Has anyone studies Ornette Coleman's music?

[Khaled Ahmad]

Ornette Coleman is one of my favorite composers/improvisers and I would love to learn more about his music and how he creates it. I realize that this would seem impossible, but it seems to me that his music is modal and not completely free of all structures. I mean I never hear any "wrong" notes in his playing, he almost seems to playing more "in" then a lot of bebop players. It could be that he has mastered the concept of release and tension, but I don't know, I haven't really studied his music much the same way I have so far for Bird, Sonny and Trane.

I was just wondering how he worked it out that him and Haden never played dissonant things with each other. Is their playing considered dissonant and are my ears just that used to his playing? I remember I had gotten his album "The Shape of Jazz to Come" before I listened to much jazz because I recognized his name and album title. I didn't even realize he was supposed to be a free jazz artist at first, I considered that album to be one of my favorite straightahead albums! At the time I had already been listening to a lot of free jazz and almost no straightahead. I thought "Giant Steps" was way too straightahead for me!

[Il Anto]

Khaled,

Anytime one tries to describe Ornette's music theory, they enter a very murky domain. But I'll give it a crack.

He calls it "Harmolodics". And it has been practiced since he first recorded "The Shape of Jazz to Come" (His first two releases employed a pianist). Basically what Harmolodics professes is to eschew chord progressions and use the melody as the lone source of your imrovisation. Similarly, the rest of the band will react to the feel of your creations. A good example of this is "Lonely Woman" which I heard is the first composition that practices Harmolodics. You will hear Charlie Haden play the bass line and Higgins accompanying it with a tempo that is 4 times faster. From there Ornette and Cherry play the head in unison and the horn improvisations uses scales that the musicians feel are best conducive to the head. Yet I believe whatever scale or mode only relates to the original melody in that it relates only intervalically and not harmonically at all since there is no tonal center.

In fact, Harmolodics does use chords, but only 5 chords that are non-invertable.

I hope this did some good.

[Khaled Ahmad]

Thanks for the help, but I was wondering about those 5 chords you talk about, which ones are you talking about? Or do they relate usually to the song? You're going to have to excuse my ignorance

[Paul B]

NIce explanation Anthony (and good to see you posting here again). You're right that Ornette's music (like Lacy's) uses the melody as a launching pad for the improvisation, not chord changes per se. But of course there is a de facto harmony created (or hinted at) because of the relationship of the bass line to the melody, so there is harmonic movement at work. I gather that Ornette's harmolodic concept was to never let one or the other--harmony or melody--dominate, but rather to have the two somehow seamlessly blend. A nebulous concept, but one nonetheless worth checking out.

Bye-ya.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Paul,

Those the same theory apply to his electronic music, like with Prime Time?

[Pete C]

It looks like this is probably the book to get:

Ornette Coleman: His Life and Music
by Peter Niklas Wilson

JazzTimes Jan/Feb 2000
It is not easy to explain the music of Ornette Coleman with both accuracy and clarity, but Peter Niklas Wilson has done so with Ornette Coleman: His Life and Music.
Peter Niklas Wilson's Ornette Coleman: His Life and Music is an insightful, well-researched examination of one of the most cryptic figures in American music. He skillfully draws upon scholarly and journalistic sources to write a thorough, yet well-paced biographical narrative. A musicologist who has written detailed studies on Charlie Parker and Anthony Braxton, and a bassist who has performed with Braxton, Barry Guy, and others, Wilson also has the technical background to untangle the nagging enigma that is Harmolodics, which he does with surprising clarity.

Additionally, he surveys Coleman's recordings as leader and sideman through 1997, keeping the bar rather high throughout the various phases of Coleman's career. With an engaging foreword by Pat Metheny functioning as something of a bonus track, Ornette Coleman: His Life and Music makes a persuasive case for Coleman's greatness, as Wilson is able to make Coleman's innovations digestible without diluting their substance.



It also has four 5* customer reviews on Amazon.

[bostontricky]

In addition to Pete's recommendation of the Wilson book, there is also a chapter on Coleman in Ekkehard Jost's Free Jazz, also available online.
Both books do a good job of breaking down, explaining, and providing transcribed examples of Ornette's work.

[Khaled Ahmad]

Thank you Pete!

[Il Anto]

Originally Posted by Darryl G. Thomas

Paul,

Those the same theory apply to his electronic music, like with Prime Time?

I'm not Paul, but I happen to know that Prime Time is more of an evolved Harmolodics at work - the idea of creating music by feel and equal relationship with every band member. Also at work in later Prime Time configurations is the concept of multiculturism in harmolodics.

Khaled - re: 5 chords.

I picked that up once by reading a James "Blood" Ulmer interview once, but I myself have never been able to figure it out. Ulmer wasn't even sure in the interview, he said he only knew how they worked on the guitar.

This related to what Paul said about hinting at harmony or de facto harmony. But I bet that book should explain it much better. I'll have to order it myself.

[Nate Dorward]

George Russell's discussion in The Lydian Chromatic Concept is also worth consulting (try the "steamboat metaphor" appendix in the back in particular).

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Il,

A lot of prime Time sounds really chaotic to me, and I ain't an avant garde virgin.

One of my "problems" is that I barely have a rudiment understaning about music theory. So when I listen or read about Ornette's musical system my brain basically clouds over. But Ornette doesn't hold a candle to Anthony Braxton. I'd hate to be a fly on the wall if they ever got into a musical discussion. My antennae would fry.

[Il Anto]

Darryl,

I’m very familiar with your musical tastes from my history here at JC. So it still surprises me to see that you think that much more of Braxton with his even more unconventional approach to music.

That said, I also find Prime Time projects to be more like lab experiments. I appreciate the ideas and the methods but the results aren’t always successful. I find Ornette’s best work will always be his small groups.

However, I’m no expert on theory, but I know that you don’t need to know much about it to understand the concept of Harmolodics for the approach is just as much philosophical as it is theoretical.