Track Listing

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35089 in Music
• Released on: 2002-09-23
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
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

CD Description
CHANGE OF THE CENTURY is a hell of an album. It was recorded in 1959, but sounds as fresh and interesting today as it did then. Ornette Coleman's great quartet, with Billy Higgins, Charlie Haden and Don Cherry, are at the height of their powers.
In the original liner notes Ornette says, "I don'ttell the members of my group what to do. I want them to play what they hear in the piece for themselves". What they hear in the pieces is sometimes astounding.
On "Ramblin'", ablues of sorts, after solos by Coleman and Cherry, the listener is expecting a drum solo. Instead, Billy Higgins taps out a simple swing rhythm on what sounds like his cymbal stand. Charlie Haden then digs into some deep, deep blues that carry echoes of Appalachian music, rockabilly, and who knows what else. It's unearthly.
The absence of a piano allows the listener to hear every bass note, every drum fill, and they're all worth hearing. In "Free", Don Cherry's pocket trumpet outlines wild shapes and ideas. And in "Face of the Bass", Ornette's plastic alto sax solo bypasses the mind and becomes a visceral experience. The music is truly fresh.

Customer Reviews

Avant Garde Revisited
I listened to this record recently for the first time in almost forty years, and I am even more impressed by the tightness and mutual sensitivity of the ensemble on all tracks, than I was all those years ago. The music still sounds as fresh and invigoratingly new as it did to me as a twenty year old in the early 1960s. "Una Muy Bonita" is a masterpiece, the rare compatability and impecable timing of Coleman and Cherry shining through; amazing stuff.

Great - Buy two copies !
As any jazz history book will tell you, late 50's Coleman quartet, watershed in jazz history, seminal, groundbreaking, controversy at the Five Spot, raving critics , blah, blah, blah, but this stuff is not history only, this heartfelt and humourous stuff, dont miss out on it, this is a music-for-the-ages.

Good Brave Innovative Jazz
I must admit I'm not very much experienced with free jazz, although I attended (and enjoyed) a recent Coleman concert in the town where I live. Previouslly, I have listened to some Pharoah Sanders and to some of Miles Davis' experiments with this style ("Cookin' at plugged nickel" or something like that...)...

Well, I was moderatly impressed and moderately confused. I have also listened to some of the more recent jazz explorations by Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, as well as some recordings by Art Ensemble of Chicago and Wayne Shorter's latest explorations that go beyond most traditional achievements,,,

But, here we have the magnificent source of all that jazz commotion.
First of all, I am impressed by the level of expressiveness of this music; it is no accident that Coleman's liner notes mention New Orleans jazz - some of his (but also Cherry's) solos have brought back some of the tonal features that started to disappear as early as the swing era...
I'm not an expert but I'm almost certain I heard Ornette produce some blue notes on his plastic instrument!

Naturally, New Orleans style is one of the styles in jazz in which collective improvisation was not so uncommon, so it is no wonder that, in the attempt to free jazz from Charlie Parker's magnificent shadow, Ornette at times went to the sources of jazz. In addition to that, the occasional "ethno" influences on this album (not only in the last song)are a continuation of the usual manners in which jazz musicians tried to infuse new ideas into their music; Ellington, Gillespie and others were particularly impressed by Latin America(s), there were even some Middle East-based experiments, but it was about time in the late 50's someone shows the influences of South Asia and other sources...

However, I must admit I still dig Ornette's explanations much more than I dig the music... This is fine jazz, with strong sense of swing and, at least occasionally, with fine drive, but all in all, I'm not hypocritical enough to hide my opinion that the band at times rambles a bit too much...

Also, keeping the format of initial and concluding statement of...well...anti-melody at some songs also doesn't seem such a good idea . I think that much better, or at least "freer", is the approach on "Change of the Century"...

Perhaps if I devote more time to this style I would get used to it or discover more beauty, but as for now, 5 stars is the reward for the courage and determination to follow original path (regardless of the number of followers)... This is a slightly altered copy of the original review on American amazon, where I gave the album only 4 stars (but I listened to Coleman some more in-between)...