Science Fiction (Ornette Coleman album)

Last updated
Science Fiction
Science Fiction (Ornette Coleman album).jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedFebruary 1972 [1]
RecordedSeptember 9, 10 & October 13, 1971
StudioColumbia Studio E, New York
Genre
Length37:03
Label Columbia
Ornette Coleman chronology
Broken Shadows
(1971)
Science Fiction
(1972)
Skies of America
(1972)

Science Fiction is an album by the American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, recorded in September and October of 1971 and released on Columbia Records in February 1972. [2]

Contents

In 2000, the album was re-released along with Broken Shadows (recorded during the same sessions but not released until 1982) and several unreleased tracks as The Complete Science Fiction Sessions . [3]

Recording

Science Fiction features Coleman's early 1970s quartet, consisting of Coleman (alto saxophone, trumpet, violin), Charlie Haden (double bass), Ed Blackwell (drums), and Dewey Redman (tenor saxophone). [4] It also features performances by former Coleman sidemen Billy Higgins (drums), Don Cherry (pocket trumpet), and Bobby Bradford (trumpet), and vocals by Indian-American singer Asha Puthli on two tracks and American poet David Henderson on the title track. [4]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [5]
Pitchfork 9.5/10 [6]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [4]

The AllMusic review by Steve Huey awarded the album 5 stars and stated: "Science Fiction was [Coleman's] creative rebirth, a stunningly inventive and appropriately alien-sounding blast of manic energy... Science Fiction is a meeting ground between Coleman's past and future; it combines the fire and edge of his Atlantic years with strong hints of the electrified, globally conscious experiments that were soon to come. And, it's overflowing with brilliance". [5] The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide called it "fascinating" and "multifaceted" in another five-star review. [4] Reviewing the album for Pitchfork , Daniel Felsenthal called it "a one-of-a-kind dispatch from the vibrant, polygenic, and contested lofts of downtown New York" and "a welcome return to the singable, quintessentially Southern melodicism that counterbalanced [Coleman's] dauntless early oeuvre". [6]

Track listing

All compositions by Ornette Coleman.

  1. "What Reason Could I Give?" – 3:06
  2. "Civilization Day" – 6:04
  3. "Street Woman" – 4:50
  4. "Science Fiction" – 5:03
  5. "Rock the Clock" – 3:16
  6. "All My Life" – 3:56
  7. "Law Years" – 5:22
  8. "The Jungle Is a Skyscraper" – 5:26

Personnel

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."

<i>Change of the Century</i> 1960 studio album by Ornette Coleman

Change of the Century is the fourth album by jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, released on Atlantic Records in May 1960. It sold very well from soon after its release. Recording sessions for the album took place on October 8 and 9, 1959, in New York City.

<i>Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation</i> 1961 studio album by Ornette Coleman

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asha Puthli</span> American singer-songwriter

Asha Puthli is a singer-songwriter, producer, and actress born on February 4, 1945, and raised in Bombay, India. She has recorded solo albums for EMI, CBS/Sony, and RCA. Her recordings cover blues, pop, rock, soul, funk, disco, and techno and have been produced by Del Newman and Teo Macero.

<i>Fort Yawuh</i> 1973 live album by Keith Jarrett

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.

<i>Byablue</i> 1977 studio album by Keith Jarrett

Byablue is one of the last albums recorded by the so-called 'American Quartet' of jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. It was recorded in October 1976 in two sessions that also helped produce the album Bop-Be. Released on the Impulse label in 1977, it features performances by Jarrett, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Paul Motian. Musically speaking, even though the album Eyes of the Heart made it last to the market, Byablue and Bop-Be document the swan song of Jarrett's American Quartet in several ways, but most of all the inclusion of compositions by members other than Jarrett himself deliver another taste. While that did not happen before, for what would be the quartet's final recording sessions, Jarrett requested that band members contribute with their own compositions. Byablue consisted primarily of Paul Motian's pieces, while Bop-Be included Redman and Haden's contributions.

<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>Back Hand</i> 1975 studio album by Keith Jarrett

Back Hand is an album by American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett recorded in two sessions in October 1974 that also gave way to the album Death and the Flower. Originally released in 1975 by Impulse!, it features performances by Jarrett's American Quartet, which included Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian along with Guilherme Franco added on percussion. For a long time, the album remained a relatively obscure work until it was resuscitated by Impulse! years later.

<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 at 12</i> 1968 live album by Ornette Coleman

Ornette at 12 is an album by the American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman released on the Impulse! label in 1969.

<i>Crisis</i> (Ornette Coleman album) 1972 live album by Ornette Coleman

Crisis is a live album by the American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman recorded at New York University in 1969 and released on the Impulse! label.

<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>Old and New Dreams</i> (1979 album) 1979 studio album by Old and New Dreams

Old and New Dreams is the self-titled second album by jazz quartet Old and New Dreams, recorded in 1979 and released on ECM later that year. The quintet features trumpeter Don Cherry, saxophonist Dewey Redman, and rhythms section Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell—their debut, released on Black Saint, was also self titled.

<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>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>Friends and Neighbors: Live at Prince Street</i> 1972 live album by Ornette Coleman

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.

<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>The Complete Science Fiction Sessions</i> 2000 compilation album by Ornette Coleman

The Complete Science Fiction Sessions is a two-CD compilation album by Ornette Coleman. Released by Columbia Records in 2000, it brings together tracks recorded during September and October 1971 and September 1972 sessions at Columbia Studios in New York City. The album includes all of the music that was originally issued on Science Fiction and Broken Shadows, along with previously unreleased material. On the album, Coleman is joined by a core group of long-time associates consisting of trumpeters Don Cherry and Bobby Bradford, saxophonist Dewey Redman, double bassist Charlie Haden, and drummers Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell. Guest artists include guitarist Jim Hall, pianist Cedar Walton, trumpeters Carmine Fornarotto and Gerard Schwarz, and vocalists David Henderson, Asha Puthli, and Webster Armstrong.

References

  1. "Billboard". February 26, 1972.
  2. Ornette Coleman discography accessed November 30, 2010
  3. Jurek, Thom. "Complete Science Fiction Sessions". AllMusic. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide . USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp.  45. ISBN   0-394-72643-X.
  5. 1 2 Huey, S. Allmusic Review accessed November 30, 2010
  6. 1 2 Felsenthal, Daniel (February 25, 2024). "Ornette Coleman: Science Fiction Album Review". Pitchfork . Retrieved February 25, 2024.