Ornette Coleman – Genesis Of Genius: The Contemporary Albums (2LP, Box set)
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COMPILATON OF 2 PREVIOUSLY ISSUED RECORDS
Ornette Coleman - alto sax [click here to see more vinyl featuring Ornette Coleman]
Don Cherry – trumpet
Walter Norris – piano (A1-B5)
Don Payne – bass (A1-B5)
Percy Heath - bass (C1-6)
Red Mitchell - bass (D1-3)
Billy Higgins – drums (A1-B5)
Shelly Manne – drums (C1 – D3)
All tracks composed by Ornette Coleman
2 LPs, box set, 32-page booklet
Original analog Master tape : YES
Heavy Press : 180g
Record color : Black
Speed : 33 RPM
Size : 12'’
Stereo
Studio
Record Press : RTI
Label : Concord
Original label : Craft Recordings
Recorded at Contemporary's Studio, Los Angeles, by Roy DuNann on February 10, 22 & March 24, 1958 (LP1) and January 16, February 23 and March 9–10, 1959 (LP2)
Original recordings produced by Lester Koenig
Compilation produced by Nick Phillips
Remastered by Bernie Grundman
Compilation originally released in 2019
Reissued in June 2022
Tracks:
LP1 : Something Else!!!!: The Music Of Ornette Coleman
Side A:
- Invisible
- The Blessing
- Jayne
- Chippie
Side B:
- The Disguise
- Angel Voice
- Alpha
- When Will The Blues Leave?
- The Sphinx
LP2 : Tomorrow Is The Question!: The New Music Of Ornette Coleman
Side C:
- Tomorrow Is The Question!
- Tears Inside
- Mind And Time
- Compassion
- Giggin'
- Rejoicing
Side D:
- Lorraine
- Turnaround
- Endless
Reviews:
“Listening to the first two albums saxophonist Ornette Coleman released under his own name today, it can be a little challenging to surmise exactly what about this then-young player made his peers in the late '50s lose their minds. But his approach to melody and structure upset the status quo so much that, as legend has it, Max Roach socked Coleman in the mouth after hearing him play. Jazz, and Ornette, have gone to far more challenging places since Contemporary Records released these records but their initial appearance sent a small shockwave through the musical community that modern players are still feeling the aftershocks of. This lovingly constructed set offers a chance to hear just how important these albums were and still are. Bernie Grundman used the original analog tapes for these sharp new pressings of both Something Else!!!! and Tomorrow Is The Question, and Craft Recordings packaged them in a handsome blue box with a booklet, featuring masterful liner notes from Ashley Kahn, tucked inside.” Robert Ham, Paste Magazine
“This 1958 debut recording by the Ornette Coleman Quintet, which featured Coleman on his trademark white plastic alto, Don Cherry on trumpet, Billy Higgins on drums, Walter Norris on piano, and Don Payne on bass, shook up the jazz world -- particularly those musicians and critics who had entered the hard bop era with such verve and were busy using the blues as a way of creating vast solo spaces inside tight and short melody lines. Something Else!!!! is anathema to that entire idea, and must have sounded like it came from outer space at the time. First, Coleman's interest was in pitch, not "being in tune." His use of pitch could take him all over -- and outside of -- a composition, as it does on "Invisible," which begins in D flat. The intervals are standard, but the melodic component of the tune -- despite its hard bop tempo -- is, for the most part, free. But what is most compelling is evident in abundance here and on the next two tunes, "The Blessing" and "Jayne": a revitalization of the blues as it expressed itself in jazz. Coleman refurbished the blues framework, threaded it through his jazz without getting rid of its folk-like, simplistic milieu. In other words, the groove Coleman was getting here was a people's groove that only confounded intellectuals at the time. Coleman restored blues to their "classic" beginnings in African music and unhooked their harmonies. Whether the key was D flat, A, G, whatever, Coleman revisited the 17- and 25-bar blues. There are normal signatures, however, such as "Chippie" in F and in eight-bar form, and "The Disguise" is in D, but in a strange 13-bar form where the first and the last change places, altering the talking-like voice inherent in the melodic line. But the most important thing about Something Else! was that, in its angular, almost totally oppositional way, it swung and still does; like a finger-poppin' daddy on a Saturday night, this record swings from the rafters of the human heart with the most unusually gifted, emotional, and lyrical line since Bill Evans first hit the scene.” Something Else: The Music of Ornette Coleman AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek
“On his second outing for the Contemporary label, Ornette dusted the piano from the bandstand and focused instead on a quartet. For some unexplained reason, Billy Higgins was replaced by Shelly Manne; the only constants remain Coleman and Don Cherry. The focus, then, is on the interplay between the altoist and trumpeter in executing Ornette's tunes, which were, more than on the preceding album (Something Else!, recorded a year earlier), knottier and tighter in their arrangement style. The odd-syncopation style of the front line on numbers such as "Tears Inside," which comes out of the box wailing and then simmers down into a moody, swinging blues, was a rough transition for the rhythm section. And the more Ornette and Cherry try to open it up into something more free and less attached to the tune's form, the more Manne and especially bassist Percy Heath hang on. Still, there are great moments here: for example, the celebratory freedom of "Giggin'," with its wonderful trumpet solo, and "Rejoicing," which has become one of Coleman's classics for its elongated melody line and simple obbligato phrasing, which become part of a wonderfully complex solo that keeps the blues firmly intact. The final track, "Endless," is pure magic. After Manne carries it in 6/8, Coleman uses a nursery rhyme to move to the solo terrain and, when he does, the solo itself becomes a part of that rhyme as even Don Cherry feels his way through it in his break. And, if anything, this is one of the things that came to define Ornette -- his willingness to let simplicity and its bright colors and textures confound not only other players and listeners, but also him too. In those days, Coleman's musical system -- although worked out in detail -- always left room for the unexpected and, in fact, was played as if his life depended on it. As a result, Tomorrow Is the Question! was a very literal title; who could have guessed the expansive, world-widening direction that Coleman's system would head into next?” Tomorrow Is the Question! AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek
Ratings :
AllMusic : 4.5 / 5 (LP1) & 4 / 5 (LP2) ; Discogs : 4.92 / 5