ALBUM REVIEW: Ornette Coleman - Genesis Of Genius
A new reissue of the free-jazz pioneer’s first two albums sheds light on his ineffable muse and reminds us that he was always highly mindful of form.
There are some bucket-list artists that I salivate over the chance to try and write about. Saxophone giant Ornette Coleman has been one of them.
Read my review for Paste here.
If you’re familiar with Coleman for the brain-scrambling style of his iconic Free Jazz album, the material on this set captures him and longtime right-hand man Don Cherry in a much more straightforward bebop setting. That said, “straightforward” doesn’t mean “unremarkable.” What I really like about this music is that you have to do a little work to really hear how Coleman was deviating from tradition.
There’s so much that’s already been said about Coleman that it’s a challenge to shed any new light on his legacy, but I thoroughly enjoyed taking a shot at it.
Extra special thanks goes to Fitz Gitler, my old friend from high school and the son of the late legendary jazz critic Ira Gitler (who came up with the term “sheets of sound” to describe John Coltrane’s playing).
Someday I will tell the story of going to see thrash metal bands like Overkill and Death Angel with Fitz when we were in high school in the ‘80s, but alas that’s for another day…
This is the track where Coleman and his band’s playing really clicked for me: