featuring compositions from the late '60s and early '70s recorded on albums like Crisis and Science Fiction. In fact, the version of "Rock the Clock," one of Coleman's wilder songs, is arguably superior to the official one on the latter album. The group performs Charlie Haden's "Song for Che" in a fashion close to the original Liberation Music Orchestra rendition, including the interpolation of a Spanish protest song during the composer's solo.

At The Golden Circle Stockholm Vol. 1 (1965). Ornette Coleman's 1965 trio with bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett is easily the most underrated of all his bands. Coming off the light of the famed quartet in which Don Cherry, Eddie Blackwell, and Charlie Haden shone, anything might have looked a bit dimmer, it's true. But this band certainly had no apologies to make. Coleman was deep into creating a new approach to melody, since Haden and Cherry had honed his harmonic sensibilities. Izenzon proved to be the right bassist for Coleman to realize his ambitions. A stunning arco as well as pizzicato player (check his solo in "Dawn") Izenzon offered Coleman the perfect foil. No matter where Coleman's soloing moved the band, Izenzon was there at exactly the same time with an uncanny sense of counterpoint, and he often changed the harmonic mode by force…

Continuing Contemporary Records’ 70th anniversary celebration, Craft Recordings is proud to announce the release of the new box set, Ornette Coleman – Genesis of Genius: The Contemporary Albums : 2-LP, 2-CD and digital formats out March 25. The sets feature two seminal releases, 1958’s Something Else!!!! The Music of Ornette Coleman and 1959’s Tomorrow Is the Question! The New Music of Ornette Coleman. These albums transformed an unknown jazz visionary from the hinterlands into the talk of the New York scene.