Track Listing

1. Ramblin'
2. Free
3. The Face Of The Bass
4. ForeRunner
5. Bird Food
6. Una Muy Bonita
7. Change Of The Century

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37799 in Music
• Released on: 1998-02-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

From Amazon.co.uk
Ornette Coleman suggests in his liner notes for this 1960 release that "there is no single right way to play jazz". He and his great quartet (with Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; and Billy Higgins, drums) fully confirm that statement and dismiss the railings of Coleman's detractors. This classic's assurance and achievement fully justify its cocky title. In its free group improvising, as Coleman puts it, "each member goes his own way and still adds tellingly to the group endeavor". The later formalisation of that approach, as "harmolodics", was from this point inevitable. The selections include tunes like "Ramblin'" and "Una Muy Bonita" that would be standards today if more musicians had deigned to venture down the paths that Coleman blazed. --Peter Monaghan

Amazon.com essential recording
Ornette Coleman suggests in his liner notes for this 1960 release that "there is no single right way to play jazz." He and this, his great quartet (with Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; and Billy Higgins, drums), fully confirm that statement and dismiss the railings of Coleman's detractors. This classic's assurance and achievement fully justify its cocky title. In its free group improvising, as Coleman puts it, "each member goes his own way and still adds tellingly to the group endeavor." The later formalization of that approach, as "harmolodics," was from this point inevitable. The selections include tunes like "Ramblin'" and "Una Muy Bonita" that would be standards today if more musicians had deigned to venture down the paths that Coleman blazed. --Peter Monaghan

Un Essentiel amazon.fr
S'il n'est peut-être pas le plus indispensable des enregistrements d'Ornette, "Free Jazz" est clairement le plus marquant par l'encre qu'il a fait couler à sa sortie et par le succès de son titre, devenu l'appellation contrôlée - et controversée - de la révolution que connut le jazz au cours des années 60. Quoi, non seulement cet altiste iconoclaste soufflait dans un saxophone en plastique mais il réunissait un double quartette pour improviser pendant plus de 37 minutes - soit à l'époque deux faces de disque vinyle - sans interruption et sans structure écrite préétablie ! Reconnaissons-le, les oreilles actuelles discernent assez facilement formes, rythmes et bribes de mélodies, parfois d'une sauvage beauté, dans ce jazz beaucoup moins "libre" qu'on ne l'a dit. Et cette réhabilitation de l'improvisation collective et de l'esprit festif - car cette musique est loin d'être guindée ou morose - n'est-elle pas au moins autant un retour aux sources que l'avancée aventureuse vers le grand nulle part qu'ont cru y voir les puristes d'alors. Un moment d'histoire, convulsif et jubilatoire. --Thierry Quénum