The Birthday Meta: Ornette At 84

watersheds birthed from

skies of America; the

endless wet depths kept

like baseball and jazz...

one's about hits; the other
can't get in the charts

baseball came at 2

but jazz took til 22

catching up to do

when first this music

found me, one jam stood out: The

Shape of Jazz to Come

the twisted, taut lines...

where did the theme end and the

solo begin? Wow.

fast forward: finding

free-funk, Dancing In Your Head

perspective switch flipped

harmony motion

melody, careen forth on

shards of cracked rhythm

ev'rything at once

song, beat, contrapuntal time

simultaneous

commercial crass cash

considerations excised,

cutting-room floor false

diamond flawless raw

the tensile dense sense the lens;

balance mends the fence

destined to perfect;

vibratory skill reveals

the Art that remains

no wonder when he

first hit the scene, the critics

wanted to kill him.

Ornette Coleman & Prime Time

1981/1987

Moers International Jazz Festival

Moers, Germany

6.8.1981

 01 Impro One

02 Nightwork
03 Asia
04 Song X

 Ornette Coleman - alto saxophone
Bern Nix - guitar
Charles Ellerbee - guitar
Al MacDowell - electric bass
Jamaaladeen Tacuma - electric bass
Denardo Coleman - drums

FLAC from pre-FM reels

Total time: 53:27

~~~

Stadtgarten
Köln, Germany
3.26.1987

01 In All Languages
02 Song X
03 Story Tellers
04 Latin Genetics
05 Mothers of the Veil
06 Dancing In Your Head
07 interview with Ornette and Denardo Coleman
08 Space Church

 Ornette Coleman - alto saxophone, trumpet
Bern Nix - guitar
Charles Ellerbee - guitar 
Jamaaladeen Tacuma - electric bass
Al MacDowell - electric bass 
Denardo Coleman - drums
Grant Calvin Weston - drums and electronic percussion

PAL DVD from 2005 German TV rebroadcast

Total time: 58:30

both zipped together

1.7 GB/March 2014 archive link

Ornette is looking

at you like this so you'll dig

 that it's his birthday