Ornette Coleman

• 180 GRAM VINYL

Recorded a month and ten days after his landmark "Free Jazz", Ornette Coleman's "Ornette!" finds the leader on fire-- coming off such a huge acheivement, his working quartet (now consisting of trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Scott LaFaro and drummer Ed Blackwell) entered the studio to record four new compositions. Remarkably, this album seems to be a big step forward in performance from his earlier records. At a minimum, Don Cherry, who always seemed a bit fragile, is suddenly much more powerful and confident as a performer-- it could be a tour he conducted the summer before in Europe, or his first recording session as a (co) leader (the as-of-then unreleased "The Avant-Garde" with John Coltrane), or soemthing else, but Cherry playing is brilliant throughout, matching Coleman's. Likewise, Ed Blackwell seems fully integrated in the quartet and his signature sound, slightly absent on "This is Our Music" (his first recording with Coleman) and "Free Jazz", is fully present-- the New Orleans marching band feel he brings to the best of his work is prevelent throughout. Look no further than "T. & T.", a drum feature where Blackwell plays a marching beat and an amazingly patient and subtle solo to see a good example of his stellar perforamnce. And certainly, Coleman, for someone so pioneering and on the edge, plays with extraordinary confidence and skill

PERSONNEL:

• Ornette Coleman - alto sax
• Donald Cherry - pocket trumpet
• Scott LaFaro - bass
• Ed Blackweel - drums

New York, January 31, 1961

TRACKS:

• SIDE A
• A1. W.R.U.
• A2 T & T

• SIDE B
• B1. C & D
• B2. R.P.D.D.