Ornette

The New Yorker has a good piece about Ornette Coleman in their latest issue, which is mainly concerned with a recent concert he played at the town hall.

I was lucky enough to see him in 2006, an amazing concert that was marred by awful sound at Carnegie Hall. Three basses can do that to any hall, and it was only towards the end of the performance that the sound tech was able to get the waves of bass under control. Still, you could still hear past the technical difficulties to the extraordinary playing.

A lot of people find Ornette a bit hard to get into, which is understandable. One album I'd always recommend is Song X. Pat Metheny often plays music that I find pretty hard to bear, which is all the more upsetting given that some of his stuff is just sublime. One thing people who've only heard his group stuff might be surprised to discover is how great he is as an interpreter of Coleman tunes. On Song X, they play together with Charlie Haden, Jack DeJohnette and Denardo Coleman. It's an energetic, joyous album, that always makes me grin like a fool when I listen to it.

It gets a bit tough if you're not a free jazz fan a bit further in, but the first few takes are just fun.