Well, we made it through four years of this crazy page, didn't we? Someday -- when I have a free decade -- I will backfill the ten million links and this will be the most eclectically ridiculous unreleased music blog on the web.
Today our little shindig carries in its sidecar a 46th anniversary concert, also celebrating a birthday. I am 51 now, old old old.
It came down to two shows: a Cannonball Adderley adventure with George Duke from 45 years previous or the thing I ended up choosing because it sounded way better and more crystalline pure. Both were taped in Paris. We'll get to Cannon another time, I promise.
For today we have a long-ago glimpse into music so far ahead it's still The Shape of Jazz to Come almost five decades from its birth, led as it is by one of the most revered and significant musicians ever to breathe air into a reed.
There is an official (it might be a gray-area issue, unsure) CD and LP that came out a while ago that feature the November 1st show from this powerfully classic run of European Ornette extravaganzas, but this is the one recorded the week before that has never seen the light of an official release.
Obviously Ornette Coleman was at the forefront of all music on Earth during his lifetime, not just Jazz. He is one of the few that could say what he chose to play caused riots, not unlike what Igor Stravinsky was greeted with when he debuted The Rite of Spring.
This one was rebroadcast on French radio not that long ago, in a 256K DVB format and in complete form, I am happy to say. This is a 107-minute clock rocker if ever there was one, with 'Nette and fellow saxophone shredder Dewey Redman (someday he will get his own day on this page) just savagely peeling the walls off the theater using only their horns.
In addition to those Hall of Famers, the rhythm section features two more deities in bass god Charlie Haden and drum heavyweight Ed Blackwell massacring the skins. I don't think Ed takes a pause for the entire duration of the performance... when it ended he must have had to be revived by paramedics or somesuch.
Ornette Coleman Quartet
Théâtre du Palais de Chaillot
Paris, France
10.25.1971
01 radio intro
02 The Ridden Word
03 War Orphans
04 Song for Ché
05 Happy House
06 Broken Shadows
07 Airborne
08 Street Woman
09 applause
10 Rock the Clock
11 applause
Total time: 1:47:32
disc break can go after Track 05
Ornette Coleman - alto sax, trumpet, violin
Dewey Redman - tenor sax, clarinet, musette
Charlie Haden - bass
Ed Blackwell - drums
sourced from a 2014 European radio 256K digital rebroadcast
639 MB FLAC/October 2017 archive link
For my part, I will keep on keepin' on with this page, which is four years old today, for as long as my spine will allow me to sit in this chair.
But for the purposes of today, I must insist you honor my 51st anniversary on this rock by pulling down this gem of a concert, dating from 46 years ago tonight and featuring a quartet of multiverse-caliber players. I shall return again soon, but before I head out for birthday lunch I would be remiss if I didn't thank anyone who reads this page most profusely for their interest. Thank you all so very much!--J.
3.9.1930 - 6.11.2015