A series of recent live music performances at London’s Southbank Centre by–or inspired by–Ornette Coleman, a free jazz legend, was equal parts amazing, exhausting and surprising. Never dull.
Having never seen Coleman perform live before, two things became clear to me by the end of the week: his playing oozes with the blues, and he doesn’t want to alienate his audience, no matter much his avant-garde approach to music might suggest otherwise. His music may seem challenging or inaccessible, but the invitation to participate is always there.
The full blog post is at INTELLIGENT LIFE.
So why Coleman? Lots of reasons. Coleman is one of the founders of the “free jazz” genre (he prefers the term “Harmolodics”). He is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for music. Jazz at Lincoln Center has given Coleman his due props, and he’s got a Lifetime Achievement Grammy.
Compared to more mainstream, conservative ideas of what jazz is or should be, Coleman’s raw, abstract approach to jazz was always controversial — one fellow musician reportedly assaulted him after a show -– but his stamp on jazz is unmistakable and undeniable.
“Throughout his entire career, Ornette has always maintained that music is music,” Glenn Max, the producer of contemporary culture for Southbank, explained. “It’s not jazz, or rock, or classical. It’s just music. In an era too often typified by the slavish aping of trends, these are qualities that are increasingly rare.”
The full blog post is at the NEW YORK TIMES.
