At The Golden Circle Vol. 2 [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

Ornette Coleman | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 8, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, Extra tracks
• Label: Emd/Blue Note
• ASIN: B00005UOJR
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #99,335 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #31 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Avant-Garde

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More out-there than Volume One, January 27, 2002

By 

G B (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At The Golden Circle Vol. 2 (Audio CD)

It seems to me that Blue Note put the more challenging music of the Golden Circle engagement on Volume 2. (Which is still far more accessible than, say, Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures or John Coltrane's Meditations -- don't be frightened away!) "The Riddle" is a frantic freebopper with some of Ornette's best playing on these recordings and "Morning Song" is a dark, beautiful ballad. "Antiques" is a nice, medium tempo exploration with Moffett's occasional martial beats. And while all three of those tracks feature Ornette on alto, "Snowflakes and Sunshine" showcases his trumpet and violin playing. His trumpet playing is primitive and his violin playing is sub-primitive, which may disgust some listeners. But even if you don't like that track, there's still more than an hour of phenomenal saxophone playing here.

The new RVG reissue has great sound and almost doubles the playing time of the original with alternate tracks of "Morning Song", "The Riddle", and "Antiques". "Doughnuts", the previously unreleased track, is actually on the more accessible Volume One. Both Volumes are among the high points of 60s avant-garde jazz.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ornette: Open to the public - part 2, January 23, 2002

By 

G. Schramke (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At The Golden Circle Vol. 2 (Audio CD)

Since I suppose, that you will buy this one together with "Volume 1", which I also reviewed, just let's say something about the things happening only here, namely Coleman's violin- and trumpetplaying on "Snowflakes and Sunshine", the first tune: Ornette's playing on those instruments has often been written off by the critics as lacking of technique or just sounding terrible, but I think it would be to easy explaining things that way: Listening to that tune, you will notice a really surprising "call and response" thing between Ornette's violin-excursions and Izenzon's arco playing on the bass. The same thing happens during the interaction between the leader's trumpet playing and Moffett's drumming. By the way, one cannot understand, why this great drummer didn't get more publicity, he is really exiting. Like on "Vol.1", we have another beautiful ballad (Morning Song), and some astonishing tempo changes at "The Riddle". As for the bonus tracks, "Doughnuts" really knocked me out as being the only tune, that's not just an alternate take of one of the originally material, but a hereto completely unknown composition from that date. It is really a great up-tempo thing, similar to the stuff on "Ornette!", the exiting '61 album from the Atlantic Label.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RVG Even More Golden, May 16, 2004

By 

Michael B. Richman (Portland, Maine USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: At The Golden Circle Vol. 2 (Audio CD)

Usually I don't replace my old Blue Note CDs with the new remasters from the RVG series, unless there is something truly special about the reissue/album in question. Well, Ornette's "Golden Circle" Volumes were certainly worth the upgrade! The sound is noticeably improved (this session wasn't originally recorded by Rudy), and most importantly there are three previously unreleased alternate takes. The rest of the disc is the same classic stuff, and I've included my review for the original CD release of this title below:

Both volumes of the Ornette Coleman Trio at the "Golden Circle" Stockholm are classic 60s avant-garde jazz albums. After his groundbreaking recordings with Atlantic, Coleman re-emerges with Blue Note in 1965 with these live sessions. On Volume 1, Ornette sticks to his native alto-sax, but on Volume 2 he branches out to violin and trumpet as well. The results of this multi-instrumentation are mixed, but is at the very least an interesting look into how a master composer and improviser tries to expand his methods for musical communication. Overall, any Ornette fan would be remiss to have this CD absent from his/her collection.