Ornette Dancing In Your Head

Simple words, and yet that was the way Ornette Coleman summed up the reason behind his quest in music: a manifestation of the pure joy of sound and rhythm. And if the music of Ornette Coleman continues to move us today, it's because it drives its roots deep down into the rural blues of America's south, causing the emergence of a free and carefree jazz whose melodies form a vibrant, lyrical celebration of the moment. Ornette Coleman, incidentally, was a musician whose fervent admirers have included great artists of immensely varying styles, from Lou Reed to John Zorn and Leonard Bernstein, or David Cronenberg, Yoko Ono, Thurston Moore, Patti Smith, Claude Nougaro and Pat Metheny, to name only those.

This supreme set includes all 24 performances from the two events, Ornette’s last performance at the «Celebrate Brooklyn» show and his Memorial at Riverside Church.

Jamaaladeen Tacuma's second free funk effort for Gramavision is almost the equal of his first (Show Stopper). Once again the first four songs feature his regular band (a quintet with guitarist Rick Iannacone and altoist James Watkins) while the second half of the program showcases his electric bass in diverse groups. "Dancing in Your Head" has some of the members of Ornette Coleman's Prime Time (including the innovative altoist); Tacuma often played with Ornette during this period. The lengthy "The Battle of Images" features Tacuma with the Ebony String Quartet and a percussionist, "There He Stood" has the leader joined by percussionists and a poet. Best is "Sparkle," a jam with tenor saxophonist David Murray and guitarist Vernon Reid. Alththugh a bit of a mixed bag, this set should appeal to listeners open to both the avant-garde and eccentric funk.

Tamma with Don Cherry & Ed Blackwell - Tamma (1984) {ODIN NJ 4014-2 rel 1997}
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© 1984, 1997 Odin Records | ODIN NJ 4014-2
Jazz / World Fusion / Afro-Fusion / World Music

Tamma (which means talking drum in Gambian) is a percussion and horn jazz group founded by Gambian master drummer Miki N'Doye and brought to Norway where he enlisted the aid of that country's musicians in forming an open-ended music that would engage European cultures in the music of the African Diaspora. A quintet, they feature a proper trap kit drummer, saxophonist, trumpet, an electric bassist, and N'Doye. All members play some percussion and sing (more like chant). They make an ethereal, moody, high-lonesome kind of rhythm-based Afro-jazz. Performing live at the Mode International Jazz Festival, they were joined for two days by the late trumpeter and douzongouni player (African guitar), and the late drummer Ed Blackwell both men at that time were members of Old and New Dreams and former bandmates in the Ornette Coleman Quartet.

Whatever the reason that Betty Davis' Is It Love or Desire – also known as Crashin' from Passion – remained unreleased until 2009 no longer matters. Davis remembers a personal rift with Island's Chris Blackwell. Studio In the Country manager Jim Bateman (in Bogalusa, LA) claims the studio was never paid and therefore refused to release the masters to Island, etc. It makes no difference, because hearing this album, a ten-song set that was to be.

Various configurations of four jazz titans recorded live one evening during Cafe Oto’s early years.