RIP Ornette Coleman

[Sam]

A sad few days for us losing some giants of their respective fields.

"The alto saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, one of the most powerful and contentious innovators in the history of jazz, died on Thursday morning in Manhattan. He was 85."

NY Times article

[amidar]

Truly revolutionary, RIP.

[Plainstone]

RIP indeed. Had the pleasure of seeing him live a few years back with Denardo and Charlie Haden. By the end of the set they were all sweating like pigs except Ornette, who still looked impeccable and ready for another two hours. He must have been well into his 70s then. Lonely Woman still sends shivers down my spine whenever I hear it.

[Expiry2011]

Listeing to This Is Our Music now
He left a very substantial legacy

[medlar]

Terrible news - one of the true greats. RIP

Listening to his duet with Charlie Haden "Soad Suds" right now. His legacy is grand indeed.

[Boi Bach o Bethel]

Sad news indeed. On the turntable as I type.

[jakartajive]

[lights touch paper and stands well back]

I'm still not totally sure my wife is wrong when she asks whether anyone REALLY likes listening to Ornette Coleman?
Or whether they simply SAY they do in order to avoid not looking cool?

I've tried.
I really have.
But more than almost anything else I can think of that I've ever tried to listen to, this is music that makes me feel there's something I am supposed to 'get', but can't.
Which in turn makes me doubt the existence of said thing.

[SirSlim]

[lights touch paper and stands well back]

I'm still not totally sure my wife is wrong when she asks whether anyone REALLY likes listening to Ornette Coleman?
Or whether they simply SAY they do in order to avoid not looking cool?

I've tried.
I really have.
But more than almost anything else I can think of that I've ever tried to listen to, this is music that makes me feel there's something I am supposed to 'get', but can't.
Which in turn makes me doubt the existence of said thing.

Try this one Hugh?

Off one of the first proper jazz LPs I ever bought

RIP Ornette.

[Expiry2011]

[lights touch paper and stands well back]

I'm still not totally sure my wife is wrong when she asks whether anyone REALLY likes listening to Ornette Coleman?
Or whether they simply SAY they do in order to avoid not looking cool?

I can only dream that someone might think I'm cool because I listen to a jazz record! I can tell you that Mrs E does NOT think that listening to Ornette Coleman is the same as being cool

I grant you a lot of his stuff can be a challenging listen - but he wasn't/isn't alone in the jazz world because of that
In relation to Coleman's music, many critics and writers had similar responses to yours - in particular to his early records. He was dismissed a fraud and as a kind of sideshow freak.
He was influential to a whole range of musicians and in my view really validated a freer approach to jazz - but not everyone likes free jazz

Its been pointed out that Joe Harriott's free form music is a similar approach to jazz to the one that Coleman was following at the same time. Perhaps you should give the US guys a break and listen to some UK based jazz instead?????

[No, LordNo]

[lights touch paper and stands well back]

I'm still not totally sure my wife is wrong when she asks whether anyone REALLY likes listening to Ornette Coleman?
Or whether they simply SAY they do in order to avoid not looking cool?

I've tried.
I really have.
But more than almost anything else I can think of that I've ever tried to listen to, this is music that makes me feel there's something I am supposed to 'get', but can't.
Which in turn makes me doubt the existence of said thing.

Everything's not for everybody, just cause you can't see it doesn't mean it's not there...

RIP Ornette

[medlar]

[lights touch paper and stands well back]

I'm still not totally sure my wife is wrong when she asks whether anyone REALLY likes listening to Ornette Coleman?
Or whether they simply SAY they do in order to avoid not looking cool?

I've tried.
I really have.
But more than almost anything else I can think of that I've ever tried to listen to, this is music that makes me feel there's something I am supposed to 'get', but can't.
Which in turn makes me doubt the existence of said thing.

I'm surprised you posted that, very foolish and disrespectful. A legend has just passed away. His legacy is substantial, and he was a truly original voice. RIP

[jakartajive]

I'm surprised you posted that, very foolish and disrespectful.

If anyone has bar mitzvahs, funerals, leaving bashes, etc. that you'd like the tone lowered at . . .

[Shere Khan]

I really like the trio records at 'The Golden Circle', but all periods are good. Even the record he just did 'New Vocabulary' is good. There seems to be such a lot of space in what he does. Mrs SK was wondering why he polarized opinion so much and I think it's just his 'Harmolodics thing' which nobody, apart from him seemed to understand. Who cares? Every time I put an Ornette Coleman record on I just think how great it is, not what the concept behind it is. I don't think Jakartajive is alone in his thoughts though- plenty of jazzers have said the same.

[SirSlim]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obit...-obituary.html

"But the usual charge levelled against radical jazz innovators that their music was “not jazz” could never be applied to Coleman. Rather, it was as though he had gone back to the rough folk roots of jazz and created his own alternative line of evolution."