Ornette

Luke

Legend
Location
Milwaukee, WI USA
Name
Luke
There's a handful of artists who did so much and did it so differently that one name says it all. Ornette Coleman was a singular voice in jazz. R.I.P, Ornette. Even if you think you don't "get" free jazz, please give this short video a chance.

 
Yeah, I just heard in the car a little while ago. I've got him playing right now. One of the true giants. I never saw him, but saw Don Cherry once, which I've always claimed as enough of a one degree of separation moment. He's one of those artists who, when I first heard him, it didn't make any sense to me at all, I couldn't relate to it as music, etc. And then over time I'd hear him more and more often on some jazz station and it sounded less and less weird until I really started liking it and eventually loving it. A small part of that was me, but a huge part of it was him and the influence he had on so many other players who took it out in all sorts of different directions. Eventually there were enough people doing some version of free jazz that I started taking it for granted and then when I'd go back to the guy who started it, I started to really appreciate him...

"Dog spelled backwards is God. That's pretty heavy".

-Ray
 
my experience is very similar to yours, Ray. I kept trying and trying different records and none of it made sense. And then one day I finally came across his first LP "Something Else" and it was like someone threw a switch. Now I hear it and it sounds just like a straight up swing-era record. It's certainly one of his most "linear" sounding records, but his "sound" is already complete and intact.
 
I think stuff that sounds that alien at first just can't connect. You can't hear the music through the dissonance and it takes a while to be able to. More exposure is the trick. I think people reacted the same way to Parker and Coltrane and Hendrix as well. By the time I was coming of age, though, that stuff was mainstream music, I was exposed to it from a pretty young age (Hendrix aside, but I GOT him right away, even as a kid). Ornette and Henry Threadgill and Anthony Braxton etal took a little longer, but they wormed their way in over time...

-Ray
 
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