The Adventure - On Free Jazz & Ornette Coleman (I of II)

"The Theme you play at the start of a number is the territory, and what comes after, which may have very little to do with it, is the Adventure!" - Ornette Coleman

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Free
• jazz
• Ornette
• Coleman
• Sax
• Adventure

[MeneerTiki]

what comes after, is the adventure...the descend into senility. 

[historicalrecall]

@MeneerTiki So when you hear two foreigners speak in a strange language in the street, you assume they're talking gibberish?

[ZupraVisor]

Whats the song in the beggining?

[historicalrecall]

@ZupraVisor The song is "Eventually" from the Album 'Shape of Jazz to Come'.

Also recommend listenings are; 'Sound Grammar' and 'This is our music'

Peace

[tbcass]

It is rare for Free Jazz to become a cohesive piece. When it works it can be impressive but most of the time it just becomes self indulgent noise with no communication with the listener. I never really cared for most free jazz myself as I believe music should communicate with the listener as well as your fellow musicians.

[historicalrecall]

@tbcass so freejazz is perhaps the most "intense-communication"

[zn37]

wow... thank you so much for posting this. This is so interesting.

[warsd4]

Man I'd love to see that footage that starts around @4:00 in... I've never been able to find footage of Ornette and Charlie Haden playing together....

[BuckshotLaFunke1]

After so many years it sounds like playing outside on Bird and blues, but I still find them awesome at times. And what a bass player and what a drummer! And Ornette so eloquent yet pedantic in Down Beat interviews. They were indeed a new horizon at the time.

[horbergus]

Man, i do not understand this music

[tedscottsky]

I know jazz as well as anyone on this post.

I personally have no taste for "Free Jazz" and very little respect for it.

It reminds me of much modern art that looks like child's finger painting.

Ultimately it's up to each individual listener. There is no way one can intellectualize it to another to justify or discredit it.

True, on can gain a greater appreciation for something with time, exposure, and education. But in the end it either touches you or it don't.

"If it sounds good it is good"

[Jamsessionroom1337]

Music will always be judged on it's "pretty" factors, but i think everyone can lie to an audience. I think alot of musicians nowadays get off on lying to people, deceiving them with the shades of pretty chord progressions, over studied solos, always wanting something to "fit".

I get what free jazz is about. It's truly just about telling another part who you are to a person, whether it be chaotic or strange to some. Or just dis-organized bliss to others.

[Jamsessionroom1337]

As much as i want to be a free musician part of it is being an entertainer.

And i really hate that part,it means conforming for a listener indulging them, when in reality all i want to do is play my instrument, but to be a musician you have to be an entertainer first, and cater to the people you entertain, in order to make a living off it.

If i could just play and not worry about the money part, i would. But it's not likely, i guess that's why i'm liking this stuff,it's not catering to anybody

[gjohnsoningary]

@tbcass They sound like a bunch of toddlers messing with their daddies musical instruments. Free jazz is indulgent laziness that flips the bird at real creativity and effort. A man could commit suicide listening to Ornette Coleman. Pure noise at its infinite worse!

[feuerzwerg9]

Miene fresse klingt das scheiße Rock 4life

[jazzand]

Ornette's music comes right out of the music of Charlie Parker. Go read Francis Poudras' account of the time he and Bud Powell spent staying at Ornette's apartment after Bud's Birdland gig ended (in the book "Dance of the Infidels"). He talks about Ornette getting up and playing all the Charlie Parker heads all day long! Jimmy Heath personally told me that of all the "free" jazz guys, Ornette was one of the only ones he could listen to.