#619 Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come

Hey fellow jazz laymen, what do you think of when you think of free jazz? That's what this sounds like, as horns whip up and around and don't quite congeal into much. Which isn't to say that this is without structure: melodic themes emerge, there are riffs and interplays and moments of convergence, but it never becomes a thing you can hold in place, it never quite becomes what you'd call a song in any traditional sense. It is an event, wound woolly over time.

All things considered though, this isn't that radical; its innovations are in the discarding of the piano and chords as backbones, things that we folk aren't liable to much pick up on in any conscious sense. We just know it sounds even more chaotic and unknowable than usual, a bit more catnip in these cats, a bit wilder and more transgressive. For better or for worse, depends on your mood. For the most part, I found it more interesting than enjoyable, and not all that interesting 3/5