Ornette's an interesting one. I've heard a lot of his stuff, and I've heard a lot of players and composers who are influenced by him. In the jazz world, or more specifically the world of undergraduate jazz performance study, a world I spent a bit of time in many years ago, he isn't as highly regarded as other saxophone players, and is often seen as a bit of a farce. Some people put up walls when presented with free music. It's a challenge, and something that I was in love with at first sight. Coleman's playing has always sounded fresh to my ears, and artists like him and maybe Sun Ra were both instrumental in my continuing passion for jazz music, and also both reasons why I kind of "fell out" of the young jazz scene that I was surrounded with in 2001.
Ornette (in this interview) seems little interested in defending his own playing. He's aware of public perception of his work, but has always preferred to let his work speak for itself. I think this shows a really strong sense of self, and self resolve, spending 20 years of a career hearing constant comments that undermine your expression, and continuing to compose new work in the face of that perception.
It's a long interview, and I don't want to go reading into things that probably aren't there, or aren't relevant, but the crux of the exchange seems to be about relationships. The composers relationships with the music, the ensemble, and audience, and about people - human relationships - in general. Ornette sees these as part of the same thing, and this is what's important to him. In his explanation of his working practice with his ensembles, he describes a very personal process of collaborative teaching with his players. He's also very aware of keeping things fresh for people working with him, to challenge and stimulate them into wanting to make the music their own. His opinion that jazz players have little regard for the "composer", instead wanting to lay claim to the work by trampling all over it, is very true. Jazz players learn the inner workings of music in a practical way so to dissect a composition on the fly, and traverse it's structure according to their own expression. Knowing this, Ornette challenges them, by providing frameworks that are looser than the traditional forms of jazz harmonic composition. Forging a human relationship with your ensemble deepens the core of the music's potential energy. How many bands fall apart because the human relationship fell apart?
This is just a common thought, but I have a band, and the piano player (Adam Rudegeair) and I are best friends. We've know each other for about 11 years, and been playing various forms of music together, really learning a lot of new things together, pretty much from day one. The role of drummer in this band has had a few players come and go. The latest and present (and hopefully permanent) guy on the kit (James Wingard) is still really in a getting to know you phase of the relationship. But I auditioned close to 15 or so drummers over about 6 months to fill the spot in the band, and James was the only one I actually gelled with as a person. I too have tried to write as much new material since his joining the band. I agree with Ornette's opinion that when you play old material, new band members are less enthusiastic. Obviously we wanted to keep a couple of older favourites in the set, but working on new stuff right away has not only engaged James' involvement , but revived our focus as a unit.
On a personal note, we've both made an effort to get to know each other personally, today we went to see his girlfriend's new band, the other week we went to see BIG A little a at the workers, there's an age gap of about 11 years between us, but it doesn't really come into play, because we are relating on both a musical level, where we are partners, and on a basic human level, where we are equals.
From a compositional standpoint, Ornette Coleman talks a lot about finding his place in the world. From a literal traveling around the US, to finding his "harmolodic" sound, fitting in with bebop, and finally fitting in with an orchestra's structured hierarchy. It's a funny thing, but the main reason I chose to re-read this interview this evening, and comment on it is because the two main themes of it relate directly to a conversation Alice and I had today, about the role of art being to bring people together. I'm talking about at a base level. Somewhere deep in the core of art's DNA is this contagious need to have others become a part of it. Art is there, like language, to facilitate a relationship. Alice commented today that art is culture, you can't have one without the other, again we're talking on base levels. What has it been about the world over thousands of years that has brought us to this globally connected relationship? An interest in sharing our cultures. We're all finding our way in the world, and sharing something with someone. Even if we don't call ourselves artists, we are still creators and participators in some form of relationship, whether directly with another individual, or with the world, whether through an ambiguous means or language like sound, or art, or it could be science, it's still the same sharing of culture.
Regardless of why and what you create, being aware of your place in the world, your relationship to the past, connection to present, and to people, establishes and shapes the culture of the future.
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