Ornette Coleman - Ornette! (1962)

Ornette Coleman - Ornette! (1962)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 380MB

Atlantic

Allmusic:
Recorded a little over a month after his groundbreaking work Free Jazz, this album found Coleman perhaps retrenching from that idea conceptually, but nonetheless plumbing his quartet music to ever greater heights of richness and creativity. Ornette! was the first time bassist Scott LaFaro recorded with Coleman, and the difference in approach between LaFaro and Charlie Haden is apparent from the opening notes of "W.R.U." There is a more direct propulsion and limberness to his playing, and he can be heard driving Coleman and Don Cherry actively and more aggressively than Haden's warm, languid phrasing. The cuts, with titles derived from the works of Sigmund Freud, are all gems and serve as wonderful launching pads for the musicians' improvisations. Coleman, by this time, was very comfortable in extended pieces, and he and his partners have no trouble filling in the time, never coming close to running out of ideas. Special mention should be made of Ed Blackwell, with one of his finest performances. Ornette! is a superb release and a must for all fans of Coleman and creative improvised music in general.

Tracks
-1. "W.R.U." — 16:25 (Coleman)
-2. "T.&T." — 4:35 (Coleman)
-3. "C.&D." — 13:10 (Coleman)
-4. "R.P.D.D." — 9:39 (Coleman)

Personnel
* Ornette Coleman — alto saxophone
* Scott LaFaro — bass
* Don Cherry — trumpet
* Ed Blackwell — drums

sample & buy: Ornette

Ornette Coleman - The Music Of Ornette Coleman: Something Else!!!! (1958)

Ornette Coleman - The Music Of Ornette Coleman: Something Else!!!! (1958)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 265MB

OJC

Allmusic:
This 1958 debut recording by the Ornette Coleman Quintet, which featured Coleman on his trademark white plastic alto, Don Cherry on trumpet, Billy Higgins on drums, Walter Norris on piano, and Don Payne on bass, shook up the jazz world -- particularly those musicians and critics who had entered the hard bop era with such verve and were busy using the blues as a way of creating vast solo spaces inside tight and short melody lines. Something Else!!!! is anathema to that entire idea, and must have sounded like it came from outer space at the time. First, Coleman's interest was in pitch, not "being in tune." His use of pitch could take him all over -- and outside of -- a composition, as it does on "Invisible," which begins in D flat. The intervals are standard, but the melodic component of the tune -- despite its hard bop tempo -- is, for the most part, free. But what is most compelling is evident in abundance here and on the next two tunes, "The Blessing" and "Jayne": a revitalization of the blues as it expressed itself in jazz. Coleman refurbished the blues framework, threaded it through his jazz without getting rid of its folk-like, simplistic milieu. In other words, the groove Coleman was getting here was a people's groove that only confounded intellectuals at the time. Coleman restored blues to their "classic" beginnings in African music and unhooked their harmonies. Whether the key was D flat, A, G, whatever, Coleman revisited the 17- and 25-bar blues. There are normal signatures, however, such as "Chippie" in F and in eight-bar form, and "The Disguise" is in D, but in a strange 13-bar form where the first and the last change places, altering the talking-like voice inherent in the melodic line. But the most important thing about Something Else! was that, in its angular, almost totally oppositional way, it swung and still does; like a finger-poppin' daddy on a Saturday night, this record swings from the rafters of the human heart with the most unusually gifted, emotional, and lyrical line since Bill Evans first hit the scene.

Tracks
-1. "Invisible" – 4:11
-2. "The Blessing" – 4:45
-3. "Jayne" – 7:17
-4. "Chippie" – 5:37
-5. "The Disguise" – 2:46
-6. "Angel Voice" – 4:19
-7. "Alpha" – 4:09
-8. "When Will the Blues Leave?" – 4:58
-9. "The Sphinx" – 4:13
All tracks composed by Ornette Coleman.

Personnel
* Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone
* Don Cherry – cornet
* Walter Norris – piano
* Don Payne – double bass
* Billy Higgins – drums

sample & buy: Something Else!!! the Music of Ornette Coleman

Don Cherry - Brown Rice (1976) (eac-log-cover)

Don Cherry - Brown Rice (1976)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 255MB

A&M Records

Allmusic:
If Eternal Rhythm was Don Cherry's world fusion masterpiece of the '60s, then Brown Rice is its equivalent for the '70s. But where Eternal Rhythm set global influences in a free jazz framework, Brown Rice's core sound is substantially different, wedding Indian, African, and Arabic music to Miles Davis' electrified jazz-rock innovations. And although purists will likely react here the same way they did to post-Bitches Brew Davis, Brown Rice is a stunning success by any other standard. By turns hypnotic and exhilarating, the record sounds utterly otherworldly: the polyrhythmic grooves are deep and driving, the soloing spiritual and free, and the plentiful recording effects trippy and mysterious. The various ethnic influences lift the album's already mystical atmosphere to a whole new plane, plus Cherry adds mostly non-English vocals on three of the four tracks, whispering cryptic incantations that make the pieces resemble rituals of some alien shaman. The title cut has since become an acid jazz/rare-groove classic, filtering Charlie Haden's acoustic bass through a wah-wah pedal and melding it with psychedelic electric piano riffs, electric bongos, wordless female vocals, short snippets of tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe's free jazz screeching, and, of course, Cherry's whispers and trumpet. Closer "Degi-Degi" works a similarly mind-bending mixture, but the middle two pieces ("Malkauns" and "Chenrezig") are lengthy explorations where Cherry's languid trumpet solos echo off into infinity. Of all his world fusion efforts, Brown Rice is the most accessible entry point into Cherry's borderless ideal, jelling into a personal, unique, and seamless vision that's at once primitive and futuristic in the best possible senses of both words. While Cherry would record a great deal of fine work in the years to come, he would never quite reach this level of wild invention again. [Brown Rice's original title was Don Cherry, which was changed a year after its initial 1975 release.]

Tracks
-1. "Brown Rice" - Cherry - 5:15
-2. "Malkauns" - Berger, Cherry - 14:02
-3. "Chenrezig" - Cherry - 12:51
-4. "Degi-Degi" - Cherry - 7:06

Personnel
* Don Cherry – trumpet, electric piano, vocals
* Frank Lowe – tenor sax
* Ricky Cherry – electric piano
* Charlie Haden – acoustic bass
* Hakim Jamil – acoustic bass
* Moki – tamboura
* Billy Higgins, drums
* Bunchie Fox – electric bongos
* Verna Gillis – vocals

sample & buy: Brown Rice

John Coltrane & Don Cherry - The Avant-Garde (1960) (eac-log-cover)

John Coltrane & Don Cherry - The Avant-Garde (1960)

jazz | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover | 220MB

Atlantic

Allmusic:
This album is rightfully co-credited to Don Cherry (trumpet), who ably trades blows with John Coltrane (tenor/soprano sax) throughout. The Avant-Garde also boasts the debut studio recording of Coltrane playing soprano sax -- on "The Blessing" -- in addition to his continuing advancements on tenor. Although these tracks were recorded during the summer of 1960, they remained shelved for nearly six years. Joining Coltrane and Cherry are essentially the rest of the members of the Ornette Coleman Quartet, Ed Blackwell (drums) and Charlie Haden (bass) on "Cherryco" and "The Blessing," as well as Percy Heath (bass) on the remaining three selections. This is fitting, as over half of the album consists of early Coleman compositions. Coltrane's integration into this band works with some extraordinarily fresh results. Neither Cherry nor Coltrane makes any radical departures on this album; however, it's the ability of each to complement the other both in terms of modal style and -- perhaps more importantly -- texture that lends heavily to the success of these sides. Cherry's brisk and somewhat nasal intonations on "The Blessing" mimic those of Miles Davis, albeit with shorter flourishes and heavily improvised lines. When combined with Coltrane's well-placed -- if not somewhat reserved -- solos, the mutual value of both is dramatically increased. Blackwell -- the only other musician besides Cherry and Coltrane to be featured on every track -- provides some non-conventional percussive accompaniment. His contributions to "The Blessing" and workout on the aptly titled "Focus on Sanity" are primal.

Tracks:
-1. "Cherryco" (Don Cherry) — 6:47
-2. "Focus On Sanity" (Ornette Coleman) — 12:15
-3. "The Blessing" (Coleman) — 7:53
-4. "The Invisible" (Coleman) — 4:15
-5. "Bemsha Swing" (Thelonious Monk) — 5:05

Personnel:
* John Coltrane — tenor saxophone/soprano saxophone
* Don Cherry — cornet
* Charlie Haden — bass (tracks 1,3)
* Percy Heath — bass (tracks 2,4,5)
* Ed Blackwell — drums
Recorded June 28 and July 8, 1960 in New York City.

sample & buy: Avant-Garde

Ayler/Cherry/Tchicai/Rudd/Peacock/Murray - New York Eye & Ear Control (1964) (eac-log-cover)

Ayler/Cherry/Tchicai/Rudd/Peacock/Murray - New York Eye & Ear Control (1964)

jazz, soundtrack | 1cd | eac-flac-cue-log-cover |250 MB

ESP | rar +5% recovery

AMG:
This is a very interesting set, music that was freely improvised and used as the soundtrack for the 34-minute short film New York Eye and Ear Control. Tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler leads the all-star sextet (which also includes trumpeter Don Cherry, altoist John Tchicai, trombonist Roswell Rudd, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray) on two lengthy jams. The music is fiery but with enough colorful moments to hold one's interest throughout.

Tracks:
1. "Don's Dawn" – 0:57
2. "AY" – 20:17
3. "ITT" – 22:05

Personnel:
* Albert Ayler - tenor saxophone
* Don Cherry - trumpet
* John Tchicai - alto saxophone
* Roswell Rudd - trombone
* Gary Peacock - bass
* Sonny Murray - drums

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