| Body Meta | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1978 | |||
| Recorded | December 19, 1976 | |||
| Genre | Harmolodic funk [1] | |||
| Length | 39:22 | |||
| Label | Artists House | |||
| Producer | Ornette Coleman | |||
| Ornette Coleman chronology | ||||
| ||||
Body Meta is an album by Ornette Coleman and Prime Time, released in 1978.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| Tom Hull | A− [3] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [4] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [5] |
| The Village Voice | A− [6] |
Robert Christgau wrote: "Hidden in Coleman's dense electric music are angles deep enough to dive into and sharp enough to cut your throat. This isn't quite as dense or consistent as Dancing in Your Head -- 'Fou Amour' does wander. But 'Voice Poetry' is as funky as James Chance if not James Brown. And 'Home Grown' is as funky as Robert Johnson." [6] The Globe and Mail noted that "a lot of things could be said about the band—it doesn't swing (rarely even rocks), it's cacophonous, strident and lacking in dynamics—but it also must be acknowledged that it's what Coleman wants." [7]
Writing for Fact , Frank Schindelbeck stated: "While many regard Dancing [In Your Head] to be the key Prime Time document, in my opinion it's Body Meta that first showed the full depth of Ornette's new band. The inaugural release on Coleman's own Artists House label, Body Meta touches on juke joint blues vamps, cubist refractions of James Brown's 'on the one' style, and even militaristic waltzes. It is perhaps the most loose-limbed and deceptively relaxed of any release featuring the Prime Time band, who were known for their taut intensity. The album is also hugely important in that by setting up the Artists House label, Coleman showed that an artist of his stature and reputation could operate outside of the confines of major label hierarchy, ushering in a new era of independent and underground jazz distribution." [8] In a review for AllMusic, Michael G. Nastos wrote that the musicians on Body Meta are "loud, boisterous, imaginative, unfettered by conventional devices, and wail beyond compare with Coleman within relatively funky, straight beats." Regarding the album, he stated: "As every track is different, Coleman's vision has a diffuse focus, but it's clear that things have changed. Even his personal sound is more pronounced, unleashed from shackles, and more difficult to pin down." [2]
All tracks composed by Ornette Coleman
Jamaaladeen Tacuma is an American jazz funk avant-garde bassist, composer and producer born in Hempstead, New York. He was a bandleader on the Gramavision label and worked with Ornette Coleman during the 1970s and 1980s, mostly in Coleman's Prime Time band.
In All Languages is a 1987 double album by Ornette Coleman. Coleman and the other members of his 1950s quartet, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins, performed on one of the two records, while his electrified ensemble, Prime Time, performed on the other. Many of the songs on In All Languages had two renditions, one by each group.
Dancing in Your Head is a studio album by jazz artist Ornette Coleman, released in 1977 by Horizon Records.
Liberation Music Orchestra is a band and jazz album by Charlie Haden released in 1970, Haden's first as a band leader.
Sound Grammar is a live album by jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, recorded live in Ludwigshafen, Germany, on 14 October 2005. The album was produced by Coleman and Michaela Deiss, and released on Coleman's new Sound Grammar label. It was his first new album in almost a decade, since the end of his relationship with Verve in the 1990s. It features a mix of new and old originals.
Song X is a collaborative studio album by American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and saxophonist Ornette Coleman. It is a free jazz record that was produced in a three-day recording session in 1985. The album was released in 1985 by Geffen Records.
Skies of America is the 17th album by jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, released on Columbia Records in 1972. It consists of one long composition by Coleman taking up both sides of the album, played by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by David Measham. Coleman himself only plays on a few segments, and there is no other jazz instrumentation.
Tomorrow Is the Question!, subtitled The New Music of Ornette Coleman!, is the second album by American jazz musician Ornette Coleman, originally released in 1959 by Contemporary Records. It was Coleman's last album for the label before he began a highly successful multi-album series for Atlantic Records in 1959.
Fort Yawuh is a jazz album by American pianist and composer Keith Jarrett. Originally released in 1973 by Impulse! Records, it marks the beginning of the label’s relationship with Jarrett. Recorded live at the Village Vanguard on February 24, 1973 by Jarrett's "American Quartet": Dewey Redman on tenor saxophone, Charlie Haden on acoustic bass, Paul Motian on drums, plus percussionist Danny Johnson. The title of the album is an anagram of "Fourth Way," a reference to George Gurdjieff's fourth path of self-awareness.
Of Human Feelings is an album by American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Ornette Coleman. It was recorded on April 25, 1979, at CBS Studios in New York City with his band Prime Time, which featured guitarists Charlie Ellerbee and Bern Nix, bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and drummers Calvin Weston and Coleman's son Denardo. It followed the saxophonist's failed attempt to record a direct-to-disc session earlier in March of the same year and was the first jazz album to be recorded digitally in the United States.
Soapsuds, Soapsuds is an album of duets by saxophonist/trumpeter Ornette Coleman and bassist Charlie Haden recorded in 1977 and released on the Artists House label.
Tales of Captain Black is an album by American guitarist James Blood Ulmer, featuring Ornette Coleman, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, and Denardo Coleman, recorded in 1978 and originally released on the Artists House label. It was coproduced by Ornette. The album was remastered and rereleased on CD with a new mix by Joe Ferla approved and co-produced by Ulmer on the Japanese DIW label in 1996.
Dinner Music is an album by American composer, bandleader and keyboardist Carla Bley recorded in 1976 and released on the Watt/ECM label in 1977.
Tone Dialing is an album recorded in 1995 by the American jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman and his Prime Time ensemble. It was released in September 1995 by Coleman's Harmolodic record label, in partnership with Verve/PolyGram. It was the Harmolodic label's first release, and "the first disc fully devoted to Coleman's music in eight years."
Colors: Live from Leipzig is a live album by the American jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman and German pianist Joachim Kühn recorded in 1996 and released on the Harmolodic/Verve label.
Sound Museum: Hidden Man is an album by the American jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman recorded in 1996 and released on the Harmolodic/Verve label. It is dedicated to Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell.
Sound Museum: Three Women is an album by the American jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman recorded in 1996 and released on the Harmolodic/Verve label. It is dedicated to Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell.
Friends and Neighbors: Live at Prince Street is a live album by the American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman recorded in 1970 and released on the Flying Dutchman label.
Live at the Hilcrest Club 1958 is a live album by pianist Paul Bley, saxophonist Ornette Coleman, trumpeter Don Cherry, drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Charlie Haden recorded in California in 1958 and released on the Inner City label in 1976. The album was the first live recording of Ornette Coleman, made shortly after he recorded his first album, Something Else!!!! and featuring the group that would soon record the Atlantic albums The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and Change of the Century (1960).
Prime Time was a band formed by Ornette Coleman in 1975 featuring two electric guitarists, two drummers, and occasionally two electric bassists alongside Coleman's saxophone. The band utilized Harmolodics to create their music. Founding members included guitarist Bern Nix, guitarist Charles Ellerbee, bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, drummer Denardo Coleman and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. Later members including bassist Albert MacDowell and drummer Sabir Kamal.
