Ornette Coleman - This Is Our Music

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Music reviews of This Is Our Music

Music Review: Ornette reunited with Ed Blackwell
Rating: 5 Stars

It takes some effort to piece together the chronology of Ornette's recordings, and so here is the list of the Atlantic records (the first two on Contemporary, "Something Else!" and "Tomorrow Is the Question" were compromises, not featuring Ornette's regular band):

The Shape of Jazz to Come -- recorded 5/22/59, released October, 1959

Change of the Century -- recorded 10/8-9/59, released June, 1960

This Is Our Music -- recorded 7/19, 7/26, 8/2/60, released February, 1961

Free Jazz -- recorded 12/21/60, released September, 1961

Ornette! -- recorded 1/31/61, released February, 1962

Ornette On Tenor -- recorded 3/22, 3/27/61, released December, 1962

Blackwell played drums on the last two dates, "Ornette!" and "Ornette on Tenor," and both Blackwell and Higgins played on "Free Jazz," with a double quartet. One of the tracks on "Ornette!" features a long Blackwell solo. Higgins, with a solid background in swing and bop, went on to play with many a jazz leader over the years. Blackwell was always associated with Ornette, playing with him later in the 1960s, and then forming "Old and New Dreams" with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Dewey Redman in the 1970s to play music that extended the Coleman Quartet in the direction of pan-African styles. Cherry and Blackwell made two excellent duet albums as well, "Mu" in 1969 (see my review) and "El Corazon" in 1982. Ed Blackwell, who suffered from kidney disease and underwent kidney dialysis for many years, died in 1992. Don Cherry died in 1995.

Anyone who decides that they seriously dig Ornette's music should save up and get "Beauty Is a Rare Thing," a 6-disc box that contains ALL the Atlantic recordings, not only the 6 original releases, but all the additional tracks that were collected in the later "Art of Improvisers" (released in 1970) and "Twins" (released in 1971), as well as tracks that were released only in Japan and some that were never released in any form. The summer 1960 sessions with Blackwell that produced "This Is Our Music" include more rare and never-before-heard tracks than any of the other dates. (A warehouse fire in 1976 destroyed tapes of additional Atlantic sessions, perhaps twice as much material as was saved.) The 70-page booklet, with great black-and-white photos, includes a 28-page essay by Robert Palmer, which is my source for much of the above information.

One further note to those interested in Ornette -- start with "Free Jazz" at your peril. It is the most difficult of his recordings, not his most successful, and should be heard only after hearing his fantastic quartet sessions. Personally, I recommend beginning with "The Shape of Jazz to Come" with Billy Higgins and "This Is Our Music" with Ed Blackwell. Peace.

Description of This Is Our Music

Jazz CDs

• Music > Styles
• Pop