Ornette Coleman's Meltdown

Massive Attack, Jarvis Cocker, David Bowie, Patti Smith and Elvis Costello have all featured as programmers for the annual Meltdown festival. 2009 sees the Southbank taking a step to the left-side of radical pop royalty by enlisting saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman – the man widely regarded as kick starting the Free Jazz movement in the late Fifties - to oversee the whole shebang.

At 78 years old, the New York based, Pulitzer Prize winning master musician and composer prefers not to be categorised. Ornette composes and plays music and he does it daily. His mission is to make this world a better place and his works deal with concepts that transcend the racial, historical and stereotypical constraints of jazz. So, what can Meltdown fans expect from a man who dwells in the realm of ideas and rarely leaves his New York City apartment where he receives a constant flow of friends?

There is undoubtedly a small army of allies and acolytes keen to collaborate and rumours are rife that Lou Reed, John Zorn and bassist Charlie Haden are already in the mix. Confirmation of the festival programme is due in the coming weeks. However, a Meltdown that reflects the diversity of Ornette’s own turbulent journey would be most thrilling. The young, LA based, saxophonist, who was married to poet Jane Cortez, was willing to endure physical abuse to play in the way that he wanted. It was he, along with a young Don Cherry - the original “world musician” – that left behind West Coast cool to usher in a revolution with a white plastic saxophone and a pocket trumpet.

By the mid Sixties Ornette had gone global. The saxophonist added trumpet and violin to his repertoire and recorded a classic Blue Note set recorded live in Stockholm. Undeterred by his critics Ornette forged his own path. He recorded the orchestral Skies Of America – a piece that he performed live with the London Symphony Orchestra. If my memory serves me well, it resulted in a cultural collision tainted by racism and snobbery from the classically trained musicians of the day. Hopefully in 2009, we’ve gone beyond that.

By 1973, when Horizon released Dancing In Your Head, an album that included an extraordinary recording with the mystical Master Musicians Of Jajouka, he had released 27 albums. Post Punk Ornette took his “harmolodic” concept fully electric. His London concert in Victoria featured James ‘Blood’ Ulmer on guitar, Jamaldeen Tacuma on bass and his longest standing collaborator, his son, Denardo Coleman on drums. It had Rip Rig and Panic dancing in the aisles of the theatre and others shouting for him to turn it down. Ornette’s response was: “If it’s too loud, I suggest you move back!”

Ornette Coleman - Theme From a Symphony

Recent live performances reveal that the fire which burns within is undiminished, and whatever the surprises in store we do know that Ornette will perform two live shows as part of the programme. Prepare to be totally mesmerised. Let there be a meltdown. Let freedom reign.

Paul Bradshaw / Straight No Chaser

The Meltdown Festival takes place in June at the Southbank Centre, London
http://meltdown.southbankcentre.co.uk

Comments(1)