Prime Time (band)

Last updated

Prime Time
Genres
Years active1975–1995
Labels Horizon Records
Artists House
Antilles Records
Portrait Records
Harmolodic/Verve Records
Past membersCharles Ellerbee
Jamaaladeen Tacuma
Denardo Coleman
Kenny Wessel
Bern Nix
Ronald Shannon Jackson
Albert MacDowell
Sabir Kamal
Dave Bryant

Prime Time was a band formed by Ornette Coleman in 1975 [1] featuring two electric guitarists, two drummers, and occasionally two electric bassists alongside Coleman's saxophone. [2] [3] [4] The band utilized Harmolodics to create their music. [3] Founding members included guitarist Bern Nix, guitarist Charles Ellerbee, bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, drummer Denardo Coleman (Ornette's son) [1] and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson. [5] [6] Later members including bassist Albert MacDowell and drummer Sabir Kamal. [1]

Contents

The band's first album was Dancing in Your Head . [1] Their 1988 album, Virgin Beauty , was their most successful going to number two on Billboard magazine’s jazz chart and has sold more in its first year than any previous Coleman record. [2] The album featured Jerry Garcia on guitar, which granted Coleman and Prime Time a cross-over audience of Deadheads. [2] Prime Time later opened for Grateful Dead in 1993 at Oakland Coliseum. [7]

In 2017, two years after Ornette Coleman's death, his son Denardo reunited Prime Time for a concert at Alice Tully Hall in tribute to Ornette Coleman and Bern Nix. [8]

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

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 is 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">Jamaaladeen Tacuma</span> American free jazz bassist (born 1956)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Shannon Jackson</span> American jazz drummer (1940–2013)

Ronald Shannon Jackson was an American jazz drummer from Fort Worth, Texas. A pioneer of avant-garde jazz, free funk, and jazz fusion, he appeared on over 50 albums as a bandleader, sideman, arranger, and producer. Jackson and bassist Sirone are the only musicians to have performed and recorded with the three prime shapers of free jazz: pianist Cecil Taylor, and saxophonists Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bern Nix</span> American jazz guitarist

Bern Nix was an American jazz guitarist. He recorded and performed with Ornette Coleman from 1975 to 1987, notably with guitarist Charlie Ellerbee in Coleman's Prime Time group on their key recordings, including Dancing in Your Head and In All Languages in 1987. Nix was voted among the top ten jazz guitarists poll by Down Beat magazine.

Harmolodics is a musical philosophy and method of musical composition and improvisation developed by American jazz saxophonist-composer Ornette Coleman. His work following this philosophy during the late 1970s and 1980s inspired a style of forward-thinking jazz-funk known as harmolodic funk. It is associated with avant-garde jazz and free jazz, although its implications extend beyond these limits. Coleman also used the name "Harmolodic" for both his first website and his record label.

Jayne Cortez was an African-American poet, activist, small press publisher and spoken-word performance artist whose voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic and dynamic innovations in lyricism and visceral sound. Her writing is part of the canon of the Black Arts Movement. She was married to jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman from 1954 to 1964, and their son is jazz drummer Denardo Coleman. In 1975, Cortez married painter, sculptor, and printmaker Melvin Edwards, and they lived in Dakar, Senegal, and New York City.

<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>Song X</i> 1986 studio album by Pat Metheny and Ornette Coleman

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.

Free-funk is a combination of avant-garde jazz with funk music that developed in the 1970s. Leaders of the genre include Ornette Coleman and his Prime Time group, Ronald Shannon Jackson and his group Decoding Society, Jamaaladeen Tacuma and his group Spectacle and James "Blood" Ulmer. The music has also been quite influential on the M-Base genre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denardo Coleman</span> American jazz drummer (born 1956)

Denardo Ornette Coleman is an American jazz drummer. He is the son of Ornette Coleman and Jayne Cortez.

<i>Of Human Feelings</i> 1979 Ornette Coleman album

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.

<i>Body Meta</i> 1978 studio album by Ornette Coleman

Body Meta is an album by Ornette Coleman and Prime Time, released in 1978.

<i>Opening the Caravan of Dreams</i> 1985 live album by Ornette Coleman

Opening the Caravan of Dreams is a 1985 live album by jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman and his Prime Time ensemble. It was recorded at a concert inaugurating the Caravan of Dreams, a then-newly opened performing arts center in Coleman's hometown of Fort Worth, Texas.

<i>Virgin Beauty</i> 1988 studio album by Ornette Coleman

Virgin Beauty is an album by Ornette Coleman and his Prime Time ensemble. It was released by Portrait Records in 1988.

<i>Tone Dialing</i> 1995 studio album by Ornette Coleman

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."

<i>Sound Museum: Hidden Man</i> 1996 studio album by Ornette Coleman

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.

<i>Sound Museum: Three Women</i> 1996 studio album by Ornette Coleman

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.

<i>Broken Shadows</i> 1982 studio album by Ornette Coleman

Broken Shadows is an album by the American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman recorded in 1971, at the same sessions that produced Science Fiction, but not released on the Columbia label until 1982.

<i>Jazzbühne Berlin 88</i> 1990 live album by Ornette Coleman and Prime Time

Jazzbühne Berlin '88 is a live album by Ornette Coleman and his band Prime Time. It was recorded on June 5, 1988, at the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin, and was released in 1990 by Repertoire Records as Volume 5 of their Jazz Bühne Berlin / Rundfunk der DDR series.

Grant Calvin Weston is a drummer best known for his association with Ornette Coleman's band Prime Time.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Palmer, Robert (July 16, 1986). "The Pop Life; Ornette Coleman's Music Develops in Prime Time". The New York Times . Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Fricke, David (March 8, 1989). "Ornette Coleman's Time". Rolling Stone . Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  3. 1 2 Davis, Francis (September 1985). "Ornette's Permanent Revolution". The Atlantic . Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  4. Jones, Mickey IQ (June 26, 2016). "How Ornette Coleman's Prime Time broke the rules and influenced generations". Fact . Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  5. Tamarkin, Jeff (October 19, 2013). "Drummer & Composer Ronald Shannon Jackson Dies at 73". Jazz Times . Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  6. Shteamer, Hank (April 2014). "In Memoriam: Ronald Shannon Jackson". Modern Drummer . Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  7. "Ornette and Grateful Dead". WCBN . Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  8. Chinen, Nate (July 13, 2017). "Denardo Coleman Reunites Prime Time, In Harmolodic Tribute to His Father, Ornette". WBGO . Retrieved November 18, 2019.