It was something else to walk out of this concert and hear people humming Lonely Woman. I don’t plan on forgetting the moment.
We weren’t able to hear Mr. Coleman when he spoke into his saxophone mic, but it sounded humble and grateful. This man came to do his business of music, and the music spoke for itself. His son Denardo Coleman blazed on drums, Anthony Falanga traversed the acoustic bass, Al MacDowell made an electric bass sound like a 7 string guitar, and Ornette picked up the violin and trumpet occasionally.
The kick-off and energy of the first tune was driving. Hairs on my arm raised a little as I witnessed Ornette’s facility even at age 79.
I don’t remember how I came across his music, but I think I ordered SOMETHING ELSE!!!! in 2005 after reading about his original approach, which he calls harmolodics. It’s fitting that it’s hard to find a conclusive description of harmolodics. Its listing in Wikipedia helps some:
Harmolodics seeks to free musical compositions from any tonal center, allowing harmonic progression independent of traditional European notions of tension and release. Harmolodics may loosely be defined as an expression of music in which harmony, movement of sound and melody all share the same value. The general effect is that music achieves an immediately open expression, without being constrained by tonal limitations, rhythmic pre-determination, or harmonic rules.
Something Else!!! didn’t seem that difficult to me because I heard the complex melodies restated often, and everything else sounded like extensions from that, without being confined to one key or scale. And I loved that. In searching for further explanation of harmolodics, I came across George Russell’s The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization….. a mouthful, and a heavy penny to purchase, but full of enlightening new ways to analyze music if you were to base harmony on the Lydian scale. I put Russell’s book down after 100 pages or so because I felt I needed to concentrate on simpler things. Still, harmolodics and the Lydian Concept, with the little I’ve looked into them, keeps my head buzzing with possibilities.
It’s humoring that Miles Davis said the man sounded ‘all messed up inside’, but years later gained an appreciation for his music. Perhaps, Charles Mingus describes the feeling of hearing Ornette Coleman’s music the best:
It’s like organized disorganization, or playing wrong right. And it gets to you emotionally, like a drummer. That’s what Coleman means to me.
There was an alternating pace of songs between energetic and ballad. On some of the energetic tunes it was hard to find the beat, but every player knew where they were at in the tune, coming in and stopping together. Sometimes MacDowell’s bass would take on the melody unexpectedly and Ornette would accompany in a harmony register– this kind of interplay occurred in every song and often simultaneously between all players.
My wife counted around 10 songs in the set before the players walked off stage. Several people rushed to the stage to thank Mr. Coleman with a handshake, and he was gracious. People were on their feet for a small while before the band came back out to receive the applause and make their way to their instruments. Earlier in the set, the band played Peace (perhaps, my favorite– the melody transcends, my friend) and Congeniality, and after an introduction of foreboding sounds, the crowd cheered when it was apparent Lonely Woman was being played. It seemed like he abbreviated the song’s length, but it put the room to silence. The band gave into another ovation and belted an energetic tune that really moved.
