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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By Mike Cormack
Format:Audio CD
Most folks when they thing of music expect melody, rhythm, discernible sections like choruses and verses. Confronted with "Free Jazz" they are often baffled or take refuge, imagining that "intellectuals" are delighting themselves, thinking themselves oh-so-very-clever over something that isn't there. (see the review below). "Free Jazz" ain't easy, but why should all music be easy? Is poetry, film or prose?
Ornette Coleman had blasted onto the jazz scene, abandoning traditional structures for the primal cry of unmediated freeform jazz, in the 1950s. In so doing he went against the "less-is-more" style of Miles Davis and inspired many already-famous musicians, such as John Coltrane. "Free Jazz" is the logical expression of Coleman's revolution. 8 musicians (a double quartet) freeform, whilst each horn takes in turn to be the dominant instrument. The other horns are free to interject or comment, but they must avoid cliche and play more than what was in their traditional "bag". This was a voyage to the musical unknown.
The playing is in fact fairly easily discernible - Coleman is the dominant soloist, while there are parts like most of the horns laughing, a car-horn peeping, and so on. There are several guiding posts, leitmotifs, to indicate the beginning or end of a solists section, so there are discernible signposts to guide the listener. The CD has a useful introduction t the album, saying who plays when.
Overall the piece lacks the power of the similar "Ascension" - Coltrane was a massivel more authoritive player than Coleman. It feels like flushes of energy at varying frequencies (depending on the horn) washing across your perceptions, a flux of energies and forces, as in an Abstract Expressionist painting (the cover is no accident!). It is not "easy listening" but it is a fascinating document and well-worth repeated hearings.
Ornette Coleman had blasted onto the jazz scene, abandoning traditional structures for the primal cry of unmediated freeform jazz, in the 1950s. In so doing he went against the "less-is-more" style of Miles Davis and inspired many already-famous musicians, such as John Coltrane. "Free Jazz" is the logical expression of Coleman's revolution. 8 musicians (a double quartet) freeform, whilst each horn takes in turn to be the dominant instrument. The other horns are free to interject or comment, but they must avoid cliche and play more than what was in their traditional "bag". This was a voyage to the musical unknown.
The playing is in fact fairly easily discernible - Coleman is the dominant soloist, while there are parts like most of the horns laughing, a car-horn peeping, and so on. There are several guiding posts, leitmotifs, to indicate the beginning or end of a solists section, so there are discernible signposts to guide the listener. The CD has a useful introduction t the album, saying who plays when.
Overall the piece lacks the power of the similar "Ascension" - Coltrane was a massivel more authoritive player than Coleman. It feels like flushes of energy at varying frequencies (depending on the horn) washing across your perceptions, a flux of energies and forces, as in an Abstract Expressionist painting (the cover is no accident!). It is not "easy listening" but it is a fascinating document and well-worth repeated hearings.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
you probably haven't stumbled over this page - free jazz is one of those records you hear about sooner or later. for the record, it isn't half as 'difficult' as folks like to make out. theres even a kind of structure going on, a number of tags throughout the piece etc. evryone plays well here, ornette steals the show, but a special mention to eric dolphy who if memory serves played on about 3 or 4 utterly essential records - this one included - in the space of about a week i think. it also amuses me that the beatles were unheard of when ornette and chums put this out...
taken as a whole, free jazz strikes me - rather like ascension - like a sun; a bright burning mass of energy that flares up in various, seemingly random places, but that does have an internal logic once you get inside it. repeated listenings will be rewarded with something new each time and an overall joy you only get from the best stuff. go on xxx
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
When this came out on vinyl I managed to get a gatefold import copy from Dobell's Record shop in London. I was stunned. Fabulous group improv and easily as good as Coltrane's Ascension but not comparable as they approach improvisational jazz in a different way. The best solution, if you like these performers is to have both. Well worth making sure that your copy of "Free Jazz" has the alternate shorter take which is just as good. Highly recommended if you like Ornette. Give it a miss if you don't.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great flow and sustained tension
Funnily enough I hadn't listened to Coleman's music until recently - while being quite familiar with jazz territory in general and the likes of John Coltrane, Miles Davis and... Read more
Published 22 months ago by J. R. P. Wigman
4.0 out of 5 stars
It isn't Mozart or George Formby!
Free Jazz often works best in small groups and only works when you switch off the ego. Amazingly 2 quartets of Free Jazz Super-stars show how it is done. Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2007 by sally
5.0 out of 5 stars
A new space for jazz
From the spluttering, primal opening chord, through layer upon layer of rising ecstatic tension to the ferocious closing rhythmic passages, this is a truly great recording. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2001 by david@brewis20.freeserve.co.uk
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