As I mentioned yesterday, the Pulitzer Prize for music has been awarded to Ornette Coleman for his album 'Sound Grammar.' I wonder if the 77 year old reflected on Duke's sardonic statement, when he missed out on a similar prize: 'Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young.' But let us not carp... I saw the band who recorded this 2005 live album at Ludwigshaven in London the same year and they were brilliant – looking forward to seeing O.C. In July...
So: a small celebration from this blog for a visionary musician... A couple of posts back, I noted that Straight No Chaser has a piece on this and included a track from 'Sound Grammar,' so I'll avoid duplication and go for something earlier. Here's Ornette on his European jaunt in 1965, recorded live at the Tivoli, playing 'Clergyman's Dream.' One of my favourite line-ups - Ornette with David Izenzon and Charles Moffett. Opening theme by Ornette, tracked by the bass and then the drums – the solo alto just flows out from here. The bass is very prominent and the way Ornette bounces off Izenzon's lines describes a joyful arc of freedom. Moffett picks up steam although the recording does him no favours. For me this is one of those tracks that demonstrate very clearly one great vision of what 'free' improvisation means.
Izenzon up next – backed by Moffett's cymbals he takes a fleet pizzicato solo that ranges across his instrument from high to low – Moffett sets up a counter-rhythm at one point on what sounds like a beer glass before thumping his toms to signal his take-over from the bass. A brilliant and imaginative drummer. Free – and swinging, starting off with hihat ticking the off-beat and a rattle of tambourine as a historic starting point almost before the the rapidly developing complications of his complex stick-work take over.
Ornette comes back – some interesting triplet over two behind him that gives a swaying sensation before the bass returns to a more solid four walk. One feels as if the space evoked here is limitless, free air blowing in all directions... Izenzon does his suspended rhythm again... Sudden rolls on the toms as three go separately -and together. Coming back to the slow/fast theme...
The track ends in a glorious rapid swirl of notes and drums... Cue applause...
During this track, as Ornette alternately entangles himself in knotty swirls of melody and then jumps free in a manner that follows a conversational logic – his alto exultant, pleading, querulous – joyful – yet a deep and meaningful conversation – no idle chatter – he demonstrates one of the great innovations in instrumental technique that 'jazz' as we know it developed from the start. The 'vocalised' instrumental tone that every musician has to find – ways of bending the conventional straight timbres to the individual's will and imagination. Compare, say, Lee Konitz with Charlie Parker – the hot and the cool (although Konitz in later years has developed a harder edge). Two radically different voices... Jazz musicians have to find their way through to that space which their technique, emotions and imagination come together to create – influence can never be escaped, yet the imperative is for a degree of freedom that transcends one's teachers – in any of the genres, old and new, retro or forward-faring or just holding the line – way beyond the academy's training. The degree to which this has changed among classically trained musicians is probably the extent to which jazz has impacted on their territories... An overtly romantic take, maybe... but this music makes me feel overtly romantic – guts and brain engaged simultaneously...
And I've just discovered that I upped this track last year and also wrote at some length about it here... bugger! Still – always worth hearing and I'm on the clock today so...
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman (as) David Izenzon (b) Charles Moffett (d)
Clergyman's Dream
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