Ornette Coleman
This Is Our Music

This record by Ornette Coleman, along with the previous “The Shape Of Jazz To Come” (which shares one of the recording sessions), is the most representative of the extraordinary saxophonist, and both are an ideal starting point for approaching his musical world. Right from the title (literally: “this is our music”), it seems to be characterized almost as a collection of pieces aimed precisely at illustrating to the world all the typical aspects of the sound and the poetic manifesto of this quartet.

The advent of Coleman on the New York scene in '59 caused a real uproar, splitting critics, musicians, and the public in two. Some spoke of him as the greatest innovator after Charlie Parker, while others were convinced that he was a complete bluff and didn’t even know what he was doing. Some cried miracle, while others would have sent him back to Fort Worth, Texas, with a kick! Of course, there were illustrious supporters and opponents concerning his way of playing, baptized “free jazz”; John Lewis, pianist and leader of the Modern Jazz Quartet (whose music was poles apart from Coleman's), went out of his way to support the innovative ideas and concept of Coleman and his group. Even a prominent figure like Leonard Bernstein (a great conductor and composer, as well as a jazz lover) once jumped on stage at the Five Spot and said: “This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to jazz!” As for the opponents, another night, a disgusted Dizzy Gillespie stood in front of the quartet with folded arms and said: “Are you guys for real?” Miles Davis also declared several times that he didn’t find what the quartet did to be that revolutionary, and that “They were just bouncing off each other’s music without formal constraints.” Don DeMichael spoke of an “abominable instrumental technique”, while Charles Mingus maintained more neutral positions, talking about “organized disorganization” and a “wrong way of playing that seems right”. Even the peculiar instrumentation of the two winds, a white plastic alto sax, and a sort of “toy” trumpet, were subject to criticism and ridicule.

Quite a storm! But Ornette was not a provocateur; he didn’t want to stir up this hornet's nest, just to express himself freely; he simply replied: “I say there is no ‘right’ way to play jazz.”

In the liner notes of this album, intending to further clarify his vision, Ornette wrote: “Group improvisation is not new. In early jazz, this way of group playing was known as Dixieland. In the swing era, the emphasis changed, and improvisation took the form of solos based on riffs. In modern jazz, improvisation is melodically and harmonically progressive. Now we are blending these three things together to provide more freedom to the musician and more pleasure to the listener.” It is all so clear that it’s hard to understand why there is so much misunderstanding, especially considering that the music of the early live performances and the first records was anything but extreme in sound! But those were different times...

Right from the first listens, this record of '60 becomes loved like a delightful discovery; it is one of the most spontaneous and beautiful pieces of music there is! Right from the initial and explosive “Blues Connotation”, the beautiful timbre and drive of Ornette and the young Charlie Haden on the double bass stand out. Ed Blackwell on drums doesn’t make one miss Billy Higgins, who was present on the previous records, and Don Cherry with his strange trumpet has a thin and novel sound. The second track is legendary, “Beauty Is A Rare Thing”, where over a bass and drums base (played splendidly with bow and mallets) of high emotional impact, Ornette and Don draw sublime melodies that become heartrending in the unisons, dissonant and wonderfully conflicting. The interplay is stellar. Another wonderful moment is “Embraceable You”, the only standard played by the quartet, a famous piece by Gershwin rendered unrecognizable by the great spontaneity and sweetness with which the theme is paraphrased, slowed down and only derived from the original.

In the music of this quartet, the absence of the piano serves to make everyone more harmonically free and to create an empty space where the individual voices of sax, trumpet, and double bass can shine more prominently. The resulting sound is very clean, neat, carved in silence. Without realizing it, and in a completely different context, the four put into practice a concept very dear to Miles Davis.

And as if that weren't enough, the cherry on top, the recording quality of this historic record is also excellent.