Artist.......: Ornette Coleman
Album........: Sound Grammar
Label........: Sound Grammar
Genre........: Jazz
Catnr........: SG11593
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Sep-19-2006
str.date.....: 000-00-0000
quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. Intro 01:15
02. Jordan 06:33
03. Sleep Talking 08:56
04. Turnaround 04:07
05. Matador 05:58
06. Waiting For You 06:51
07. Call To Duty 05:35
08. Once Only 09:41
09. SongX 10:22
Runtime 59:18 min
Size 76,1 MB
Release Notes:
In the beginning of free jazz, there was Ornette
Coleman. Actually, the alto saxophonist was the
beginning of free jazz. His 1959 Atlantic recording
The Shape of Jazz to Come followed on the heels of
a couple of innovative smaller label outings that
didn't make a splash at the time. Many musicians
have followed Coleman down the path of freedom, but
none have equaled him.
Sound Grammar is his first CD release in ten years.
His last studio efforts, the simultaneously
released Sound Museum and Four Women (Verve, '96),
featuring overlapping tracks, were, to my ears, the
high points of an already legendary career. He's
surpassed even those stellar outings with this
release.
Over a nearly forty-year career, Coleman has
recorded with various configurations, from duos all
the way to symphony orchestras. Sound Grammar, a
live set recorded in Germany in October 2005,
features a quartet with his son Denardo on drums
and two bassistsùGregory Cohen (picking); and Tony
Falanga (bowing). The two-bass dynamic creates a
texture that feels viscous and frictional at the
same time, a perfect backdrop for the saxophonist's
piercingly resonant tone, which finds the ôsound of
expressed reality.ö
On listening to past recordings, Sound Grammar
comes closest in tone to Coleman's two masterful
volumes of At the ôGolden Circleö Stockholm. Those
1966 Blue Note trio recordings were also live
dates, placing the leader alongside drummer Charles
Moffett and bassist David Izenzon. The ôGolden
Circleö sound glowed with the rare energy and
electricity of an artist in full swing, a true
American original, unfettered by expectations or
outside influences. Remarkably, Sound Grammar
surpasses those youthful efforts. The intensity
level of his earlier work is undiminished on Sound
Grammar; the band is ôas one,ö and Ornette blows
with a transcendent luminescent soulfullness.
The disc features six vibrant new tunes, along with
interpretations of ôSong Xö (from his 1985 album of
the same name with Pat Metheny); and ôTurnaroundö
(from the classic 1959 album Tomorrow is the
Question).
Hit the play button. Ornette wails. It's an
unmistakable sound: every human joy and
heartacheùand every emotion in betweenùblowing out
of an alto saxophone.
Personnel:
Ornette Coleman: alto saxophone, violin, trumpet
Denardo Coleman: drums
Gregory Cohen: bass
Tony Falanga: bass