Constantinou 8

of Ne Yok: F ank O Ha a, Ami i Ba aka and he Poe ic of he Fi e S o , “That Baraka and

Coleman were friends is also significant: as he did with Cecil Taylor, Baraka was exchanging

aesthetic notions, his metaphors one half of a synesthetic two-way street.” Berkson writes Monk

and Coleman were instructive about tone, about what a structure or syntax might accommodate,

what the ear could not just tolerate but actually enjoy. Notice how Berkson moves liberally from

discussing musical tonality to discussing syntax” (Magee). Here we see a very important aspect

of Coleman and his music, the parallel between music and language. Coleman was always aware

of the significance of language and not only that, he considered himself not strictly a musician,

but a poet and a painter.

Once, Coleman said in an interview with Michael Jarrett “In music you have something

called sound, you have speed, you have timbre, you have harmonics, and you have, more or less,

the resolutions. In most music, people that play what I call mostly standard music, they only use

one dimension, which means the note and the time. Whereas like say I'm having this

conversation with you, now. I'm talking, but I'm thinking, feeling, smelling, and moving. Yet I'm

concentrating on what you're saying. So, that means there's more things going on in the body

than just the present thing that the person's got you doing. Like you're interviewing me, although

I'm doing more than just talking to you” and he continues to give us more insight “To me, human

existence exists on a multiple level, not just on a two-dimensional level, not just having to be

identified with what you do and what you say. Those things are the results of what people see

and hear that you do. But the human beings themselves are living on a multiple level. That's how

I have always wanted musicians to play with me: on a multiple level. I don't want them to follow

me. I want them to follow themselves, but to be with me” (Jarrett). This interview is a very