Ornette at Carnegie Hall, 6/25/03

[Pete C]

Well, the pairing of Ornette's expanded trio and Charlie Haden's American dreams has to be one of the worst concert promotion decisions I've experienced in a long time. The only excuse for Haden's treacle on the same bill as Ornette would be his history.

Haden was the opening act, with a string ensemble, Kenny Barron, Michael Brecker & Rodney Green. They did music from the "American Dreams" album, which, thankfully, I haven't heard. After an innocuous opening number by trio & strings, Brecker came on, and the ensemble launched into some really cheezy Metheny tune, and I knew I was in for some real agony. Boston Popsville al the way. I couldn't even enjoy Barron in this context. They closed with that horrid song "America the Beautiful," which I thought had finally been re-retired. Haden has been questionably schmaltzy in recent years, but this is, hopefully, as bad as it gets.

[And to think, the festival was sponsoring Marilyn Crispell at the Vanguard, a much more appropriate opener for Ornette, IMO].

Ornette was scheduled to play in a trio with Denardo and classical/jazz switch-hitter Tony Falanga on bass. When the stage crew brought out 2 basses I thought maybe Haden would be joining them. But it turned out to be Greg Cohen.

Ornette explained that he wanted to be able to feature Tony more prominently, and that somebody suggested he look up Cohen. According to Ornette, "it was a marriage made in heaven."

It was sublime. The two basses gave a considerably more complex rhythmic texture for Ornette to work within than with a straight trio (like the one I saw last year with Charnett Moffett). In a sense, it got Ornette a Prime Time-like density in an acoustic context. Falanga played arco about half the time, providing a second lead or counterpoint (?) melody. His tone is stunning. And Cohen is indeed a perfect bassist for Ornette, at times reminding me of Haden with his tone and elasticity.

Perhaps because of the coloristic weighting of the two basses, much of the program had a melancholy mood. Even the more up tempo numbers wandered into dirgelike territory. Ornette's sound was luxuriantly beautiful throughout. It was a different dynamic than last year's trio with Moffett, which seemed to lean a bit more to the bright & bouncy. I must say the two bassists were much more tasteful than Moffett, who insisted on applying wah-wah & fuzz box effects to EVERY solo.

The group played a full hour and a half, and if not for the union curfew, they surely would have given more, given the wildly enthusiastic reception.

I heard a rumor that the concert was recorded for CD release. Let's hope.

If I had more time I might have written more, but I have to catch a train soon. I'll check back in early next week.

[Jiveman]

Wow sounds great,Pete!

Call me schmaltzy,I guess,as I love Haden's studio version of "America the Beautiful".Truly moves me!

[hearsay]

I missed the Haden set due to my phlegmatic girlfriend, but the people I met up with told me I was lucky. Oh well. I saw the Haden latin project at the Vanguard last year at the Iridium, and while it was boring at times it wasn't shmaltzy.

I agree with Pete's review of Ornette- the two basses worked great, they both sounded excellent, Onettes tone is as beautiful as ever. However Denardo really does nothing for me, he doesn't get in the way too much, but doesn't add much expressiveness either. He managed to play softly enough, but with the acoustics it made it still difficult to hear the two basses clearly. I liked the slower, pensive pieces the best, when he was playing minimally and I could hear the basses clearly, they were beautiful.

[jazzfiend]

Thanks, Pete, for the killer review!

[gonzo]

i've never been enthralled with denardo's playing and i can't really imagine him in any other context. how would ornette sound with...oh i don't know lets say...chad taylor!!! as matter of fact how would he sound with chad taylor, rob mazurek, and jeff parker, and greg cohen and falanga. just a thought...

[Captain Hate]

Originally posted by gonzo
i've never been enthralled with denardo's playing and i can't really imagine him in any other context. how would ornette sound with...oh i don't know lets say...chad taylor!!! as matter of fact how would he sound with chad taylor, rob mazurek, and jeff parker, and greg cohen and falanga. just a thought...

Just a great thought, imo. Thanks for the review Pete; I hope it makes it to disc. The Haden concert sounds as bad as I thought it would; which isn't easy.

[Pete C]

I'd love to see Ornette with DeJohnette.

[hearsay]

Agreed.

[mke]

Originally posted by Pete C
I'd love to see Ornette with DeJohnette.

Especially if there are more "-ette"s in the band.

[Tom Storer]

The Ornette-Collette Trio, featuring Buddy Collette, Ornette Coleman and Jack DeJohnette, play their smash hit, Bluesette.

With special guest Hamiet Bluiett on baritone.

[Pete C]

Here's Jon Pareles' Times review. I can't say I noticed Falanga's "unfortunate out-of-tune results" that he mentions.


Coleman Leads a Quartet Even as He Eludes It
By JON PARELES


Time turns slippery in Ornette Coleman's music. A headlong rush drifts into contemplation. A step-by-step exposition veers off on a tangent. A swinging passage surreptitiously pulls free of the underlying beat.

In the quartet Mr. Coleman led at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday night, he usually had a few pulses to choose from: the brisk cymbal work of his son Denardo Coleman on drums, the strolling and skipping counterpoint of Greg Cohen on bass, and the higher lines of Tony Falanga, also on bass. Mr. Coleman eluded all of them, and he was always worth following.

In the 1950's and 1960's, Mr. Coleman was treated as a fearsome, fire-breathing avant-gardist. Although many of the pieces in his set began and ended with clearly defined tunes in recognizable guises — ballads, fast ones, even a Sonny Rollins-style calypso — his music is still not for the inattentive. Mr. Coleman is asymmetrical to the bone, and he improvises in free-associative phrases, though each one is gorgeously shaped. Yet the sound of Mr. Coleman's alto saxophone, which was once considered abrasive, has emerged as lustrous and songful; his intonation, once considered rough-hewn, was pure and precise. (When he played trumpet for a few brief passages, he sounded bright and feisty, making quick chromatic feints.) The emotionality in Mr. Coleman's music is childlike in the best ways, direct and mercurial, changing phrase by phrase from merry to quizzical to yearning to bemused.

In Mr. Coleman's groups, the players work as much by contrast as by cooperation, responding to or ignoring one another, juxtaposing various speeds and approaches. Mr. Cohen kept pace with Mr. Coleman's scurrying or sighing lines; Mr. Falanga sometimes tried to shadow them on bowed bass, with unfortunate out-of-tune results. But Mr. Coleman's perpetual melody paid just enough attention to its surroundings to stay above them. It was the music of a man wandering in a bustling cityscape, alone with complicated thoughts.

The bassist Charlie Haden, who was a member of Mr. Coleman's revolutionary quartet of the 1950's, opened the concert with a set of material from his album "American Dreams" (Verve), leading a quartet backed by a chamber ensemble of strings. The music leaned toward ballads, with Michael Brecker quietly crooning the melodies and Kenny Barron playing pristine dancing piano variations over the somber undertow of Mr. Haden's bass and Rodney Green's subdued drumming. There were moments that captured the pensive, ethereal tone Mr. Haden sought.

But there were also stretches in which it seemed that Mr. Haden had taken a long and roundabout route to reach easy-listening music.

[gonzo]

i'll second petec's dejohnnette proposal!! then again dejohnette could play with someone as wretched as ...dave koz and i'd check it out. i just love dejohnette.