Early in his career, Ornette made a habit of blithely flipping the Bird to jazz convention. As with Parker prior he set about blazing his own path to the predictable chagrin of conservative critics and listeners. This particular shot across the collective bow of those parties was one of the more egregious, not because of Coleman’s own playing (which was pretty much on par with his past in terms of style and approach), but rather his decision to conscript his then ten-year old son Denardo for the drum chair. Listening with the benefit of hindsight it’s a bit hard to fathom what all the fuss was about. The younger Coleman is certainly a greenhorn behind the kit compared to past compatriots like Higgins and Blackwell, his staccato rhythms spilling out in sometimes wobbly fashion. But what he lacks in finesse he makes up for in exuberance and temerity. Charlie Haden does a decent job of dutifully holding the middle, his weighty lines giving the music welcome heft. Van Gelder’s attentive engineering leaves next to nowhere for any of the three to hide. Ornette’s ornery violin sawing on “Sound Gravitation” and purposefully plangent trumpet bleating on two other tunes seems almost calculated to raise critical hackles. Sure enough, the record’s reception was reliably caustic in some circles with the usual charges of hackery and artifice claiming plenty of ink. Ornette took it all in stride, even admirably holding back umbrage at the more punishing derison directed at Denardo. And he had the last laugh, considering the father and son partnership first documented on this project is still going strong four decades on.
Posted by derek on February 3, 2008 7:13 PMThanks for reminding me of this - haven't heard it in ages. My favourite outing of Coleman pere et fils remains Crisis, though..
Posted by: Dan Warburton at February 4, 2008 9:14 AMAgreed on "Crisis", one of my favorite jazz albums ever. I have no issue with "Ornette at 12" either, no problem with Denardo at all. Probably like him on these albums better than on Song X, for that matter.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at February 4, 2008 11:46 AMI think if I had to choose the Ornette I like least, it'd probably be Song X. Though to be fair, I haven't played it for well over a decade, so it might have aged gracefully. Has it?
Posted by: Dan Warburton at February 4, 2008 10:50 PMHaven't listened in a long while and not sure if I'll work up the interest to do so. I liked it well enough at the time, for sure more than any other Metheny I'd heard; probably would still be the case with regard to the latter.
Posted by: Brian Olewnick at February 5, 2008 6:43 AMI played this album, unannounced, for the legendary free-jazz drummer Chris Kineaux; I said nothing about it, we were just chatting and I walked over to the turntable, put this on, and sat down again.
About half-way through the second track he stopped our conversation and said, "Who is that?" and before I could say 'Ornette' he added, "Who is that drummer?"
"He's beautiful! So free and not a single cliche!"
The 20th Anniversary edition of Song X is worth picking up (though I suppose not if you hated the original album). Sound is significantly scrubbed and there’s about 20 minutes of previously unreleased material. The combo of DeJohnette and Denardo is still pretty sweet to my ears, though I’d agree Metheny’s guitar synth can get a little taxing in spots.
The RVG versions of Live at the Golden Circle are worth grabbing for similar reasons: nearly double the material and markedly improved sound. Now if he’d only get around to giving the royal treatment to New York is Now and Love Call (both underrated outings by my lights).
Posted by: derek at February 5, 2008 6:50 AM"the legendary free-jazz drummer Chris Kineaux"
Uh, who's that? New name to me.
Posted by: nd at February 5, 2008 6:54 AMand to Google too - not a mention.. care to introduce us, Mr G?
Posted by: Dan Warburton at February 5, 2008 7:32 AMi'm a big fan of denardo coleman, always have been. he's a total spazz, but he always adds a beautiful asymmetry to the proceedings, pushing them beyond the norm. of particular note is his incredibly spastic peformances on blood ulmer's "tales of captain black" and ornette's "prime time/prime design".
apparently denardo was in an early lineup of curlew (with, i'm assuming, cartwright, cora and laswell). that's something i'd like to hear.
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Posted by: weasel walter at February 5, 2008 10:05 AMI like this one quite a bit also. Haden really shines on this one. I think I read Izenzon refused to play with out Moffett.
Posted by: damon Smith at February 5, 2008 7:04 PMI always got a big kick out of Denardo's rubber-band playing on Tales of Captain Black! That's an underrated summit meeting of an album. Several times I got to see Prime Time back in the day and Denardo always added a lot, even with electronic drums. It just goes to show you Ornette got exactly what he wanted because Denardo's playing fits perfectly that non-hierarchical, uncentered aesthetic of his dad's.
Posted by: djll at February 6, 2008 12:55 PM> I think I read Izenzon refused to play with out Moffett.
You must mean only in the context of Ornette's music.
He also played with these drummers: Barry Altschul, Tom Price, Howard McRae, Elvin Jones, Rashied Ali, and Robert F. Pozar.
Posted by: clifford at February 6, 2008 3:55 PMYeah, that seemed to be the case. He is also on that beautiful Paul Motion LP "Dance".
Posted by: damon Smith at February 6, 2008 10:16 PMRight, thanks, how could I forget? What a great trio.
Posted by: clifford at February 7, 2008 9:58 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................