Ornette Coleman at Royce Hall, UCLA in LA September 26
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An open letter from Alice Russell. June 21, 2011, Brookline, Massachusetts. 1. DO NOT make insulting, mean spirited remarks about anyone or their work; there are a plethora of sites where you can rant unfettered. If you attack someone personally, your comments will be removed. You can post it, but I'm not paying for it. Go elsewhere, and let those artists who are actually interested in discussion and learning have the floor. 2. There will be NO posting of or links to copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner. That's the law. And if you respect the work of people who make meaningful contributions, you should have no problem following this policy. 3. I appreciate many of the postings from so many of you. Please don't feel you have to spend your time "defending" the LCC to those who come here with the express purpose of disproving it. George worked for decades to disprove it himself; if you know his music, there's no question that it has gravity. And a final word: George was famous for his refusal to lower his standards in all areas of his life, no matter the cost. He twice refused concerts of his music at Lincoln Center Jazz because of their early position on what was authentically jazz. So save any speculation about the level of him as an artist and a man. The quotes on our websites were not written by George; they were written by critics/writers/scholars/fans over many years. Sincerely, Alice
An open letter from Alice Russell. June 21, 2011, Brookline, Massachusetts. 1. DO NOT make insulting, mean spirited remarks about anyone or their work; there are a plethora of sites where you can rant unfettered. If you attack someone personally, your comments will be removed. You can post it, but I'm not paying for it. Go elsewhere, and let those artists who are actually interested in discussion and learning have the floor. 2. There will be NO posting of or links to copyrighted material without permission of the copyright owner. That's the law. And if you respect the work of people who make meaningful contributions, you should have no problem following this policy. 3. I appreciate many of the postings from so many of you. Please don't feel you have to spend your time "defending" the LCC to those who come here with the express purpose of disproving it. George worked for decades to disprove it himself; if you know his music, there's no question that it has gravity. And a final word: George was famous for his refusal to lower his standards in all areas of his life, no matter the cost. He twice refused concerts of his music at Lincoln Center Jazz because of their early position on what was authentically jazz. So save any speculation about the level of him as an artist and a man. The quotes on our websites were not written by George; they were written by critics/writers/scholars/fans over many years. Sincerely, Alice
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johnlynch4492
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 9:20 pm
- Location: Florida
Ornette Coleman at Royce Hall, UCLA in LA September 26
Is anyone in here going?
I wish!
I was at the show at bonnaroo this year and unfortunately he fell out on stage due to the heat...
What was funny was the fact that roughly thirty percent of the audience left after the first "low tempo/ingoing" song, when Ornette really embraced the fast paced, "outgoing" free jazz improv!
In the early version of the the concept I own, George Russell writes about how strange Colemans playing is and the fact that he is neither vertical nor horizontal.* It also explains how during a conversation at a music school* Ornette asks the question. "Where/what is the tonic"?? Which was extremely interesting to me!
*unmentioned.
*supra vertical was most likely unestablished.
Flames, questions, comments???
I was at the show at bonnaroo this year and unfortunately he fell out on stage due to the heat...
What was funny was the fact that roughly thirty percent of the audience left after the first "low tempo/ingoing" song, when Ornette really embraced the fast paced, "outgoing" free jazz improv!
In the early version of the the concept I own, George Russell writes about how strange Colemans playing is and the fact that he is neither vertical nor horizontal.* It also explains how during a conversation at a music school* Ornette asks the question. "Where/what is the tonic"?? Which was extremely interesting to me!
*unmentioned.
*supra vertical was most likely unestablished.
Flames, questions, comments???
Coleman's early recordings captured the essence of Jazz' beginnings while being 'free' from preset chord progressions and structure. An amazing, almost paradoxical wonder that really hasn't been done as successfully since. Has anyone analysed Coleman's solos of that period from Charlie Haden's bass lines up?
10 {The artist formerly known as Bb}
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bobappleton
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- Location: Toronto, Canada
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<<Ornette asks the question. "Where/what is the tonic"?? Which was extremely interesting to me! >>
Hi dds!
I also find this interesting. Ornette once said to me "music is about ideas.." "If you're moving from A to G, that's your idea."
I think you're referring to the idea that tones, or intervals can be musical expressions of things other than the distance between notes - such as feelings or sensations - the interval between lemon and sugar for example. Or the sound of "loss" in the blues - meaning whatever that conjures up emotionally or intellectually.
So then for me that's a way of thinking about feeling - and making sounds or images that come from my own experience - my personal artistic voice.
This from the NY Times: ''If I was playing with you, I would use your sound as a tonic,'' Coleman says. ''Everyone's tone gives you lots of information. If someone talks to you, even if they don't tell you how they feel, you can hear a certain thing in their tone. The human voice doesn't have to transpose; all it has to do is change its attitudes.''
Obviously all this exists within all musics. I like to think that George Russell and the LCC (by increasing our musical vocabulary by up to one third) gives us many more ways of expressing any concepts we choose. His appreciation and support of Ornette's music so early in his career is an example of the perpetual open mindedness required to make continuous creation.
Bob
Hi dds!
I also find this interesting. Ornette once said to me "music is about ideas.." "If you're moving from A to G, that's your idea."
I think you're referring to the idea that tones, or intervals can be musical expressions of things other than the distance between notes - such as feelings or sensations - the interval between lemon and sugar for example. Or the sound of "loss" in the blues - meaning whatever that conjures up emotionally or intellectually.
So then for me that's a way of thinking about feeling - and making sounds or images that come from my own experience - my personal artistic voice.
This from the NY Times: ''If I was playing with you, I would use your sound as a tonic,'' Coleman says. ''Everyone's tone gives you lots of information. If someone talks to you, even if they don't tell you how they feel, you can hear a certain thing in their tone. The human voice doesn't have to transpose; all it has to do is change its attitudes.''
Obviously all this exists within all musics. I like to think that George Russell and the LCC (by increasing our musical vocabulary by up to one third) gives us many more ways of expressing any concepts we choose. His appreciation and support of Ornette's music so early in his career is an example of the perpetual open mindedness required to make continuous creation.
Bob
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johnlynch4492
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Wed May 30, 2007 9:20 pm
- Location: Florida
I was there at Royce Hall up in a second row in the balcony, it is not a real large place I would guess maybe 1,200 to 1,500 seats and I was a bit exhausted, I had flown in from the East Coast for that show and a few other things and the concert started maybe something like 21 hours after I had initially gotten up . . . I am glad I was there . . . Ornette was apparently opening their season . . . I have been scurrying around with non-musical things since I got back and forgot I had posted that question about whether anyone was going . . . although the publicity said there would be some new music there was nothing that seemed astonishingly changed and some of the pieces went back a good bit, for example he may have done "Lonely Woman" from "The Shape of Jazz to Come" or something like that as an encore. It was him on sax, trumpet and violin; drums, two basses one bowed mainly one plucked mainly and a guitar . . . it was good it was wailing and funky and real and although one piece at least was a good bit like the blues there was something like the blues to it all . . . I was tired . . . he seemed in good form and in good shape and not just "for someone of his age", he seemed to be as young as you can be . . . it went over well . . . I remember when I first heard him and for years after it sounded very different and yet it does not sound quite as different now . . . it did not seem mediated through more familiar structures or pre-conceived ideas or practices and so it sounded a bit strange or unfamiliar or "challenging" back then but something has changed, maybe it is music maybe it is me but it seemed natural that night and like a homecoming and like a good visit with a friend, I am grateful that I got to be there . . .