OrnetteColeman news

Pioneer jazz legend Ornette Coleman turns 80 and is as unconventional as ever

Dallas Morning News - Mar 9, 2010
NEW YORK CITY – A conversation with Ornette Coleman can begin with a straightforward ...

Listening, Party For Two: Ornette Coleman, 'Una Muy Bonita'
NPR (blog) - Mar 9, 2010
Ornette Coleman is 80 today, which is to be celebrated. It also makes for a perfect opportunity to introduce the Boss Lady to an artist whose name she's ...

Lessons in music appreciation from Ornette Coleman
Fort Worth Star Telegram - Feb 25, 2010
But ever since a friend turned me on to Ornette Coleman in the late 1980s in college, I have appreciated -- and greatly. My favorite Coleman records are ...

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Ornette Coleman music

The Language of Music

Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, Ginger Baker, Eric Clapton
If you have followed popular American music of the last 50 years, you will love this portrait of Atlantic Records engineer Tom Dowd. Using interviews and concert and rehearsal footage, the documentary traces Dowd's career, from the days of direct-to-disc live recording in the late '40s through the advent of digital recording in the '80s and '90s. Dowd was there at every stage and he played a critical role in the development of jazz, soul, and rock. As an engineer, producer, and coach, he helped create some of the most important music from people like John Coltane, Ornette Coleman, and the Modern Jazz Quartet, through Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, the Drifters, the Coasters, Rufus Thomas, Charles Mingus, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers, Lynard Skynard and countless others.
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Song X

Interesting precursor to the thrash-jazz movement comes packed with explosive avant-garde interplay but also suffers from the strained dynamics. While the Metheny-Coleman alliance is an interesting one, it does not always work in favor of the music. Only when the duo go all out, abandoning tradition in search of brass-bliss cacophonies that the experimentation does not feel like a double-edged sword. Besides for rampant dissonance, there are a few tracks, especially on the new version, which demonstrate actual attempts at symbiosis.

Titles:
    1. Police People
    2. All of Us
    3. Good Life
    4. Word From Bird
    5. Compute
    6. Veil
    7. Song X
    8. Mob Job
    9. Endangered Species
    10. Video Games
    11. Kathelin Gray
    12. Trigonometry
    13. Song X Duo
    14. Long Time No See
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White Man Sleeps

I agree with the previous reviewer...the Kronos rendition of Bartok Quartet #3 is charitably described as anemic. Compared to any number of other recordings (most notably, in my opinion, the 1963 Juilliard version), it underscores my feeling that Kronos would be well-advised to avoid the standard repertoire and stick to works composed specifically for them.

Aside from the lousy Bartok, the only piece of note (for me) was the Kevin Volans piece, which earns this album the lofty 3 stars I have given it.

Titles:
    1. White Man Sleeps No 1
    2. White Man Sleeps No 3
    3. White Man Sleeps No 5
    4. Scherzo Holding Your Own
    5. Pano da Costa (Cloth from the Coast)
    6. Lonely Woman
    7. Amazing Grace
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Virgin Beauty

This was introduction to later period Ornette Coleman, and to my ears remains one of his better electric recordings. Ornette and Prime Time really cook up a storm on this release of mostly short numbers. Jerry Garcia (!) from the Grateful Dead even sits in on a couple of selections and feels right at home. The music is well played and loaded with feeling, especially the untitled, mostly solo closing track.

Titles:
    1. 3 Wishes
    2. Bourgeois Boogie
    3. Happy Hour
    4. Virgin Beauty
    5. Healing the Feeling
    6. Singing in the Shower
    7. Desert Players
    8. Honeymooners
    9. Chanting
    10. Spelling the Alphabet
    11. Unknown Artist
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