#jazz spectrum

[theloniousbach]

Once Again Working on The Enigma off Ornette Coleman

February 28, 2024

By Kim Kleinman, Contributing Writer

When he invited me to this birthday party for Ornette Coleman, Fritz wrote, “…I’ve loved his music since I got the ears to hear it correctly, and now I’m convinced I’ve underestimated his brilliance and the sheer beauty of his music.”

“The ears to hear it correctly” captures my efforts too. I dutifully read Martin Williams as a new jazz fan in the late 1960s or early 1970s and saw that Ornette Coleman was not only NEW, but IMPORTANT. I think I snatched up the Atlantic Best of collection from the Columbia Record Club. It was new, important, but not really much fun. Still, it would come out for at least one side from time to time in those days of vinyl LPs as the soundtrack to underaged beer and the deep but tedious thoughts of young people trying to figure out the world. Like the world itself, this music was mysterious, challenging, and a little scary.

I kept returning to Coleman, though far more often than other avant-gardists, even late-era John Coltrane. There was brilliance and sheer beauty, plus a vulnerability that kept drawing me back. A.B. Spellman’s Four Jazz Lives showed Coleman to be shy and brave, thoughtful and enigmatic. Later I saw Shirley Clarke’s documentary “Ornette: Made In America,” which conveyed an overwhelming sense of loneliness. It was with that impression in mind that I walked into the green room after a 1981 concert with Prime Time when I began to get the ears to hear him correctly. Shy myself, I shook Coleman’s hand to say thanks, for that night and all the years before. It was easier to talk to bassist Jamaaldeen Tacuma, who asked what I played. We both heard me blurt, “Er, stereo.”

In 1981, over the two drums, two basses, and two guitars with the leader, I heard just how Ornette sang, not just on alto but on trumpet and violin. Somehow the lack of technical prowess on the latter instruments expressed that vocal element of his art. That’s what he’d been doing all along; I finally had the correct ears to hear him singing brilliantly and beautifully.

With that insight, I could go back to those early Atlantic albums and really hear them for the first time—the coherence and poignancy of the melodies, the rich interplay of the voices, the harmonies that are there even without a chordal instrument to frame them. The previously daunting “Free Jazz” had a logic and opportunities to triangulate Coleman’s music with the more familiar voices of Freddie Hubbard, Eric Dolphy, and Scott LaFaro, a chance to hear how they played this music.

Coleman composed some wonderful tunes—my favorites are among the obvious ones: “Ramblin’,” “Una Muy Bonita,” “Peace,” “Lonely Woman.” Other musicians have covered these and a few other gems, but they aren’t really part of the canon. Still, the lead sheets of his that I’ve seen in fake books are straightforward, but his highly personal concept of “harmolodics” was not widely developed by others. He certainly contributed to the shape of jazz that came along in the 1960s with terse snarling lines and swoops of sound, but to parse out the Coleman from the Shepp, the Ayler, the Dolphy, the Coltrane, in an adventurous young saxophonist of today is difficult.

Yet his sound is distinctive and I do revisit it often enough. Usually it’s the Atlantic albums from the early 1960s, though I have a selection from the late-sixties Blue Note sides and I paid attention to his work with pianist Geri Allen in the mid 1990s.

As part of the Jazz Spectrum birthday bash for Ornette, I once again have listened to those favorite early albums this time around, including the one standard that Coleman covered, which is included in this week’s Song of the Week segment, “Embraceable You.” It’s a chance to test his approach with a recognizable point of reference. In the same vein, I also returned to his contribution to “Sonnymoon for Two” from Sonny Rollins’s September 2010, 80th birthday concert at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, which is collected on Road Shows, Vol. 2. It is, in the end, not all that good. For one, it is way too long, though to be fair Coleman doesn’t start playing until the nine-minute mark. They solo only serially in two- or three-minute segments over the remaining 12 minutes with little direct interplay. They certainly listen to one another but the interaction is passive. Coleman does invoke the theme at least tangentially in one solo, but more revealing is the way his improvisatory approach rooted in melody and theme has an affinity to Rollins’s and yet is so different. They each hear those intersections and lean into them.

It doesn’t quite work, but I am glad I listened. Coleman’s music does work, brilliantly and with sheer beauty. I am glad I have listened to it again and again and again.

[oozeandgoo-art]

i'll be selling this on my SubscribeStar this month! along with a lot of other stuff!

[corxoran]

I really like the idea of Jazz who is actually really inexperienced in areas that you wouldn't expect. He does get stressed and he does freak out but he extricates himself from a sticky situation so smoothly that you don't realize.

I want more of Jazz being confronted by things that actually frighten and unsettle him... I really like when a chill character that everyone can rely on breaks a little!

It's even better if it's something that most people are cool with or know a lot about, because then he definitely doesn't want to let on that he's lost and nervous.

If it was something crazy he could laugh and be like "Even I can't do that!" But if it's something he sees as simple, something he should be able to fake no problem even if he's never dealt with it before, he'd be singing a different tune. One more along the notes of "Frag, why can't I do this???"

I just think it's funny ^o^

[wanderingwithstars]

“Hide and Seek” now on Spotify.

For the whimsical lovers.

[fourohfourlifenotfound]

How long have you identified as asexual (or on the asexual specrrum)?

Hi all! I'm doing a poll just to get an idea of the breakdown of how long most of us have been here

If you also want to rb and comment how you found out about asexuality, that would be cool! If you're one of the rare ones who has been around since before AVEN, I'd love to hear your story

[theghostshost]

Thinking back on it- im like 80% sure i was just /LH Annoying for my art teachers to deal with back in Highschool- Like yeah I draw, ALOT and I did my art and projects in the class and outside of said classes. But now Im starting to realize that my teachers wanted me to make more "Meaningful" art, rather than just what I usually did and drew OC's or like Fungi and buildings. They wanted to push me to make art that had a more deeper purpose and feeling, ya know art that's like trying to say "Heres my struggles and anxieties." or "a representation of my fear for this reality" and jazz like that- but that all completely flew over my head. /Gen I was so oblivious to what they were trying to push me to do. They didn't Tell me out right "Draw what you feel/Make something about some struggles you have", of course not, but BECAUSE they didn't like tell me at point blank that's what they wanted me to try and make, I just drew OC's KJHSDGKJGHVKJSGJK. I don't know WHY all the little nuances they were trying to give me, just completely phased through me and left me with Nothing- but i think it's silly. After I finish a few projects, i'll try to draw more "purposeful" art. But not for me directly, it'll ofc still be OC/Characters from media based ahahah-

[plus-low-overthrow]

John Tropea - Livin' in the Jungle (TK Productions)

1979.

Sample, Blackalicious - One Of A Kind (Quannum)

[arseniccattails]

Stupid Blurr headcanon: his full name is actually Blueshift.

[psychologeek]

Core Skills info-dump:

So, in this chapter we have Jazz getting fusilli (short pasta) aglio olio (with oil, garlic, salt) - that's bc as autistic, new foods are hard and weird. For most of the autistic ppl I know, things like plain bread, pasta, etc. Are "Safe Foods". It has little taste, and usually feel, amell and taste the same (very neutral).

I choose oglio bc I HC Jazz not to use many spices. Also, not knowing WHAT is in the sauce is a big no-no with new foods. Jazz not using spices come from 3 main places: her being a main cook, so simple comes first. my autistic experience - I like the taste of food, and barely use anything but salt and garlic. And third - the fic "Neighborhood friendly vigilant" that has Jazz not using spices, and Jason fricking out (one of the cutest scenes, honestly). Short so she won't slurp/drop things on her date.

Jason order Carbonara, that is another italian dish. It also contains meat, so I didn't dig dipper. I assume he eat a lot of protein bc muscles and energy. Also a little food snob.

Also!!

The blender-metaphor is something I actually told my therapist (minus the Alfred part). It's... Really weird for me and I'm still figuring things out (or not. Bc, like a blender, it's not on the top part of my list).

[theloniousbach]

JAZZ SPECTRUM’S SONG OF THE WEEK, 23 SEPTEMBER 2023, “Dedicated to You”

I got the chance to contribute to my good friend’s show with this third hour (9-10 pm CDT) this weekend. I wrote the following note which is published here https://www.wgte.org/blog/this-weeks-song-of-the-week-dedicated-to-you-notes-on-the-eight-versions and follows below.

“Dedicated to You”

That descending figure and resolution over a I-IV chord pattern is what grabbed me when pianist Randy Ingram played “Dedicated to You” on a Small’s Live Stream from Mezzrow’s recently. I played Name That Tune with my usual level of success until Ingram announced it afterwards.

Fritz offered me the chance to pick this week’s song; the choice was easy. Choosing versions was less easy, but more fun.

The first recording of Sammy Cahn’s tune and our starting place is from Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy who made their name in Kansas City. It sets the mood with a concise big band recording from 1936. The middle of the first set includes pianists whom I want to know better: James Williams and John Hicks. Williams recorded “Dedicated to You” on his first solo album as he rose to prominence as a member of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Hicks was everywhere in the 1980s, but my musical attention was being distracted from jazz and I didn’t get to fully appreciate him. His smart trio work here, with Buster Williams, and Louis Hayes, is familiar and right. The first set ends with a lush Sarah Vaughn/Billy Eckstine duet.

If I rediscovered the tune courtesy of a Small’s Live Stream, then it’s fitting to have musicians I see regularly there—Eric Alexander, Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, David Hazeltine, Peter Washington, and Joe Farnsworth��work out on the tune, performing under the name of One for All. A very young Rachael Price performs what is the title tune to her 2008 album, reminding us that her prowess in Lake Street Dive builds on this serious jazz apprenticeship. “Dedicated to You” is just one luxurious melody Freddie Hubbard dug into on his “The Body and The Soul” albu, and that could be where we could leave things.

But, we wrap up on an even higher level with what, I belatedly remember, is the version I first heard—Johnny Hartman singing with John Coltrane, pushing the tune’s richness to exquisite limits.

After two sets of a beautiful but particularly slow ballad, it seemed like a palate cleanser of Count Basie and the Orchestra doing their rousing anthem “One O’Clock Jump” was in order. This version from Newport in 1957 features soloists Lester Young and Roy Eldridge before Illinois Jacquet rides it out with the throttle fully open. I close out the hour with Billy Childs, joied by the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, taking on Chick Corea’s “Crystal Silence,” another simple, delicate, beautiful tune.

[kiwiplur]

Makeup Day 1: All Previous prompts!!

NATG was off to a rough start this year cus of unfortunate circumstances on my end, but i finally got everything done!!

Day 1: Draw a pony standing / Draw a pony holding its ground Jazz is an abysinian, so TECHNICALLY not a pony, but it's got ponies in the advertisements. Hey you should totally scan that QR code smile :)

Day 4: Draw a pony on a wild goose chase / Draw a pony stuck between a rock and a hard place

Yaaayyy i get to draw Spectrum again!!! This is him about to race against an aggressively antagonistic pegasus, who totally freaks him out but he's trying to keep his cool as not to look lame in front of the fans.

Day 5: Draw a pony shrouded in mystery / Draw a pony with friends in high places.

This one's a bit of a stretch. It's Shroud Whisper decloaked. her name's Shroud, she lives in a ceiling fan, And nobody knows much about her. not even herself!

[cyberfestivaldonkeycash]

I always wondered why I related to Abed from Community because OBVIOUSLY there’s no way I’m autistic too HAHAHAHA!!! But I was autistic.

[thecreativemillennial]

41 years have passed since the world lost karen carpenter 💔😔🙁

[onenakedfarmer]

SUZY EDDIE IZZARD Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens

We need to become more open minded to the idea that many of us exist on a spectrum - a continuum - of gender. That for some of us the choice isn't just one or the other - completely male or completely female - but often a combination of both. In fact, it seems there are three different lines on the sexuality spectrum: how you self identify, who you're attracted to, and what you look like. And it seems the dial can be at any place on any of those three lines.

[gandalf-the-bean]

anyone else have like. a stim song? mine is take five by dave brubeck. hits in all the right tingles and i start bouncing and tapping and rocking and it’s just. it’s wonderful

this is the song if anyone wants to hear it