Jazz Concert Review Ornette Coleman @ jazzreview.

com 11/30/09 7:59 AM

Ornette Coleman
Live at Symphony Hall in San Francisco
Concert Review by: Harry S. Pariser

Venue: Symphony Hall (San Francisco, CA, USA)

November 2009 - There aren’t many

1960s elders of jazz still performing
these days. Pianists McCoy Tyner and
Randy Weston come to mind, as does
saxophonist Sonny Rollins, but few
others come to mind. That’s one of
the things that made the appearance
by Ornette Coleman and his group at
the San Francisco Symphony Hall as
part of the San Francisco Jazz Festival
so compelling.

Despite the demise of longtime

collaborators such as trumpeter and
multi-instrumentalist Don Cherry and
drummer Ed Blackwell and Billy
Higgins, Coleman, now 79, keeps on
performing. He first came to fame with
the release of his controversial album
“Free Jazz.” Clocking in at nearly forty
minutes and taking up both sides of
the album, it was the lengthiest-
running jazz composition to have ever
been pressed into vinyl. Its release would be followed decades later by rock “jam” releases,
such as are represented by the live work of the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead,
and this tie was perhaps reflected by Jerry Garcia’s playing on two Coleman compositions
on a CD, as well as Coleman’s appearances as second on the bill to the Grateful Dead on
one of their tours.

As a result of this album, the term “free jazz” came to be applied to all improvisatory jazz
forms, something which Coleman was uncomfortable with, probably because his music is
composed as well as improvised. Indeed, he is the inventor of a style of music called
“harmolodics,” one which Ornette defines as “the use of the physical and the mental of
one's own logic made into an expression of sound to bring about the musical sensation of
unison executed by a single person or with a group." In terms of his musical compositions
and ensemble playing, this means that "harmony, melody, speed, rhythm, time and
phrases all have equal position in the results that come from the placing and spacing of
ideas."

Ornette was met with standing applause as he took the stage at Symphony Hall.
Accompanying him were two bassists: Al Macdowell, a member of Ornette’s 1980s group
Prime Time on electric and Anthony Falanga on acoustic. Coleman’s son Denardo anchored
the band with his red drum kit. Denardo first came to public attention when he played
drums (at the tender age of ten!) on Ornette’s 1966 trio-date “The Empty Foxhole,”

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Jazz Concert Review Ornette Coleman @ jazzreview.com 11/30/09 7:59 AM

recorded with bassist and longtime collaborator Charlie Haden, The record aroused great
controversy because of Denardo’s age and limited skill set. Despite a sometimes critical
reception, Denardo has played regularly with Ornette since the late 1970s. (Although this
configuration of Ornette’s has been around for some years, it originally had three basses,
but Coleman has pared a third bass from the group.)

For this gig, Ornette started with the relatively new composition “Following the Sound”
which was in the standard harmolodic mode and characterized by his usual piercing alto.
Sixteen succinctly-played compositions (including the encore numbers) followed during the
subsequent hour-and-a-half of music. Next up was “Blues Connotation,” from the classic
Coleman LP “Following the Sound” which was released a half century ago. This was
followed by tunes such as “The Sphinx,” from “Something Else!!!!: The Music of Ornette
Coleman,” “Peace" from “The Shape of Jazz to Come,” “Dancing in Your Head” from the
Prime Time-era album of the same name, the “Bach Prelude” from “Tone Dialing,” and
“Song X,” which was recorded on an album with guitarist Pat Metheny in 1986. While
Ornette spent most of his time playing his alto, he also picked up his violin and trumpet on
occasion and added them to the sound mix. Much of the musical tension was provided by
the contrast between McDowell’s electric bass and Falanga’s acoustic counterpart.

Following a second standing applause, the ensemble returned to play the haunting “Lonely
Woman,” arguably Ornette’s best known composition and then ended the evening with
“Jordan” from “Sound Grammar,” the CD which won Coleman a Pulitzer. Characteristically,
Ornette had left the stage without ever having said a word to the audience. A third
standing ovation ensued.

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