Ornette Coleman
By Peter Margasak
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Coleman’s harmolodic theory has never been clearly elucidated–he’s been promising the definitive explanation in book form for decades–but it comes down to all the players in a group focusing exclusively on melody. The written composition serves as a root for independent strands of simultaneous improvisation. Coleman’s epochal Free Jazz (1960) hinted at truly free playing, but there are several tunes on the new albums that actually deliver it.
Coleman has rerecorded his compositions many times in the past, but Sound Museum takes the idea to its logical extreme, in part to illustrate the creative possibilities of harmolodics. With one exception on each record, Hidden Man and Three Women contain the same 13 songs. (The exceptions are downright weird, especially in this context. “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” on Hidden Man, is a stiff quasi-gospel number with straight-up piano and rhythm-section accompaniment; “Don’t You Know By Now,” a vocal number with Lauren Kinhan and Chris Walker on Three Women, sounds closer to slow-jam crooning than loose-limbed jazz singing.) In some cases the solos vary; in others even the basic arrangements are different. Nearly half have been recorded before, one as early as 1965. To compare the new versions to past ones is to trace Coleman’s long route to musical freedom.
