Saturday, April 17, 2010

Musical Journey: Stop 3 - Ornette Coleman


My next stop is the world of Ornette Coleman. I sat down and listened to Something Else!! I truely mean this when I say that this is not my typical listening. A man with a saxophone. Jazz musical notes flying everywhere. I don't understand jazz and have maybe listened to one or two jazz records prior to this. There are no vocals, just Ornette tearing up the saxophone. I am not going to try and analyze this album because my lack of jazz knowledge would not do him justice. But, I will say a couple things.....

1. I actually liked this album. For some reason I kept envisioning him playing for the Cosby family and watching Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable and Claire smiling and dancing while the family watched before joining in before too long.
2. I listened to the whole album at once so it cannot be that bad if it held my interest.

A couple things about Ornette Coleman(pulled from many websites)
1. Born March 9th, 1930
2. Played the violin, saxophone, trumpet and was also a composer
3. His playing was unorthodox and his playing bothered many musicians and he become controversial for his style of play

Something Else was his first album released in 1958. This album is said to have shaken up the jazz world because he combined blues and jazz together. He did not follow the typical jazz structure of the time and instead began the new jazz concept of free jazz.

Once again, I feel that I have learned to appreciate a new type of music. I am not sure that I will listen to this album again with all the other music available, but glad I took the time to listen to it. Now, I am off to David Bowie Young Americans

1 comment:

groove68 said...

Shirley Clarke's 1986 documenetary about Coleman, "Ornette. Made in America" - watch here as video on demand stream

http://www.realeyz.tv/en/shirley-clarke-ornette-made-in-america_cont2029.html