Is This the Most Controversial Jazz Album in History?

Comments · 244

• YO

  @YoullHearIt · 6 months ago · pinned

  Whether you&apos;re getting back into playing or just don&apos;t know what to practice next, Open Studio was built for you. Free trial → <a href="https://openstudiojazz.link/yhi">https://openstudiojazz.link/yhi</a>

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• ER

  @Erschophone · 6 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlCMSud72Sw&amp;t=1500">25:00</a> Mingus&apos; nickname for Charlie Haden was ... &quot;Bass&quot;. Imagine having Charles Mingus calling you: &quot;Bass&quot;...

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• SE

  @sEns3s · 6 months ago (edited)

  There&apos;s a moment in the Sun Ra documentary when Johnny Gilmore is talking about rehearsing in Sun Ra&apos;s band, he says (paraphrasing) he had no problem playing anything that was put in front of him, but he never really &quot;heard&quot; the music he was playing for Sun Ra, and then one day while they were playing the tune Saturn, he finally heard it, and suddenly realized this guy&apos;s harmony was beyond that of Monk or Mingus, who he considered the greatest minds in music. I still haven&apos;t &quot;heard&quot; it, with Sun Ra or Coleman&apos;s further out stuff, but I believe Gilmore and I&apos;m looking forward to the day I finally do. I remember a time when most Jazz sounded like gibberish to me and the incredible feeling when my brain eventually clicked over and I could really hear the music. Ornette is like the final boss of &quot;hearing it&quot;

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• QM

  @QMI-SP · 6 months ago

  The smartest, most informed, most respectful, most expansive, discussion on Ornette, his music, and it’s significance, I’ve ever heard. Thank you.

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• ZD

  @zdunas23 · 6 months ago

  Actually one big name missing here is Paul Bley who played with Coleman and Cherry as his sidemen back in the West - the 1958 recording is as good as it gets

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• MA

  @martindalmasi5340 · 6 months ago

  Lonely Woman is essentially a Picasso painting &nbsp;put to music

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• DS

  @dschumbonn · 6 months ago

  Great choice! Pharoah Sanders next?

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• NI

  @nirhermon-oq2ig · 6 months ago

  Finally, a jazz album! This is exactly why I love having you guys in my life. Thanks!

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• ST

  @stevenroberts5741 · 6 months ago

  As a non musician I’m so glad to hear you mention how musicians and non-musicians may hear it differently. It may just be the passage of time and that so much has come since that somewhat dilutes how ‘radical’ this sounds in modern times. I’ve had the album for years and never found it as ‘jarring’ or ‘different’ as I expected it to be based on reputation and I’ve often assumed it is because I don’t understand musical structure sufficiently to appreciate how different it was….so your comment confirmed that for me 🙏

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• KL

  @klaus8456 · 6 months ago (edited)

  Once you really get into Ornette you realize it is nowhere near as far out there as people have put it to be.<br><br>Its some of the REALEST music there is.

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• 92

  @92ninersboy · 6 months ago

  I always thought it was remarkable that John Lewis was the person that first acknowledged Ornette and promoted his music. As a musician who played with Bird, was a major contributor to Miles&apos; Birth of the Cool and the musical director of one of jazz&apos;s &nbsp;most prominent bands, the Modern Jazz Quartet, his stamp-of-approval was extremely important. Lewis, of course, is seen as someone with deep roots in classical forms and structure, but he also had a connection with blues roots and I think that aspect of Ornette&apos;s music probably appealed to him. Whatever the case, John Lewis had an open mind and open ears.

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• DA

  @daveman15 · 6 months ago (edited)

  I would play this album in my college dorm room (around 1978) and the other people on my hall thought I was nuts. &nbsp;&quot;Come on, man, you don&apos;t actually LIKE this, do you?&quot; &nbsp;At the time, I was just getting into jazz in a big way and this really stretched my ears. &nbsp;But the blues connection was clear. &nbsp;(And I love Mingus, but hanging with him might have been very scary, depending on the day.) &nbsp;&quot;Free Jazz&quot; drove my friends even crazier!

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