Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation

Last updated
Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation
Free Jazz - A Collective Improvisation.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 1961
RecordedDecember 21, 1960 (1960-12-21)
Genre Free jazz
Length37:10
Label Atlantic SD 1364
Producer Nesuhi Ertegün
Ornette Coleman chronology
This Is Our Music
(1961)
Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation
(1961)
Ornette!
(1962)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Down Beat Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [1]
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [3]
Yahoo! Music (favorable) [4]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [5]
Tom Hull A− [6]

Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation is the sixth album by jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, released on Atlantic Records in September 1961: the fourth of Coleman's six albums for the label. Its title named the then-nascent free jazz movement. The recording session took place on December 21, 1960, at A&R Studios in New York City. The sole outtake from the album session, "First Take," was later released on the 1971 compilation Twins and subsequent CD reissues of Free Jazz.

Contents

Music

The music is a continuous free improvisation with only a few brief pre-determined sections, recorded in one take with no overdubbing or editing. [7] The album features what Coleman called a “double quartet,” i.e., two self-contained jazz quartets: each with a reed instrument, trumpet, bass, and drums. [8] The two quartets are heard in separate channels, with Coleman's working quartet at the time (as featured on Ornette! ) in the left channel, and the second quartet, including the former Coleman rhythm section of Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell, on the right. [9]

The two quartets play simultaneously, with the two rhythm sections providing a dense rhythmic foundation over which the wind players either solo or provide freeform commentaries, interspersed with pre-composed passages. The composed thematic material can be considered a series of brief, dissonant fanfares for the horns which serve as interludes between solos. Free Jazz was the first album-length improvisation at thirty-seven minutes, unheard of at the time.

The original LP package incorporated Jackson Pollock's 1954 painting The White Light. [10] The cover was a gatefold with a cutout window in the lower right corner allowing a glimpse of the painting; opening the cover revealed the full artwork, along with liner notes by critic Martin Williams. Coleman was a fan of Pollock's work as well as being a painter himself, and the cover of his 1966 LP The Empty Foxhole would feature his own artwork. [11] [12]

Reception

In the January 18, 1962 issue of Down Beat magazine, in a special review titled "Double View of a Double Quartet," Pete Welding awarded the album Five Stars while John A. Tynan rated it No Stars. [9] [13]

AllMusic critic Steve Huey described it in his five-star retrospective review as "a staggering achievement" which "practically defies superlatives in its historical importance." [14] It served as the blueprint for later large-ensemble free jazz recordings such as Ascension by John Coltrane and Machine Gun by Peter Brötzmann.

On March 3, 1998, Free Jazz was reissued on compact disc by Rhino Records as part of its "Atlantic 50" series marking Atlantic Records' fiftieth anniversary. The title track, split into two sections for each side of the LP, appeared here in continuous uninterrupted form, along with the previously issued "First Take".

Track listing

Original LP

All tracks are written by Ornette Coleman

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Free Jazz (Part One)"19:55
Total length:19:55
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Free Jazz (Part Two)"16:28
Total length:16:28 36:23

1998 CD reissue

All tracks are written by Ornette Coleman

No.TitleLength
1."Free Jazz"37:03
2."First Take"17:06
Total length:54:09

Timing of the various sections

Personnel

Left channel
Right channel

Production

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ornette Coleman</span> American jazz musician and composer (1930–2015)

Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He was best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. His pioneering works often abandoned the harmony-based composition, tonality, chord changes, and fixed rhythm found in earlier jazz idioms. Instead, Coleman emphasized an experimental approach to improvisation, rooted in ensemble playing and blues phrasing. AllMusic called him "one of the most beloved and polarizing figures in jazz history," noting that while "now celebrated as a fearless innovator and a genius, he was initially regarded by peers and critics as rebellious, disruptive, and even a fraud."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Cherry (trumpeter)</span> American jazz trumpeter (1936–1995)

Donald Eugene Cherry was an American jazz trumpeter. Beginning in the late 1950s, he had a long tenure performing in the bands of saxophonist Ornette Coleman, including on the pioneering free jazz albums The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (1960). Cherry also collaborated separately with musicians such as John Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Sun Ra, Ed Blackwell, the New York Contemporary Five, and Albert Ayler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlie Haden</span> American musician and educator (1937–2014)

Charles Edward Haden was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. Building on the work of predecessors such as Jimmy Blanton and Charles Mingus, Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz, evolving a style that sometimes complemented the soloist, and other times moved independently, liberating bassists from a strictly accompanying role, to allow more direct participation in group improvisation.

<i>The Shape of Jazz to Come</i> 1959 studio album by Ornette Coleman

The Shape of Jazz to Come is the third album by jazz musician Ornette Coleman. Released on Atlantic Records in 1959, it was his debut on the label and his first album featuring the working quartet including himself, trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins. The recording session for the album took place on May 22, 1959, at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California. Although Coleman initially wished for the album to be titled Focus on Sanity after the LP's fourth track, Atlantic producer Nesuhi Ertegun suggested the final title, feeling that it would give consumers "an idea about the uniqueness of the LP."

<i>In All Languages</i> 1987 studio album by Ornette Coleman

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.

<i>This Is Our Music</i> (Ornette Coleman album) 1961 studio album by The Ornette Coleman Quartet

This Is Our Music is the fifth album by saxophonist Ornette Coleman, recorded in 1960 and released on Atlantic Records in March 1961. It is the first with drummer Ed Blackwell replacing his predecessor Billy Higgins in the Coleman Quartet, and is the only one of Coleman's Atlantic albums to include a standard, in this case a version of "Embraceable You" by George and Ira Gershwin.

<i>The Avant-Garde</i> (album) 1966 studio album by John Coltrane and Don Cherry

The Avant-Garde is an album credited to jazz musicians John Coltrane and Don Cherry that was released in 1966 by Atlantic Records. It features Coltrane playing several compositions by Ornette Coleman accompanied by the members of Coleman's quartet: Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell. The album was assembled from two unissued recording sessions at Atlantic Studios in New York City in 1960.

<i>Shades</i> (Keith Jarrett album) 1976 studio album by Keith Jarrett

Shades is the fifth album on the Impulse label by jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. Originally released in 1976, it features performances by Jarrett's 'American Quartet', which included Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian with Guilherme Franco added on percussion.

<i>Twins</i> (Ornette Coleman album) 1971 studio album by Ornette Coleman

Twins is an album credited to jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman, released by Atlantic Records in 1971. The album was assembled without Coleman's input, comprising outtakes from recording sessions of 1959 to 1961 for The Shape of Jazz to Come, This Is Our Music, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, and Ornette! Sessions for "Monk and the Nun" took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California; for "First Take" at A&R Studios in New York City, and all others at Atlantic Studios also in Manhattan. The track "First Take" was a first attempt at "Free Jazz" from the album of the same name.

<i>Ornette!</i> 1962 studio album by Ornette Coleman

Ornette! is the seventh album by alto saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, released in February 1962 on Atlantic Records. The album features Scott LaFaro in place of Charlie Haden, who had left the Quartet but would work again with Coleman in the future.

<i>Old and New Dreams</i> (1977 album) 1977 studio album by Old and New Dreams

Old and New Dreams is the debut album by the jazz quartet Old and New Dreams. The record features trumpeter Don Cherry, saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Ed Blackwell and was recorded in 1976 for the Italian Black Saint label. It is not to be confused with their 1979 album of the same name for ECM.

<i>Playing</i> (album) 1981 live album by Old and New Dreams

Playing is a live album by American jazz quartet Old and New Dreams recorded at the Cornmarket Theater in Austria and released on ECM the following year. The quartet consists brass section Don Cherry and Dewey Redman and rhythm section Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell.

<i>A Tribute to Blackwell</i> 1990 live album by Old and New Dreams

A Tribute to Blackwell is a live album by jazz quartet Old and New Dreams. Recorded in 1987, it features trumpeter Don Cherry, saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Ed Blackwell. It was released on the Italian Black Saint label.

<i>The Art of the Improvisers</i> 1970 studio album by Ornette Coleman

The Art of the Improvisers is an album credited to jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman, released by Atlantic Records in 1970. The album was assembled without Coleman's input, comprising outtakes from recording sessions of 1959 to 1961 for The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century, This Is Our Music, Ornette!, and Ornette on Tenor. Recording sessions in 1959 took place at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, California; those in 1960 and 1961 at Atlantic Studios in New York City.

<i>Beauty Is a Rare Thing</i> 1993 box set by Ornette Coleman

Beauty Is a Rare Thing: The Complete Atlantic Recordings is a box set by American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman compiling his master recordings made for Atlantic between 1959 and 1961, released on Rhino Records on November 16, 1993.

<i>The Montreal Tapes: with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell</i> 1994 live album by Charlie Haden

The Montreal Tapes: with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell is a live album by the American jazz bassist Charlie Haden with trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Ed Blackwell recorded at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 1989 and released on the Verve label.

<i>Coleman Classics Volume 1</i> 1977 live album by Paul Bley, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins

Coleman Classics Volume 1 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 Bley's on the Improvising Artists label in 1977. The album is an early live recording of Ornette Coleman, made shortly after 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).

<i>The Belgrade Concert</i> 1995 live album by Ornette Coleman

The Belgrade Concert is a live album by Ornette Coleman. It was recorded in November 1971 in Belgrade, and was released by Jazz Door in 1995. On the album, which was recorded one day after the concert documented on Live in Paris 1971, Coleman is joined by saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell.

<i>Live in Paris 1971</i> 2007 live album by Ornette Coleman

Live in Paris 1971 is a live album by Ornette Coleman. It was recorded in November 1971 in Paris, and was released by Jazz Row in 2007. On the album, which was recorded one day before The Belgrade Concert, Coleman is joined by saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell.

<i>The Love Revolution</i> 2005 live album by Ornette Coleman Quartet

The Love Revolution: Complete 1968 Italian Tour is a two-CD live album by the Ornette Coleman Quartet. Three tracks were recorded on February 5, 1968, in Milan, Italy, while the remaining four tracks were recorded on February 8, 1968, in Rome. The album was released in 2005 by Gambit Records, and was reissued in 2015 by Solar Records. The quartet format is unusual in that it features Coleman with two bassists, Charlie Haden and David Izenzon, along with drummer Ed Blackwell. On the Milan tracks, Coleman is heard on alto saxophone, while on the Rome tracks, he also plays trumpet and, on a track titled "Buddha Blues," shehnai.

References

  1. Down Beat: January 18, 1962 vol. 29, no. 2
  2. Allmusic Review
  3. Richard Cook and Brian Morton, The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 7th ed. (Penguin, 2004), p. 322.
  4. Yahoo! Music review
  5. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 45. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
  6. Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Jazz (1940–50s) (Reference)". tomhull.com. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  7. Liner notes to Atlantic Records album 1364.
  8. Bailey, C. Michael (September 30, 2011). "Ornette Coleman: Free Jazz". All About Jazz . Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  9. 1 2 "Happy 55th: Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation". Rhino . December 21, 2015. Retrieved March 9, 2020.
  10. Jazz: A Film By Ken Burns , Episode 9, 2001.
  11. Borgerson, Janet (2017). Designed for hi-fi living : the vinyl LP in midcentury America. Schroeder, Jonathan E., 1962-, Miller, Daniel, 1954-. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. p. 90. ISBN   9780262036238. OCLC   958205262.
  12. "Ornette Coleman and Jackson Pollock: Black Music, White Light |". federaljazzpolicy.com. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  13. Down Beat: January 18, 1962 vol. 29, no. 2
  14. Huey, Steve, Ornette Coleman Double Quartet - Free Jazz Album Review , retrieved 2023-07-24