| Town Hall, 1962 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 1965 | |||
| Recorded | December 21, 1962 | |||
| Venue | Town Hall, NYC | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 45:14 | |||
| Label | ESP-Disk | |||
| Ornette Coleman chronology | ||||
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Town Hall, 1962 is a live album by Ornette Coleman, recorded on December 21, 1962 at New York City's Town Hall and released in 1965 by the ESP-Disk label. It was the first recording of Coleman's new trio, featuring rhythm section David Izenzon and Charles Moffett. [1]
1962 was a difficult year for finding work for Coleman and his trio; that year, after an engagement at the Jazz Gallery, Coleman was dismayed to see Dave Brubeck follow him and earn a significantly higher fee. [2] As a result, Coleman decided to charge more for appearances, leading to repeated rejections by club owners and concert presenters. [2] In response, classically-trained bassist David Izenzon relied on freelance jobs with orchestras and chamber groups, and drummer Charles Moffett, whom Coleman had known since high school, took up a job as a teacher. [2]
At the same time, Coleman—tired of being perceived as a "cornpone musician" (an "illiterate guy who just plays" [3] )—began composing classically-oriented works, and, with financial assistance from Irving Stone, [4] rented Town Hall in order to present a full-length concert of his works. [3] In addition to booking the hall and writing all the music, Stone also put up posters advertising the concert, rehearsed the musicians, and hired a recording engineer. [3]
The concert featured ten pieces for Coleman and his trio, a work for string quartet ("Dedication to Poets and Writers"), and a piece for rhythm-and-blues group titled "Blues Misused", on which Coleman played. [1] The album Town Hall, 1962 includes three of the trio pieces plus the string quartet; the rest were recorded but have never been released. [1] (Regarding the unreleased "Blues Misused", Stanley Crouch wrote that "it predicts the fusion era in no uncertain terms," [5] while A. B. Spellman stated that the piece "must stand, with... Coleman's Free Jazz, as one of the two most important works that he has ever performed". [6] )
The concert was a success in that several hundred people attended and responded enthusiastically, and the proceeds allowed Coleman to break even. [3] [7] However, it did not receive much attention, leading Coleman to recall: "I'll never forget... that night there was a subway strike, a newspaper strike, a taxi strike, I mean everything was strike, even a match strike, know what I mean? Not only that, I hired a guy to record it for me, and [later] he committed suicide." [3] Following the concert, Coleman did not record or appear publicly for two years. [7] The trio would not record again until 1965, when they produced Chappaqua Suite and At the Golden Circle Stockholm .
Originally announced for release on Fugue, it was considered for release by Impulse! before landing with Blue Note, who intended to release the full concert over two volumes as BLP 4210 and 4211, omitting only a trio selection and a rhythm-and-blues number. After test pressings had been made, legal complications caused the release to be renegotiated; BLP 4211 was turned over to Bernard Stollman, and was released—minus "Taurus", a solo bass performance by Izenson—as Town Hall, 1962 on ESP-Disk. [8]
According to Bernard Stollman, founder of ESP-Disk, Coleman gave him a tape of the Town Hall concert when the two first met. [9] However, Stollman soon discovered that the bass track was distorted, rendering the recording unusable. Stollman took the tape to engineer Dave Sarser, who was able to compress the bass track, removing the distortion and laying the groundwork for the ESP-Disk release. [9] Stollman also recalled that Blue Note Records offered to release the portion of the concert not included on the ESP disk, but failed to do so. [10]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [11] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings | [12] |
| All About Jazz #1 | [13] |
| All About Jazz #2 | [14] |
| DownBeat | [15] |
The AllMusic review by Scott Yanow states, "Ornette Coleman's decision to temporarily retire from music... was unfortunate. His alto playing was getting stronger, and on evidence of this CD, he had plenty of original ideas that should have been documented.... Although Ornette's string writing (which leaves no room for improvising) is pretty well outside of jazz, his playing on the other tracks holds one's interest throughout." [11]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings called "Sadness" one of Coleman's "most plangent and affecting themes... deeply marked by the blues," while "Doughnut" "catches Ornette in his most demonstrative form, punching out notes like a bar-walking R&B man." "The Ark" is described as "a seething troublous piece that refuses to cohere," and "Dedication" "points the way forward to what would be even more troubled projects in the future." [12]
Lyn Horton, writing for All About Jazz, awarded the album 5 stars, commenting, "In the stream of its apparent freedom, this trio acts with constraints, imposed not by restriction, but by genius. To know what later transpired could only underscore the appreciation of what already exists." [13] In a separate review for the same publication, Stuart Broomer also awarded it 5 stars, writing: "This concert is one of the essential Coleman documents, an extension of the raw, angular music he had developed in the early years of his public career... and an increasing sense of fluid group dialogue." [14]
All tracks are written by Ornette Coleman
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Doughnut" | 9:00 |
| 2. | "Sadness" | 4:00 |
| 3. | "Dedication to Poets and Writers" | 8:50 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Ark" | 23:24 |
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. Thom Jurek of 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."
Charles Moffett was an American free jazz drummer.
Charnett Moffett was an American jazz bassist and composer. He was an apparent child prodigy. Moffett began playing bass in the family band, touring the Far East in 1975 at the age of eight. In the mid-1980s, he played with Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis.
Lowell Davidson was a jazz pianist and biochemist from Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his "sensible and free flowing approach to unconventional linear improvisation", but appeared on only a handful of commercially-available recordings. Davidson also played bass, percussion, organ, electronic keyboards, and reed instruments.
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.
Spiritual Unity is a studio album by American free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler. It was recorded on July 10, 1964 in New York City, and features bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray. It was the first album recorded for Bernard Stollman's ESP-Disk label, and it brought Ayler to international attention as it was so "shockingly different". At the same time, it transformed ESP-DISK into "a major source for avant-garde jazz". A 5-star review in AllMusic called it a "landmark recording that's essential to any basic understanding of free jazz", "the album that pushed Albert Ayler to the forefront of jazz's avant-garde... really the first available document of Ayler's music that matched him with a group of truly sympathetic musicians", and stated that "the results are a magnificently pure distillation of his aesthetic."
At the "Golden Circle" Stockholm is a pair of 1966 live albums by the Ornette Coleman Trio, documenting concerts on the nights of December 3 and 4, 1965, at the Gyllene Cirkeln club in Stockholm.
Frank Wright was an American free jazz musician, known for his frantic style of playing the tenor saxophone. Critics often compare his music to that of Albert Ayler, although Wright "offers his honks and squawks with a phraseology derived from the slower, earthier funk of R&B and gospel music." According to AllMusic biographer Chris Kelsey, Wright "never recorded even a single record under his own name for a major label; he was 'underground' his entire career." In addition to tenor saxophone, Wright also played the soprano saxophone and bass clarinet.
A jazz trio is a group of three jazz musicians, often a piano trio comprising a pianist, a double bass player and a drummer. Jazz trios are commonly named after their leader, such as the Bill Evans Trio.
David Izenzon was an American jazz double bassist.
Other Planes of There is an album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. Recorded in 1964, the album had been released by 1966 on Sun Ra's own Saturn label. The record was reissued on compact disc by Evidence in 1992.
'Granted, the selection is certainly not as abrasive and demanding as later efforts, although there is strident involvement from everyone within the dense arrangement. The brass and reed sections provide emphasis behind an off-kilter and loping waltz backdrop. All the more impressive is how well the material has held up over the decades. Even to seasoned ears, the music is pungent and uninhibited, making Other Planes of There a highly recommended collection.' Lindsay Planer
Bernard Stollman was an American lawyer and the founder of the ESP-Disk record label.
Closer is the seventh album led by jazz pianist Paul Bley, featuring seven compositions by Carla Bley, recorded in 1965 and released on the ESP-Disk label.
Prophecy is a live album by American free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler recorded in New York City on June 14, 1964 and first released in 1975 on the ESP-Disk label.
In the Beginning 1963–1964 is a 4-CD compilation album by American free jazz saxophonist Pharoah Sanders recorded in 1963-1964 and released in 2012 on the ESP-Disk label. It features previously unreleased recordings of Sanders performing with groups led by Don Cherry and Paul Bley, complete concert recordings of Sanders' appearances with Sun Ra, a re-release of Sanders' first album, and various interviews.
Lowell Davidson Trio is the debut album by American jazz pianist Lowell Davidson, and the only commercially available recording issued during his lifetime. It was recorded in 1965, and was released on the ESP-Disk label. The album, which contains five original compositions, features Davidson on piano, along with Gary Peacock on bass and Milford Graves on drums.
An Evening with Ornette Coleman is a live album by Ornette Coleman. It was recorded in August 1965 at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, London, and was initially released by Polydor International in 1967. The album opens with a recording of a wind quintet by Coleman performed by London's Virtuoso Ensemble, followed by trio performances featuring Coleman on alto saxophone, violin, and trumpet, accompanied by bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett.
Noah Howard Quartet is the debut album by alto saxophonist Noah Howard. It was recorded in New York City during January 1966, and was released later that year by ESP-Disk. On the album, Howard is joined by trumpeter Ric Colbeck, bassist Scotty Holt, and percussionist Dave Grant.
Who's Crazy?, Volumes 1 and 2, is a pair of albums by Ornette Coleman containing music that was intended as the soundtrack for a film of the same name, directed by Thomas White and featuring members of The Living Theatre. The albums, which feature Coleman on alto saxophone, trumpet, and violin, accompanied by double bassist David Izenzon and percussionist Charles Moffett, were recorded in Paris during 1966, and were initially released on vinyl by Atmosphere Records, an imprint of the French I.R.I. label, with the title Who's Crazy? La Clef Des Champs. In 1982, both LPs were reissued by Affinity Records, a subsidiary of Charly Records, as part of a box set compilation.
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.
