Ornette Coleman: Classic Or Dud?

Miles Davis did SNL in '81, he was having a stroke at the time.

like, actually during the performance?

davis was into his kind of pop-friendly comeback at that point, no?

did jazz have more cultural currency back then or was it just that SNL wasn't quite as big of the deal and so they could take more risks?

Davis was promoting The Man With The Horn, his much-hyped comeback lp. According to his autobbio, on the day of the taping he'd been in pain all day. He was taken to a doctor directly from the studio, and was quickly hospitalized for a stroke.

I had always assumed that Lorne Michaels had a thing for jazz, given his later executive production of that Night Music show.

Oh yeah, hadn't thought of that; good point. Also, Milton Berle hosted SNL the night Ornette was on, and they were chatting away while the credits rolled...
Xgau reviewed this recently, about a year after its release, but better late than never, esp. since I'd never heard of it:
The Road To Jajouka: A Benefit Album
(Howe)

The centerpiece is ghaita master Bachir Attar, inheritor by hustle of the stoned Moroccan aulos-and-oud-variants-plus-percussion that has fascinated kif-addled Westerners since Brian Jones traipsed into the dying mountain village of Jajouka with a tape recorder in 1968. Live there’s nothing remotely like its eldritch sonorities and impossible rhythms, and sometimes (not always) that’s enough in itself—more than enough. On record it’s dicier, with the Bill Laswell-produced 1992 Apocalypse Across the Sky the standard. Until this. The angel is drummer Billy Martin of Medeski, Martin & Wood. The other participants? Well, how can you not love desert-mountain weirdos who can make a single thing of, to name the ones I know in alphabetical order, [Ornette Coleman, Aiyb Dieng, DJ Logic, Flea, Mickey Hart, Bill Laswell, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Lee Ranaldo, Marc Ribot, Howard Shore & the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and John Zorn? Largely NY-avant, sure, but on one sonically coherent record whose sound recalls none of them? Further enhanced by a female Indian vocalist unknown to me and the bassist from Ween? And the greatest of these is—who else? Hint: turned 84 March 9. A MINUS

Despite "sound recalls none of them," think I could sense Ornette's effect in there, considering how he melded with the Jajoukans on Dancing In Your Head.

oy i can hardly parse that christgau review; can somebody translate that into english?

eldritch sonorities!

kif-addled Westerners

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ZapandKif_8284.jpg

i hate the fucking coyness of who else? Hint:

I had always assumed that Lorne Michaels had a thing for jazz, given his later executive production of that Night Music show.

My guess is you can credit Hal Willner.

Willner was the music director of SNL, so that helped re Michaels & Night Music. Howard Shore was the SNL music/band director before Willner, and o course later did the Naked Lunch soundtrack with Ornette.

i did not know any of this

hope ornette sold a few records that night

I saw it when first broadcast, didn't know he was gonna be on: accompaniment was pretty bouncy, maybe even the disco beat from Of Human Feelings?

Really good!

Willner helped put together part of the Ornette tribute in Prospect Park this Summer, in which Ornette participated, and which Xgau attended.

Holy shit at this: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=798627630174468&fref=nf

aaaaaahhhhh have waited so long to see this!! ripping shit up at the 2:30 mark

So amazing.

yeah, I saw that on Hulu a few months ago and was like yesssssssssssss; best thing on SNL ever, i think.

the episode only has one song from ornette, though, were there two in its original broadcast?

it's rare btw because lorne michaels refused to allow that episode in syndication; milton berle, the guest host, basically commandeered the show and was subsequently banned.

berle says "ornette coleman; let's hear it, once more!"

which implies there was a previous performance, but maybe it wasn't aired?

i like to imagine that uncle miltie was actually a huge fan of harmolodic funk

Okay that ruled

I saw that when it was broadcastL already trippin on Uncle Miltie---and then there was Ornette! Didn't know he was gonna be on. Always wondered what they were chatting about while the credits rolled; looked like old friends, and maybe they were. From WSJ---haven't ordered the album yet:

Completely New Yet Pleasantly Familiar
Ornette Coleman’s ‘New Vocabulary’ is his first studio album since 1996.
By
Martin Johnson
Jan. 7, 2015 6:10 p.m. ET
With shockingly little advance publicity, a new recording featuring jazz great Ornette Coleman has been released. The album, “New Vocabulary” (System Dialing Recordings), became available late last month via the label’s website, and it features the innovative saxophonist and composer in a collective ensemble that includes trumpeter Jordan McLean, drummer Amir Ziv and keyboardist Adam Holzman.
The release comes at a time when new music from Mr. Coleman has grown scarce. He made a guest appearance on one track of “Road Shows Vol. 2” (Doxy), a 2011 release by fellow saxophone legend Sonny Rollins. His last official recording was “Sound Grammar” (Sound Grammar), a live recording from 2006, which received the Pulitzer Prize for music the following year. His last studio recording was “Sound Museum: Three Women” (Harmolodic/Verve) in 1996.

Mr. Coleman, who is 84, is one of the most pivotal figures in jazz history. In the late ’50s, he arrived on the scene, first in Los Angeles and then in New York, with an approach to music that loosened the rules of harmony and freed musicians to play more of what they felt. The approach was often called free jazz, a name taken from one of Mr. Coleman’s best recordings of the time. Later in the ’60s, he was one of the first jazz musicians to compose string quartets. His band in the ’70s produced classic recordings like “Science Fiction” (Columbia, 1971), and in 1976 he released his first recording with Prime Time, a band featuring electric guitars and basses that seamlessly combined jazz and funk.
Although its arrival was a surprise, the timing of the release of “New Vocabulary” is entirely appropriate. Mr. Coleman’s music was the subject of two heralded tributes in 2014. In October, The Bad Plus performed the entire “Science Fiction” recording in a series of concerts; in June, music luminaries including Mr. Coleman himself played his works in a Celebrate Brooklyn concert called “Celebrate Ornette.”
The new album was recorded in 2009. A year earlier, Mr. Coleman had attended the musical “Fela!” Afterward, he went backstage and met Mr. McLean, who was assistant musical director for the production and is a member of Antibalas, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Afrobeat band that arranged and performed the show’s music. The two men became friends, and Mr. Coleman invited Mr. McLean, who is 40, to his home to play music. Those sessions evolved to include Messrs. Ziv and Holzman, Mr. McLean’s bandmates in an electronic music group called Droid. Mr. Ziv, who is 43, has been a leading sideman for more than 20 years; his credits include work with Sean Lennon, Lauryn Hill, and Medeski, Martin and Wood. Mr. Holzman, who is 56 and leads several bands, has played with Miles Davis and Chaka Khan. Informal jamming gradually became more rigorous rehearsals as the musicians honed the 12 songs that appear on the recording.
“New Vocabulary” is a concise 42 minutes, and it begins with two spare tunes, “Baby Food” and “Sound Chemistry,” that contrast Mr. Coleman’s bright, often gleeful saxophone tone with electronic effects by Mr. McLean and piano from Mr. Holzman. From there the intensity picks up on pieces like “Alphabet,” “Bleeding,” “If it Takes a Hatchet” and “H20” as Mr. Ziv’s drumming becomes more prominent and both Mr. Coleman and Mr. McLean accent and play off of his driving rhythms. The album ends with “Gold is God’s Sex,” a ruminative piece that lends the recording a bit of symmetry.
Most Ornette Coleman projects offer either something completely new or something closely related to what he has done in the past. Prime Time and the band on “Sound Museum” were radical shifts. “Science Fiction,” built on the Blue Note recordings that preceded it, and “Sound Grammar” placed Coleman in a familiar setting—a quartet—with repertoire from his lengthy career. “New Vocabulary” does a little of both. Without directly quoting melodies, Mr. Coleman’s playing at times recalls his work in the early ’60s, early ’70s and late ’80s. Yet the backing is completely new for those who know his work only via recordings, and Mr. Coleman sounds energized by his bandmates. One can only hope it is a direction he will continue to pursue. Despite its under-the-radar launch, “New Vocabulary” is a valuable addition to Ornette Coleman’s extraordinary discography.

wait what? new ornette? !!

http://systemdialingrecords.com/market/albums/new-vocabulary/

kind of annoying that it's not on CD(?), but i guess i can buy the WAVs and burn them to a CDR.

Wow $30 for FLAC files. Ornette is approaching Neil Young levels of album pricing.

wooo, yeah that SNL ornette clip smokes.
friend said the "new" ornette record is great, but I haven't heard it.

it steams maybe

shit is positively dry cleaned

i doubt ornette himself has much to deal with the album's release much less its pricing, but yeah, it's not cheap. i guess i'm willing to pay the premium considering the album has a small niche and is being released by a tiny boutique label. that seems to be the way things are.

Oh man thanks for letting us know there was a new (2009) Ornette record. It is pricey but hey, it's Ornette and he could probably use the cash.

Wait this record is from 09?

upthread: The new album was recorded in 2009.

Interestingly the band behind him was into live drum and bass circa 99-2000 (in the 'market' section of that website) - now there was a Prime Time direction I would have liked to have heard

can't remember where I read it, but I think ornette has built up a LOT of unreleased material over the past two decades or so...
so who knows, maybe there is a drum n bass thing somewhere lurking in the archives.

Ornette there is this thing called Bandcamp

yow that SNL performance is/was bonkers

Getting Bill Dixon "Vade Mecum" vibes off this new one so far

Getting Bill Dixon "Vade Mecum" vibes off this new one so far

OK, now I'm definitely gonna check this out.

In terms of the sound I mean. It's a lot less intense

That SNL clip is tremendous. Does anyone know what piece that was and if its on an LP? Thx.

"Times Square," from "Of Human Feelings."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dA5qoTOa3Q

i love "on human feelings," but i think the SNL performance nearly smokes the studio version

yeah i think so too. so was that the only thing he played that night?

and what did milton berle think?

milton berle says "let's hear it again, once more!" which implies there was a previous performance, but the only in the episode as it appears on hulu is "times square"

someone on Facebook was saying that (speaking of early TV legends) Ernie Kovacs was a big fan of avant-garde jazz (!) -- if only he hadn't died in a car crash, he could be hosting SNL with Ornette as a guest. wouldn't that be somethin'?

bizarrely, just before the prime time performance, Milton Berle does a "joke" in which he speaks to a bunch of suited japanese businessmen in a kind of pidgin Japanese.

Buck Henry seemed genuinely reverent in his introduction to Sun Ra's performance in season 3.

man, people on youtube be shittin' all over denardo's playing. he's great! he also seems like an incredibly cool guy.