Something Else!!!! The Music Of Ornette Coleman
Free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman kickstarted a musical revolution with this blistering debut, teaming up with Don Cherry, Walter Norris, Don Payne and Billy Higgins to weave blues back into bebop and hew closer to the music's African origins.
In 1958, jazz was screaming for a revolution; Coleman, a department store elevator clerk at the time, answered the call, using blues structures and unexpected pitch experimentation to deliver, as the title assures us, something else. The album isn't exactly free jazz (that would come with 1959's jaw-dropping 'The Shape of Jazz to Come'), but it laid the groundwork for Coleman's rapid evolution, carving out a spot where he could innovate a few paces from the mainstream. Coleman's own horn routines, squeaked out on a white plastic alto sax, are the central draw, but a very young Don Cherry's cornet runs are almost as impressive, offering Coleman an important counterpoint.
It's hard to overstate the album's importance at the time. Coleman wrote more startling music, but when 'Something Else!!!!' appeared, there wasn't anything like it - critics were confused and sometimes even appalled, but the seeds were sown, and a new style of jazz was developing. The album falls loosely into the hard bop category, but Coleman was fast and loose with the rules, purposely deviating from the central rhythms and playing with pitch like silly putty. 'The Blessing' is an early highlight, with groovy walking bass from Don Payne and a mind-melting dual between Coleman and Cherry, but the album begins to reveal itself on 'Chippie', where Coleman finally lets loose, confusing listeners with the kind of unhinged, squealing runs he'd make his trademark in the years to come.
The real draw here though is finale 'The Sphinx', a rollercoaster ride of rip-roaring percussion and breathless horn phrasing that hinted at the peculiar angularity of this new form of jazz. A real history lesson.
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180-gram reissue. Comes packaged in a tip-on jacket. All analog mastering from the original tapes by Bernie Grundman
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Free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman kickstarted a musical revolution with this blistering debut, teaming up with Don Cherry, Walter Norris, Don Payne and Billy Higgins to weave blues back into bebop and hew closer to the music's African origins.
In 1958, jazz was screaming for a revolution; Coleman, a department store elevator clerk at the time, answered the call, using blues structures and unexpected pitch experimentation to deliver, as the title assures us, something else. The album isn't exactly free jazz (that would come with 1959's jaw-dropping 'The Shape of Jazz to Come'), but it laid the groundwork for Coleman's rapid evolution, carving out a spot where he could innovate a few paces from the mainstream. Coleman's own horn routines, squeaked out on a white plastic alto sax, are the central draw, but a very young Don Cherry's cornet runs are almost as impressive, offering Coleman an important counterpoint.
It's hard to overstate the album's importance at the time. Coleman wrote more startling music, but when 'Something Else!!!!' appeared, there wasn't anything like it - critics were confused and sometimes even appalled, but the seeds were sown, and a new style of jazz was developing. The album falls loosely into the hard bop category, but Coleman was fast and loose with the rules, purposely deviating from the central rhythms and playing with pitch like silly putty. 'The Blessing' is an early highlight, with groovy walking bass from Don Payne and a mind-melting dual between Coleman and Cherry, but the album begins to reveal itself on 'Chippie', where Coleman finally lets loose, confusing listeners with the kind of unhinged, squealing runs he'd make his trademark in the years to come.
The real draw here though is finale 'The Sphinx', a rollercoaster ride of rip-roaring percussion and breathless horn phrasing that hinted at the peculiar angularity of this new form of jazz. A real history lesson.