Free Jazz (A Collective Improvisation)

Ornette Coleman

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: December 21, 1960
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic / Wea
• ASIN: B000002I55
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #86,576 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Free Jazz

2. First Take [#][*]

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording

By 1961, when Free Jazz was released, alto saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman was infamous in the jazz world. His searing alto sax and full-ensemble take on melody were assailed by critics. Free Jazz only furthered Coleman's infamy, with its seamless, seemingly atonal high energy and wholesale lack of a melodic or harmonic center. For the session, Coleman assembled two complete quartets and had them play the same music opposite each other, with diving power and a kind of strange grace usually associated with acoustic blues. The music is raw and incisive, with sharp tones and biting solos appearing amidst propulsive rhythms that still seem whispery in their swishing shuffle. This recording helped cast the 1960s--and every decade since--in jazz. It drew a line in the sand, and critics, fans, and musicians are still haggling over the line today. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What it is and what it isn't, January 7, 2002

By	happydogpotatohead "happydogpotatohead" (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Jazz (A Collective Improvisation) (Audio CD)

Let's get rid of some myths about this great CD.

First of all, "Free Jazz" is NOT CHAOS. Listening to this all the way proves it; "First Take" is the same piece, and if you compare "Free Jazz" and "First Take," you will see similarities and structure. So let's get rid of the idea that this was "totally improvised" first. There is an underlying structure to this piece, and you can figure it out if you try.

Secondly: it is NOT ATONAL. What is happening here is that several different melodies are going on all at the same time, but each melody that each musician plays is meant to interact with the melodies the other musicians are playing. There are no chords, and there is no ESTABLISHED, FORMAL tonal center. But just because there is no FORMAL tonal center, doesn't mean there isn't one.

Third: It is NOT AMELODIC. There are lots of melodies here. If you listen to it, you can find lots of melody. They may be odd melodies, but they are there. In particular, everything that Eric Dolphy plays and everything that Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman play makes perfect sense melodically. You may not agree with their tone choices or with the concept of "harmolodics" that underlies this piece, but listening to it, you will find melody.

Fourth: IT IS NOT DIFFICULT TO LISTEN TO. The other reviews compare this music to higher mathematics and imply that listening to this is impossible unless you're an intellectual. The best way to approach this music is with NO PRECONCEPTIONS, including the preconception that you have to be an "intellectual" to appreciate this music. "Free Jazz" is a futuristic version of the early jazz bands, where everyone played solos all the time over a melody that was not played but generally understood. The only difference is that here, there are several melodies, all of which interact, and the piece is set free from strict 4/4 time.

The best way to listen to this is to forget what everyone tells you about it, and just let it happen in the room. Let it play all the way out, even the "dissonant" parts, and listen to it. Listen for the funny parts, the humorous asides, the way Ornette's wry lemony sax contrasts with the dry growl of Eric Dolphy's bass clarinet and Don Cherry's rounded trumpet. And please, don't miss Scott LaFaro and Charlie Haden having a bass conversation, or the way that Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell interact with each other; these four people are counted among the best on their instruments, ever, and what they do here counts.

Don't treat this as abstract, intellectual, "weirdo" music. Listen to it without any preconceived notions. Don't compare it to anything else. Let "Free Jazz" be free; that's part of the meaning of it. Just listen. Then listen again. Then you'll get it. Promise.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars not the place to start with Ornette!, February 7, 2001

By	R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Free Jazz (A Collective Improvisation) (Audio CD)

I write with the new Ornette listener in mind -- don't be misled by the title, this is not the place to start with Ornette (let alone the Rosetta Stone!). "Free Jazz" is a very interesting experiment with a double quartet, but it does not measure up to Ornette's quartet recordings for Atlantic. "The Shape of Jazz to Come," "Change of the Century," "This Is Our Music" (available on import), "On Tenor," and "Ornette!" are all superb, and any of them (but of course "Shape" has pride of place because it was first) would be much better places to start listening to Ornette Coleman. The splendid 6 disc box "Beauty Is a Rare Thing" includes everything Ornette recorded for Atlantic from 1959-1961, including both versions of "Free Jazz," but presumably if you're just checking out his music you're not going to go straight for the box. My recommendation would be, check out for starters "Shape," with Billy Higgins on drums, and "This Is Our Music," the same quartet except with the late, great Ed Blackwell on drums. Yes, the music Ornette helped create is often called Free Jazz, but this particular recording is not The Essential Free Jazz Recording. (For what it's worth, I don't think Coltrane's large ensemble "Ascension" is one of his best outings either.)

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No one had reviewed this yet? I am very surprised., July 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Free Jazz (A Collective Improvisation) (Audio CD)

"Free Jazz" is not an easy piece of music to listen to. I am a very big fan of jazz in the avante garde and love "the new thing" on Impulse! in the late 1960's. I am a fan of Coltrane, Kirk, Dolphy and Mingus and embrace their experiments. For me, Coleman is a challenge.

Coltrane's work on "Meditations" follows a developmental process, a prayer, a mini symphony with movements that indicate mood. I am drawn to this piece because my soul can follow along with it, I am catapulted into different emmotions and my being must adjust as I go. For "Free Jazz" everything is completely different.

For me, "Free Jazz" is something radically different from the fairly melodic chaos of Mingus, a melodic composer always! "Free Jazz" lives in the realm of Cecil Taylor and the "Interstellar Space" of 1967 Coltrane, not the emmotional movements of a philosphical Coltrane or a gospel tinged Mingus. This is almost like complex number theory, something purely numerical and beyond the reach of immediate understanding. This music requires discipline and training in its listeners. I know no number theory and so, my subjective connection to jazz in the avante garde places me on the outside (at first) to this music.

Coleman was acting analytically. His approach to music was not for the possible signification ofethereal possibilities, like Coltrane, but was an innovative approach by which he wanted to test whether or not music could remain cohesive when the sounds were stretched further. The concept that flat notes could hold a composition together had not been tried before. Not only is it not immediately smooth and aesthtic listening, but is actually dissonant and can even hurt ones ears. However, it is intelligent music and does work. Over time people have come to understand and appreciate this idea.

"Free Jazz" is an excellent investment because it is a seminal album in the history of music and its influence continues to expand, transcending all genres of music. I recommend giving it a listen and continuing to work with it. The Jackson Pollack painting "White Light" which is on the cover, is an excellent clue to the workings and ideas of Coleman.

(not to be forgotten, the musicians involved on this recording are phenomenal, particularly Eric Dolphy and Scott LaFaro.)

By the way, I like this album too!