Science Fiction | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | February 1972 [1] | |||
Recorded | September 9, 10 & October 13, 1971 | |||
Studio | Columbia Studio E, New York | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 37:03 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Ornette Coleman chronology | ||||
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Science Fiction is an album by the American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, recorded in September and October 1971 and released on Columbia Records in February 1972. [2]
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]
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]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
DownBeat | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Pitchfork | 9.5/10 [7] |
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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". [7]
All compositions by Ornette Coleman.