Ornette Coleman: Something Else!!!

People unfamiliar with alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman often assume he's an East Coast figure who emerged on the free-jazz scene in 1960 just as John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus were going off in new directions. In fact, Coleman was a West Coaster who had lived and worked in Los Angeles since the early 1950s. What's more, his first album, Something Else!!!, was recorded for Lester Koenig's Contemporary label in Hollywood.

Something Else!!! has just been remastered and reissued by Concord. For those unfamiliar with Coleman and tend to write him off as too abstract or too harsh, this album would be a good place to start if you're interested in trying to understand his art. What's remarkable is that the album was recorded in February and March of 1958, at a time when the West Coast jazz recording scene was at full tilt.

For example, one of the recordings that preceded Something Else!!!'s February 1958 sessions at Contemporary was Hampton Hawes' easy-blend Four! with Barney Kessel, Red Mitchell and Shelly Manne. On the other end, Shelly Manne and His Men recorded The Gambit, a straightahead album with Stu Williamson, Charlie Mariano, Russ Freeman and Monty Budwig.

It's also important to remember that Coleman was way ahead of his contemporaries in recording this type of looser, edgier jazz. For comparison, in the spring of 1958, Miles Davis was about to cut Somethin' Else with Cannonball Adderley for Blue Note (interesting coincidence in titles), Coltrane was recording Soultrane with the Red Garland Trio for Prestige, Eric Dolphy was with Chico Hamilton, and Mingus was recording the soundtrack to John Cassavetes' film Shadows. 

No one was playing or recording jazz in such an experimental fashion in early 1958, except Coleman's bandmate Don Cherry (also on the session were pianist Walter Norris, bassist Don Payne and drummer Billy Higgins). All nine tracks were by Coleman—and composed five years earlier.

What you will find most surprising about this album is that the material isn't really that far out. Edgy, yes. But immensely listenable even for those jazz fans accustomed to more straight-up jazz. Tracks like The Blessing and Angel Voice are fine examples. I don't want to mislead you. This material is sour-toned in places and highly expressionistic. But it's not without virtue or a powerful rebellious message. If ever there was a fox in Los Angeles' suburban henhouse in 1958, it's Something Else!!! [Pictured: Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry]

To quote from Nat Hentoff's original liner notes:

"Ornette went home to Fort Worth, Texas, toward the end of 1950, then joined Pee Wee Crayton's rhythm and blues band, which stranded him in Los Angeles. 'He didn't understand what I was trying to do, and it got so that he was paying me not to play,' said Ornette.

"After a couple of months of gigging in Los Angeles, Ornette became a house boy in early 1952, and continued as such for two years. He played sessions occasionally, 'but most musicians didn't take to me; they said I didn't know the changes and was out of tune.'

"He went back to Fort Worth doing more gigging from late 1952 to 1954, then returned to Los Angeles in 1954. Now married, he worked for two and a half years as an elevator operator at Bullock's Department Store. 'I got a chance to study that way. I used to go up to the 10th floor, park up there and read books on harmony.' Automation—the self-operating elevator—cost him his job. Musicians still didn't welcome him at sessions, and he mostly played at home and also wrote."

Coleman was an artistic outsider in a city that at the time was the epicenter of conformity and a place where sounding like everyone else was essential to survive and thrive as a musician. This is exciting, courageous music that remains vital today.

JazzWax tracks: The remastered version of The Music of Ornette Coleman: Something Else!!! (Concord) can be found at iTunes or here.

 

Comments

[David]

In an interview with Gordon Jack, Herb Geller related that "Ornette came to my house once because he wanted to have his music corrected. He showed me his tunes, and they were a catastrophe, because the bar lines were in the wrong place and there were no chord symbols. He took his saxophone out, and I notated what he played. I asked him what chord he was using, and he blew the arpeggio of a G chord thinking it was a B minor....I liked Ornette as a person....some of his tunes have haunting melodies..."

[keith hedger]

I remember when the Atlantic box came out several years ago and re-emerging myself in a lot of those quartet recordings. I kept thinking "this stuff is just not that strange sounding..." That is, I didn't fail to realize the significance of the music or its newness, but I guess listening to it in the 90s, I just couldn't be affected by it the way someone in the 50s would. I can hear the 'outness' (though I like it) in most of the larger ensemble things, and certainly Prime Time (which I really dig), but the quartet sounds very progressive, always musical, and totally non-alienating to me. Interesting.

[T.R. Hummer]

It's odd to call Coleman a "west coaster" when he was in fact from Texas--even within your article Hentoff's quote makes this very clear--a region that has produced many musicians. His early experience in R&B in that part of the world was deeply formative for his style. You say those who think of him as an "east coaster" are mistaken; you're making a similar mistake.

[Denis Ouellet]

After more than fifty years this album surprisingly still sounds fresh.I didn't feel it was so far out with that great rhythm section. Very enjoyable.
Still have that LP.

[Ed Leimbacher]

Ornette has always been something else, from long before he first left Texas (with shards of the Blues in his hip pocket), right up until he changed the shape of the century and fought free of Jazz into the crimped sphere of Harmolodics and beyond. In concert a couple of years ago, he looked like a wizened Black Irish leprechaun, wrapped in a rainbow suit and a golden grin, his banshee wail become the majestic cry of the World.

[Don]

I love this album, too. Probably my favorite Ornette album,along with the Hillcrest recordings. Filled with 'joie de vivre'! It's also uncanny how he and Don Cherry played so together (in unison).

[T.K. Tortch]

Picked up my first Ornette album when I was in college in the late '80's; I remember being surprised to see the recording date as sometime in '59. There was a lot going on all at once in the jazz world then. IIRC, Cecil Taylor's fist couple of albums were waxed before 1960, as well.

[ortega]

Curious. Not a single adjective referring to Coleman means that he knows how to play well.

[Jery Rowan]

Never cared much for his playing. Never will. Even his concept of "unison" with Cherry is so not together.

But great rhythm section on the album -- which, sadly, make his own inadequacies stand out even more.

However, one man’s concept of brilliance is another man’s polka.

[Brew]

"Something Else!!!!" is free-bop at its finest. -- There is another fascinating LP (it was mentioned above), recorded and released in 1958, under the leadership of Cecil Taylor, with John Coltrane, Kenny Dorham, Chuck Israels & Louis Hayes, which is entitled Hard Driving Jazz. -- Considering the different styles of the participants on this date, one would think 'this can't possibly work out' ... But it did brilliantly.

I personally love those mixed dates, meaning different generations of improvisors working together. -- Let's take the timeless recording session from June 6, 1945, where swing veterans like Teddy Wilson and Red Norvo clashed with Bird & Diz in the studio, and nevertheless produced some of the most exciting sounds in the history of jazz.

[Brew]

P.S. -- The link didn't get through.

Here it is: http://www.amazon.com/Hard-Driving-Jazz-Cecil-Taylor/dp/B000AN025A

[Keith Henry Brown]

I saw Mr. Coleman several months ago at Sonny Rollins' birthday concert. It was strange to witness both men on the stage along with trumpeter Roy Hargrove. The two men's styles are so madly different that it felt like a novelty act.

"Something else!" Is definitely one of the finest Coleman records, the one I usually recommended for curious folks wanting a sampling of the master's gifts (or maybe the strangely compelling "compilation" from The Ken Burns' "Jazz" series). My personal favorites are "This Is Our Music", "Th Shape Of Jazz To Come", and "Town Hall".