Complete Science Fiction Sessions [Extra tracks, Original recording remastered]

Ornette Coleman | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 2, 2000)
• Original Release Date: 1971
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00004T0PM
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,324 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. What Reason Could I Give?

2. Civilization Day

3. Street Woman

4. Science Fiction

5. Rock the Clock

6. All My Life

7. Law Years

8. The Jungle Is a Skyscraper

9. School Work

10. Country Town Blues

See all 12 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Happy House

2. Elizabeth

3. Written Word [#][*]

4. Broken Shadows

5. Rubber Gloves

6. Good Girl Blues

7. Is It Forever?

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This two-CD set combines a pair of Ornette Coleman's Columbia LPs, Science Fiction and Broken Shadows, and adds three tracks--a new piece, an alternate take, and an alternate mix. Most of the material comes from sessions in September 1971, when Coleman surrounded himself with old associates--including the group with which he'd made his startling New York debut a dozen years earlier: trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins. Also along were tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, drummer Ed Blackwell, and trumpeter Bobby Bradford, another longtime associate. The seven musicians recorded as two distinct quartets, as a quintet with Bradford, and as a septet, while other guests contributed to still more permutations. All the musicians were deeply immersed in Coleman's musical language: the complex, sometimes jagged tunes; the emotional directness that drew on the wellspring of the blues; the sprung rhythms and melodic freedom that had first defined the free-jazz movement.

The set's first CD consists largely of quartet and quintet pieces. There are new groupings that take new directions, such as two evocative songs with the gifted Indian vocalist Asha Puthi, accompanied by a septet with two classical trumpeters and Higgins on tympani. And on "Science Fiction," the band breathes seething chaos around the poet David Henderson's voice. Much of the second CD concentrates on the septet, a group that inevitably invokes Coleman's most radical grouping, the "double quartet" that recorded Free Jazz in 1960, with five of the original members present. The pieces here are shorter, with more clearly defined compositional materials, but the collective improvisations are still bracing and the rhythmic dialogues often stunning. While Cherry and Coleman no longer worked together regularly, they shared a vision and empathy unique in jazz, and the shifting densities and internal meters of "Elizabeth" are something to behold. "Good Girl Blues" and "Is It Forever" catch Coleman layering and alternating different components--Kansas City blues, swing, bop, free, and classical--to create unique musical spaces. This is one of Coleman's strangest groupings, with his regular band joined by blues singer Webster Armstrong, guitarist Jim Hall, hard-bop pianist Cedar Walton, and a woodwind quintet. This is essential hearing, varied and intriguing music from one of the greatest architects, composers, and improvisers in the history of jazz. Stuart Broomer

From Jazziz

Ornette Coleman is well represented in "The Complete Science Fiction Sessions," a two-CD set issued by Columbia/Legacy. In the early '70s, Columbia issued three albums by Coleman: "Science Fiction," "Broken Shadows," and "Skies of America." This set combines the first two and adds a few alternate takes, marking the first time any of this music has been available domestically on CD. Three pieces feature Coleman's original quartet: trumpeter Don Cherry, and bassist Charlie Haden, drummer Billy Higgins. Other tunes feature trumpeter Bobby Bradford, tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, drummer Ed Blackwell, vocalist Asha Puthil, poet David Henderson, guitarist Jim Hall, and pianist Cedar Walton, among others.

--- JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars long-awaited Ornette masterpiece as deluxe CD, May 6, 2000

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Science Fiction Sessions (Audio CD)

At last! SCIENCE FICTION on CD -- 24-bit mapped, and given the full Mosaic-style treatment by Michael Cuscuna. Included are 2 alternate takes and 1 never before released track from the original 1971 sessions, along with all the material from those sessions originally released in 1982 as BROKEN SHADOWS.

SCIENCE FICTION is the first Ornette record I heard, in 1975, and I still love it. Most of it sounds quite like the great Atlantic recordings of 1959-62, with Charlie Haden on bass, either Ed Blackwell or Billy Higgins on drums, and Don Cherry or Bobby Bradford on trumpet (and all 5 on some tracks). Dewey Redman, in Ornette's working band of the time, also plays on many of the tracks. The twist is that there are several vocal tracks -- the 2 with Asha Puthli, the female pop/classical singer from Bombay, are heartbreakingly beautiful. (Some critics did not approve, but they weren't listening!) The title track features the poet David Henderson, and it truly sounds like Science Fiction. Two more vocal tracks, from BROKEN SHADOWS, are more conventional, and frankly can be safely skipped. A highlight of the set is "Law Years," one of Ornette's best known and often covered compositions (by Old and New Dreams and Ken Vandermark, among others). The variety of styles and textures made the original SCIENCE FICTION, to me, Ornette's greatest accomplishment as a cohesive album. (Be aware that many critics disagreed.) There is a wrenching intensity to every track on the original album, the first 8 of the 19 collected here, making a statement greater than the sum of the individual pieces, a testimony to Ornette's compositional vision. It is interesting to find that "School Work" is the theme used in DANCING IN YOUR HEAD, Ornette's first electric Prime Time recording from 1976. That was to be Ornette's new direction following this work, so SCIENCE FICTION stands as the last great recording before Ornette's "Second Period."

Absolutely essential!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars absolutely essential, May 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Complete Science Fiction Sessions (Audio CD)

When all is said and done, these will go down as some of Ornette's greatest works. By the time he did these, he was very tight with Cherry, Haden, Higgins, Blackwell, and Redman so anything he did with those musicians was outstanding.

Some of the cuts (Civilization Day, Street Woman, Law Years, Country Town Blues) more or less follow the Atlantic model (see "Beauty is a Rare Thing")

There also are two very beautiful songs (What Reason Could I Give and All My Life) sung by a fabulous Indian singer (who later appeared on a recording by Henry Threadgill), and some more densely layered compositions (Rock the Clock, Science Fiction, Jungle Is A Skyscraper) with sizzling energy that captures the times they were recorded in.

There may be a few selections which are half-baked, but this is a box set whose purpose is to document a series of sessions.

Don't miss this masterpiece!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful set of albums..., December 9, 2005

By 

Josh Z. Bonder "a sound painter" (Toronto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Science Fiction Sessions (Audio CD)

While other reviewers have mentioned that it would be useful to hear earlier Ornette albums to have some frame of reference for this one, it's the first Coleman album I ever heard: That said, I became absolutely immersed in it. The variation created by using so many different group configurations, keeps proceedings consistently strong and simultaneously varied. The tracks featuring the Indian vocalist are absolutely breathtaking, and Coleman's playing on these albums is at once obtuse and very catchy. While this music may be complex, it still manages to retain accessibility and warmth. This is the Coleman album I will keep coming back to.

Since writing my original review of this album, I have acquired "Beauty is a Rare Thing". While I would say that most of that material is somewhat more "essential" than the Complete Science Fiction Sessions, I still stand by my claim that this is as good an introduction as any. Other great starting points would be Change of the Century, The Shape of Jazz to Come, or the aforementioned boxed set if you're willing to take the plunge. You'll probably want to anyways once you get your feet wet.