Ornette!
Ornette! is an avant-garde jazz studio album by American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, featuring his quartet and released by Atlantic Records in February 1962.[1] The album was recorded on January 31, 1961, at Atlantic Studios in New York City, shortly after the landmark Free Jazz session.[2] It showcases Coleman's pioneering approach to improvisation, emphasizing collective exploration over traditional harmonic structures, and stands as a key work in the development of free jazz.[3] The recording features Coleman on alto saxophone, Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, Scott LaFaro on double bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums, marking LaFaro's only appearance on a Coleman album before his death later in 1961. LaFaro's agile counterpoint to the horns and synchronization with Blackwell's polyrhythmic drumming add a dynamic layer to the ensemble's interplay.[3] The album comprises four original compositions, including the extended "W.R.U." and "C. & D.", with "R.P.D.D." highlighting Coleman's thematic improvisation through motif development and a standout solo.[3] As part of Coleman's prolific Atlantic period (1959–1961), which produced six studio albums, Ornette! contributed to the avant-garde and free jazz movements.[4] It is sometimes viewed as uneven compared to Coleman's earlier album The Shape of Jazz to Come, but noted for its adventurous spirit and bold experimentation.[3] Later reissues, such as the 2004 Rhino edition, include bonus tracks like "Proof Readers," further enriching its legacy.[3]Background
Context
Ornette Coleman's transition to Atlantic Records in 1959 marked a pivotal shift following his initial releases on Contemporary Records, including Something Else!!!! (1958) and Tomorrow Is the Question! (1959).https://concord.com/news/ornette-coleman-box-set-genesis-of-genius-the-contemporary-albums-set-for-release-march-25/ His debut for Atlantic, The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959), introduced emerging elements of his harmolodics theory, which emphasized the equality of melody, harmony, and rhythm in collective improvisation, laying groundwork for his free jazz explorations.https://www.rhino.com/aod/the-shape-of-jazz-to-come-ornette-coleman-0 https://www.openculture.com/2020/07/how-ornette-coleman-freed-jazz-with-his-theory-of-harmolodics.html This move to a major label provided greater resources and visibility, allowing Coleman to expand his quartet's sound amid growing interest in avant-garde jazz. A key change for Ornette! was the replacement of longtime bassist Charlie Haden with Scott LaFaro, a rising avant-garde bassist known for his work in Bill Evans' influential trio from 1959 to 1961.https://jazztimes.com/features/columns/the-other-scott-lafaro/ LaFaro's innovative approach, characterized by melodic independence and interactive dialogue with other instruments, contrasted with Haden's more rooted, supportive style, infusing the album with heightened rhythmic freedom and contrapuntal complexity.https://www.sieveking-sound.com/the-ornette-coleman-quartet-ornette.html The quartet—completed by trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell—benefited from this shift, enabling a more fluid, egalitarian interplay that advanced Coleman's vision of unstructured yet cohesive improvisation.https://www.jazzdisco.org/ornette-coleman/discography/ Released in 1962 but part of Coleman's prolific Atlantic period spanning 1959 to 1961, Ornette! followed This Is Our Music (1960) and helped solidify his free jazz innovations during a time of intense controversy in the jazz community.https://www.rhino.com/product/the-atlantic-years Critics and traditionalists often decried his abandonment of chord changes and fixed tempos as chaotic, yet the album exemplified his push toward spontaneous composition, influencing the broader avant-garde movement.https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/ornette-coleman The tracks for Ornette! were composed in late 1960, reflecting Coleman's growing interest in psychological themes inspired by Sigmund Freud's writings on the unconscious and human behavior.https://www.jazzdisco.org/ornette-coleman/discography/ The song titles, such as "W.R.U." (Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious) and "R.P.D.D." (Relation of the Poet to Day-Dreaming), serve as initialisms drawn from Freud's key works, underscoring the album's conceptual depth.https://www.soundohm.com/product/ornette-lpRecording
The recording of Ornette! took place on January 31, 1961, at Atlantic Studios in New York City, marking the first studio session for bassist Scott LaFaro with Ornette Coleman's quartet following Charlie Haden's departure from the group.[5] Produced by Nesuhi Ertegun and engineered by Tom Dowd, the session lasted from 3:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., capturing the ensemble's spontaneous energy in a compact timeframe typical of Atlantic's jazz productions during this era.[6][7] The lineup featured Ornette Coleman on alto saxophone, Don Cherry on cornet, Scott LaFaro on double bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums, emphasizing the quartet's cohesive yet liberated interplay central to Coleman's harmolodic concept.[5] In addition to the four tracks selected for the album—"W.R.U.", "T. & T.", "C. & D.", and "R.P.D.D."—the group laid down three outtakes: "Proof Readers", "Check Up", and "The Alchemy of Scott LaFaro", the latter of which highlighted Coleman's rare use of violin alongside LaFaro's prominent bass lines.[5] Technical aspects adhered to Atlantic's standard jazz recording practices, employing a straightforward multi-microphone setup with few if any overdubs to prioritize the raw, in-the-moment improvisation that defined free jazz.[6] Dowd's engineering focused on balancing the ensemble's wide dynamic swings, from delicate arco bass passages to explosive collective solos, ensuring the recordings retained the acoustic immediacy of a live performance.[6] A key dynamic of the session involved LaFaro's adjustment to Coleman's non-traditional structures, where the bassist moved beyond conventional timekeeping to engage in more egalitarian, conversational exchanges with the front line, yielding a fluid and propulsive sound that contrasted with Haden's earlier, more anchor-like role in the quartet.[8][9] This adaptation underscored LaFaro's innovative approach, honed in settings like the Bill Evans Trio, and contributed to the album's distinctive rhythmic vitality.[10]Music
Style and themes
Ornette Coleman's Ornette! embodies the core tenets of free jazz through its embrace of collective improvisation, the rejection of predetermined chord progressions, and a prioritization of melodic liberty over harmonic constraints. Coleman's alto saxophone traces emotional, jagged melodic paths that propel the quartet, while the ensemble—featuring Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, Scott LaFaro on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums—engages in simultaneous, egalitarian expression guided by Coleman's philosophy, which equalizes melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre as interdependent elements.[11] LaFaro's bass lines play a pivotal role in fostering harmonic ambiguity, weaving contrapuntal melodies that dialogue independently with the front line rather than merely outlining changes, thus enabling fluid tonal exploration. Blackwell's drumming, though rooted in propulsion, loosens traditional timekeeping to incorporate coloristic accents and polyrhythmic layers, supporting extended group dialogues without dominating the texture.[11] Thematically, the album draws on psychological depth, with three track titles serving as initialisms from Sigmund Freud's writings—"W.R.U." abbreviating Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, "T. & T." for Totem and Taboo, and "C. & D." for Civilization and Its Discontents—to evoke an immersion in the subconscious mind. "R.P.D.D." stands for The Relation of the Poet to Dream and Desire. This framing positions the music as a sonic analog to Freudian inquiry, channeling unconscious drives and emotional truths through improvisation to liberate jazz from rational structures.[12] As an extension of free jazz concepts from Coleman's earlier Atlantic releases like The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959), Ornette! innovates by expanding track durations—reaching up to nearly 17 minutes on "W.R.U."—to accommodate prolonged solos, interactive passages, and evolving forms, markedly diverging from bebop's concise, chord-bound heads and solos in favor of open-ended, organic development.[11]Track listing
The album Ornette! is structured as a standard LP with two sides, featuring four original compositions by Ornette Coleman performed by his quartet. No singles were released from the album. The total runtime of the original release is 43:49.[13]| Side | Track | Title | Duration | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | W.R.U. (Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious) | 16:25 | The opening track features collective improvisation with Coleman on alto saxophone engaging in dialogue with bassist Scott LaFaro, incorporating R&B-inflected honks and bop elements from pocket trumpeter Don Cherry.[13][14] |
| A | 2 | T. & T. (Totem and Taboo) | 4:35 | A shorter piece highlighting intense, taboo-breaking interplay between the horns, drawing on Freudian themes in its title.[13][5] |
| B | 1 | C. & D. (Civilization and Its Discontents) | 13:10 | An extended exploration emphasizing cyclic motifs and group dynamics in free jazz style.[13] |
| B | 2 | R.P.D.D. (The Relation of the Poet to Dream and Desire) | 9:39 | The closing track drives with rhythmic propulsion from drummer Ed Blackwell, building to a climactic ensemble resolution.[13] |