John McLaughlin and Shakti: Shakti (1976)

John McLaughlin and Shakti: Shakti (1976)

I remember quite clearly walking through the aisles of the Sears record department in 1976 checking to see if there was a new Mahavishnu Orchestra album. What stared back at me from the Mahavishnu bin was a very strange looking album cover. John McLaughlin had longish hair and a tight, confident smile, and he was holding the oddest-looking acoustic guitar I had ever seen. It had an extra set of strings attached in a crooked fashion across the sound hole. The information on the back cover made matters even worse. I remember wondering who this Raghavan guy was, and what the hell was this mridangam that he was playing? I'm still not truly sure what a mridangam is, but I am quite sure I love Shakti.

McLaughlin had abandoned the electric Mahavishnu Orchestra and put together a band featuring some of India's greatest young musicians, thus dooming his popularity. Together with McLaughlin, tabla master Zakir Hussain, violin virtuoso L. Shankar, and ghatam player T.S. Vinayakaram made up Shakti. Although not a core member of Shakti, the previously mentioned Raghavan also joined in on the previously mentioned mridangam. With names like that and 30 minute long tunes, Shakti did not get much airplay in the U.S.

Shakti was recorded live at South Hampton College in New York State, and the live audience is truly a part of this performance. One can only imagine what they were expecting before the concert. McLaughlin had earned his fame as Mahavishnu. He was the king of the electric guitar. Instead, he appeared on stage with the acoustic Shakti, sitting down Indian style. The drones started humming. This had to be bizarre. 'Pass the joints. Quick!' However, several minutes into the first piece, Shakti had the crowd in its hands.

Blistering guitar runs, unison playing among all the players, and mesmerizing percussion duels make Shakti one of the most exciting live recordings around. Shakti created as vast a fusion as could be imagined at the time. The musicians were introducing World Music, albeit with a wild jazz abandon, twenty years before anyone else even attempted such a thing again.

McLaughlin was speed-bending notes and strumming those extra sympathetic strings which had been positioned on his guitar. Shankar's Far Eastern violin matched McLaughlin's guitar in call and response after call and response. And without a doubt, the album's high water mark is the culmination of an absolutely riveting percussion duel between Hussain and Raghavan resolving the oddly-titled 'What Need Have I for This? What Need Have I for That? I am Dancing at the Feet of my Lord. All is Bliss. All is Bliss'. It appears the audience shared in a group musical orgasm at that moment.

According to Jeff Beck, McLaughlin's playing with Shakti was as good as any player could hope to do. The original Shakti never sold a lot of records. But today they are seen as one of the true pioneers, and their current reunion version is at long last commercially viable.

A special note to guitar speed freaks: this album contains the fastest guitar playing John McLaughlin ever recorded.

Related link: John McLaughlin Reviews @ All About Jazz .

Track Listing: Joy; Lotus Feet; What Need Have I For This- What Need Have I For That- I Am Dancing at the Feet of My Lord- All is Bliss-All is Bliss;

Personnel: John McLaughlin- guitar; Zakir Hussain- tabla; L. Shankar- violin; R. Raghavan- mridangam; T. S. Vinayakaram- ghatam

Stefano Bollani: Jazzitaliano live 2006

Stefano Bollani

Jazzitaliano  live 2006

Recorded at the Teatro Lauro Rossi in Macerata and mixed at La Casa del Jazz in Rome, this disc by pianist Stefano Bollani is the ninth of a series of live recordings dedicated to the best of Italian jazz from the Italian magazine L'Espresso. Bollani, a musician, writer and semi-stand up comedian, is at his peak. Only last year, he was named Musician of the Year by Musica Magazine and his ECM CD Piano Solo was awarded Record of the Year.

The full Bollani experience, though, comes when he's on stage, mostly because of his Puck-like spirit whenever there is a piano and an audience. The CD features Bollani in trio with Ares Tavolazzi (bass) and Walter Paoli (drums). The opening piece is the bossa nova-like Bollani original "Eravamo un manipolo di eroi. Here the musicians brilliantly create an embroidery of notes, with the light colors being darkened by the instruments exchanging roles continuously. Also included are other original tunes: "Elena e il suo violino, a ballad he often plays solo, and "Logorio della vita moderna, a tenser piece with a smooth piano release. In "Morph the Cat, a composition by Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, Bollani is the blue cat that appears in different corners of Manhattan. "La puerta, "All The Things You Are, "Moonlight Serenade and "Puttin' on the Ritz are all transformed through Bollani's original touch. The CD closes with a typical Bollani signature: imitating the voices and the musical peculiarities of his colleagues. In "Copacabana he's a perfect Paolo Conte. As Bollani states, "Even Paolo Conte thought it was himself playing. The final joke—understandable only to the Italian speaking crowd—refers to the length of the piece: "This piece lasts 27 more minutes, if you applaud now, we can end it here.

Track Listing: Eravamo un manipolo di eroi; Elena e il suo violino; Morph the Cat; La puerta; Logorio della vita moderne; All The Things You Are; Moonlight Serenade; Puttin' on the Ritz; Copacabana.

Personnel: Stefano Bollani: piano; Ares Tavolazzi: bass; Walter Paoli: drums.

Egberto Gismonti: Danca das Cabecas (1977)

Egberto Gismonti: Danca das Cabecas (1977)

Dança Das Cabeças is Egberto Gismonti's debut album for ECM Records.

Egberto Gismonti is one of the most talented jazz musicians around. His flute-playing is pretty impressive on side one; his guitar work, also on side one, is simply staggering. But when you turned the LP over and heard his fantastic piano, you cannot help but be amazed. I know nothing about the technicalities of playing keyboards, but if someone had told me it was Keith Jarrett or Lyle Mays playing, I would have believed them.

This is one of those LPs that I bought when it first came out, back in 1977, and have re-purchased on CD. This is where it all started, ECM-wise, for Gismonti and Vansconcelos. As soon as you start playing the album, you feel like you've let the Amazonian jungle into your room. Vasconcelos can conjure up an entire rainforest with his percussive background effects. Gismonti spent a period in the Brazilian jungle working with Indian musicians in order to gather material for this album, and it shows ... wonderfully. I should add that Gismonti is a classically trained musician -- he had studied in Paris.

As you hear to this music, you will enjoy one of the most singular and beautiful musical experiences one can ever have. Egberto Gismontis' sincerity, and his sense of touch, rhythm and musical spirit goes far beyond any standard, and reaches a realm of freedom and beauty that truly enhances our cultural condition, remaining as "a thing of beauty", sublime and lasting forever. Alone or in the context of his whole work, this recording expresses one of the most original musical minds of this centuries (XX and XXI). So, take your time, make sure nothing will brake your listening, and do enjoy this musical rite as a true ascension to the heights of beauty. 

Track listing

"Part I" – 25:21

Quarto Mundo no. 1 (E. Gismonti)

Dança Das Cabecas (E. Gismonti)

Águas Luminosas (D. Bressane)

Celebração De Núpcias (E. Gismonti)

Porta Encantada (E. Gismonti)

Quarto Mundo no. 2 (E. Gismonti)

"Part II" – 24:30

Tango (E. Gismonti/G.E. Carneiro)

Bambuzal (E. Gismonti)

Fé Cega Faca Amolada (M.Nascimento/R. Bastos)

Dança Solitária (E. Gismonti)

Personnel

Egberto Gismonti - 8 String Guitar, Piano, Wood Flutes, Voice

Nana Vasconcelos - Percussion, Berimbau, Corpo, Voice

Hallo

hallo

Cassandra Wilson: Blue Light Till Dawn (1993)

Cassandra Wilson has steadfastly refused to be pigeonholed or confined to any stylistic formula. Her highly anticipated Blue Note debut may stir renewed controversy, as she is once again all over the place. She begins the set with her intriguing version of "You Don't Know What Love Is." Then she moves from two Robert Johnson covers ("Come on in My Kitchen" and "Hellhound on My Trail") through rock compositions from Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell, her own title track, blues cut "Redbone," and a piercing version of "I Can't Stand the Rain" that can hold up to comparisons with Ann Peebles' classic. She doesn't have Johnson's menacing quality (who does?), but does invoke an equally compelling air. Wilson has great timing, pacing, and delivery, and certainly has blues sensibility in her sound.

Cassandra Wilson is a postmodern jazz singer, a conceptualist who sees no dividing lines between genres. If her career had commenced in the 1970s rather than the label-conscious 1990s she would have been marketed as a mainstream pop diva. Her magnificent voice and interpretive genius mark her as a jazz singer for the ages, however. She finds her material wherever her fancy takes her and remakes it in her own image, whether it be the country blues of Robert Johnson's "Come On in My Kitchen" and "Hellhound On My Trail," the soul of Ann Peebles's "I Can't Stand the Rain," the elegant R&B of Charles Brown's "Tell Me You'll Wait for Me," the melodic pop of Joni Mitchell's "Black Crow," and Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey," or her own "Redbone"--and the title track, accompanied by steel guitarist Gib Wharton. --John Swenson

Track listing

"You Don't Know What Love Is" (Gene DePaul, Don Raye) — 6:05

"Come On In My Kitchen" (Robert Johnson) — 4:53

"Tell Me You'll Wait For Me" (Charles Brown, Oscar Moore) — 4:48

"Children Of The Night" (Thom Bell, Linda Creed) — 5:19

"Hellhound on My Trail" (Johnson) — 4:34

"Black Crow" (Joni Mitchell) — 4:38

"Sankofa" (Cassandra Wilson) — 2:02

"Estrellas" (Cyro Baptista) — 1:59

"Redbone" (Wilson) — 5:35

"Tupelo Honey" (Van Morrison) — 5:36

"Blue Light 'til Dawn" (Wilson) — 5:09

"I Can't Stand the Rain" (Don Bryant, Bernard Miller, Ann Peebles) — 5:27

Personnel

Cassandra Wilson – vocal

Olu Dara – cornet

Don Byron – clarinet

Charlie Burnham – violin, mandocello

Tony Cedras – accordion

Brandon Ross, Chris Whitley – guitar

Gib Wharton – pedal steel guitar

Kenny Davis, Lonnie Plaxico – bass

Lance Carter, Kevin Johnson, Bill McClellan, Jeff Haynes, Cyro Baptista, Cyro – percussion

Charlie Haden-Egberto Gismonti: In Montreal (1989)

Charlie Haden/Egberto Gismonti: In Montreal (1989)

Twelve years after the fact, this live duet performance from the 1989 Montreal Jazz Festival has finally been brought to light. It's a wonderful combination: Charlie Haden is comfortable in just about any setting (consider his tenures with Ornette Coleman, the Liberation Music Orchestra, and Keith Jarrett's American Quartet). Egberto Gismonti has been continuously honing and refining his idiosyncratic folk/jazz/Brazillian guitar (and piano) work on a couple dozen recordings in different settings since the '70s.

The '89 Montreal Jazz Festival was indeed momentous. Haden appeared on four Verve discs memorializing his live performances that summer, including three different piano trios with Paul Motian. This one stands out from the rest: it's so strikingly intimate that it strongly accents the personalities involved.

That said, it must be made clear that Gismonti really takes the helm on this recording. Not only are seven of the nine tracks his compositions, but his fingerprints are everywhere. Gismonti's stylized approach to piano and guitar often demand that Haden approach his instrument from different angles: melodic counterpoint, pulse, and lead. Haden adapts deftly. Shifting from guitar to piano and back, Gismonti generally adopts a shared approach, relying an ostinato pulse and pattering rhythmic chords as the foundation for stepwise transitions in harmony; or he simply pulses away in a gentle, understated way. The second track, Gismonti's "Maracatú," builds in both density and intensity, then relaxes into gentle undulating tones from both players that slowly fade away. You breathe. Then Haden's "First Song" begins almost inaudibly with quiet commentary, leading dramatically into a stark, folkish melody bearing obvious similarity to his Americana duets with Pat Metheny in '96. It demands faster changes from the guitarist, and a jazzier role than Gismonti usually delivers. Haden steps up into the lead, offering a warm, gentle, and uplifting melody—then Gismonti follows suit with a harmonized stroll of his own.

The remarkable "Em Familia" takes Gismonti into unexpectedly explosive territory, where the simple force of his guitar attack lifts the whole piece into the stratosphere; Haden hammers away behind him as they navigate several mountain passes. Six minutes into this piece, Gismonti pulls some tricks from his back pocket, using harmonics, muting, and various alternative techniques to achieve thread-like timbres. This tune stands as the true high-water mark on an otherwise fine record.

It's rare to hear such a dramatically successful live performance, and these two musicians clearly have a natural affinity for each other. Given the personalities involved, that makes sense. In Montreal stands right up there alongside Haden's other recorded masterpieces from that 1989 festival. (Only one complaint here: too much applause in the edits. But I suppose it's only fair to give the producer some slack for lingering on the cheers, since that energy seems to feed forward with these two players.) Ah, the inexorable problem with great live records... you just wish you had only been there.

Track Listing: Salvador; Maracatu; First Song; Palhaco; Silence; Em Familia; Loro; Frevo; Don Quixote.

Personnel: Charlie Haden: bass; Egberto Gismonti: guitar, piano.

Chris Potter: Undergound (2006)

Chris Potter: Underground (2006)

Billed as Chris Potter's funk album, Underground takes a conceptual leap of faith into uncharted waters. Classifying this as either a funk or a fusion record is shortsighted. Though a strong rhythmic undercurrent flows through the majority of the record, it offers much more.

One of the most promising tenor saxophonists of his generation, Potter is joined by an all-star lineup. Ubiquitous keyboardist Craig Taborn handles double duty as Fender Rhodes soloist and the group's bass foundation. Underexposed but distinctive fusion guitarist Wayne Krantz makes a rare sideman appearance. His singular approach reveals a vast range of expression—from delicate, unadorned lyricism to raucous, metallic furor. Drummer Nate Smith demonstrates a remarkably dynamic sensibility. Smith may be the least well-known member of the quartet, but he contributes an infectious enthusiasm that elevates the entire group.

Potter's writing is often knotty and complex but never stifling, allowing his bandmates ample flexibility within the structures. Engaging in simultaneous four-way call and response, their tight rapport is focused, but not traditionally straight-ahead. While these arrangements are more obtuse than those of a typical groove session, they still deliver the goods.

Alternating between driving funk and ambient introspection, Underground is sequenced to maintain interest over the duration. When Smith digs deep into the backbeat, bringing the rhythm to a boil, the quartet goes for broke. Potter's intervallic linearity culminates in passionate screams, while Krantz's muscular guitar fires torrents of serpentine melody. Taborn spins swirling Fender Rhodes lines that invoke past masters while advancing headlong into the future. Taborn's bass notes are the quartet's secret weapon. The softly insinuated harmonic anchor of the Fender Rhodes avoids the pneumatic conventions of slapped electric bass and other such funk tropes. This ethereal vibe permeates the album, distancing it from similar efforts.

Not all is roiling intensity, however. Potter demonstrates lyrical fluency on a gorgeously spacey interpretation of "Lotus Flower," providing respite from angular, contrapuntal workouts. Updating standard repertoire, Potter provides a studied but passionate reading of Radiohead's "Morning Bell," as well as closing the album with a brief but gorgeous take of the Beatles' "Yesterday."

Breathing fresh life into a genre fraught with clichés, Potter's quartet proves that primal groove and intricate interplay needn't be mutually exclusive. Underground is yet another document in the early stages of what should prove to be a long and fruitful career.

Track Listing: Next Best Western; Morning Bell; Nudnik; Lotus Blossom; Big Top; The Wheel; Celestial Nomad; Underground; Yesterday.

Personnel: Chris Potter: tenor saxophone; Wayne Krantz: electric guitar; Craig Taborn: Fender Rhodes; Nate Smith: drums; Adam Rogers: electric guitar (6,9).

Nils Petter Molvaer: Solid Ether (2001)

Nils Petter Molvaer: Solid Ether (2001)

Norwegian trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær captures himself in a swirling electronic nightmare of his own creation on Solid Ether (ECM). A stunning meltdown of classic jazz trumpet styles with modern techno, drum-and-bass and electronic music, Solid Ether continues and expands the stylish deviltry of Khamer, Molvær’s debut as a leader for ECM in 1998. Khamer claimed awards in Norway, Germany, and “Jazz Record of the Year” from “The L.A. Times.” This challenging, inventive follow-up does not disappoint.

Molvær performs on trumpet, piccolo trumpet, bass, percussion, electronics, synthesizers, and sound treatments. His professed influences – Miles, Don Cherry, Jon Hassell – are evident in his trumpet playing, when he aspires to sound “in my best moments, as a singer.” But he also deploys those same influences in the music he writes around his trumpet sound, in combination with the influence of modern constructionists such as Bill Laswell and Brian Eno who manage to fringe the edges of pop and non-pop music. In this respect, the traditionally crisp and icy sound of ECM Records serves him well.

Molvær strides into his solo trumpet introduction to the opening cut, “Dead Indeed,” in sharp, smart lines like Freddie Hubbard. After the song erupts into a techno-color maelstrom, with clanging robotic drums and squalling electronics, that same trumpet provides a cool, detached fulcrum to the piece.

“Ligotage” presents a brawling update of the single Molvær released in between his two albums. It casts Cherry’s “third world” trumpet style in an intense dub/jungle setting worthy of Sly & Robbie, ripe with wah-wah guitars and explosive samples and screeches from DJ Strangefruit, to create thoroughly original and modern music. It bleeds into “Trip,” where Molvær’s soft, feathery downward trumpet modulation and the sense of adventure in the accompanying undertow somehow evoke both echoes of Davis and new, exciting ideas.

“Merciful” continues Molvær’s series of collaborations with poet Sidsel Endresen, as she adorns his composition with Joni Mitchell-like lyrics and vocals, supported only with his piano; it is reprised for a quiet moment at the end of the set.

Molvær found inspiration for Solid Ether ’s title track, a jarring sonic landscape full of trumpet (almost a tribute to Hassell and Cherry in its long, flowing lines and unique colors), DJ scratching, hip-hop beats and dangerous sharp curves, in underground DJs the Basement Jaxx. “They have all these beats going on, stopping and starting all the time, and they use delays to weave them together,” he explains. “It’s an idea I like and have adapted.”

On Solid Ether, Molvær is joined by guitarist Eivind Aarset, bassist Auden Erlien, DJ Strangefruit (Paul Nyhus), and drummers Rune Arnesen and Per Lundvall (who played with Abba in what must have been another lifetime).

Track Listing: 

Dead Indeed, 

Vilderness 1, 

Kakonita,

 Merciful 1,

 Ligotage, 

Trip, 

Vilderness 2, 

Tragamar, 

Solid Ether, 

Merciful 2.

Nils Petter Molvaer: Re-Vision (2008)

Nils Petter Molvaer: Re-Vision (2008)

The music of Norwegian trumpeter/Nu Jazz progenitor, Nils Petter Molvaer, has always been cinematic. Call it music for a non-existent movie or a film of the mind, Molvaer's albums, beginning with the groundbreaking Khmer (ECM, 1997), have always been about aural landscapes evocative of highly personal imagery and plenty of club-ready grooves. Even in performance, the lighting provided by Tord "Prince of Darkness" Knudsen is intended to provoke the imagination rather than focus attention on the musicians.

It's no surprise, then, that Molvaer has been recruited to provide music for film. His score for the 2005 French film Edy already saw limited release on Molvaer's Sula imprint the same year. Re-Vision culls four pieces from Edy and, by combining them with music from two other films—the 2007 German film Hoppet and 1999 Norwegian documentary Frozen Heart—and one non-soundtrack piece, fashions a continuous 46-minute suite that stands independently as yet another highly visual piece, incorporating Molvaer's ever-expanding frames of reference.

Re-Vision is also Molvaer's first release in years to not primarily feature members of his touring band, but guitarist Eivind Aarset remains a fundamental part of its overall soundscape. Aarset's Sonic Codex (Jazzland, 2007) possesses some of his most overtly recognizable guitar tones in years, but here he's in full-out textural mode; an essential if rarely recognizable sonic contributor to half of Re-Vision's sometimes dense, other times spacious twelve tracks. Punkt Festival artistic co-director/Molvaer touring group member Jan Bang also shows up on the non-score "Perimeters," providing ambient textures and beats which are ethnic rather than dance floor in nature.

Anders Engen and Italian expat Paolo Vinaccia provide live percussion on a handful of tracks, but it's Molvaer—perfecter of the "recording studio as laboratory" concept—who contributes most of Re-Vision's instrumentation. Still, amidst a broad personal palette Molvaer's trumpet remains distinctive, ranging from unaffected and spare on the solo "Trumpet Player in the Backyard" to heavily processed and utilizing a variety of extended techniques on the propulsive "The Beginning" and darker-hued "Alone in the Bathtub."

Molvaer's lyricism continues to be a defining characteristic and, despite the preconception that programming might imply, he clearly remains an improvising musician. There's little in the way of delineated soloing here; instead, his trumpet moves in and out of the mix, a distinctive focal point that helps the music flow seamlessly from one terrain to the next.

Molvaer's sonic bag of tricks isn't restricted solely to his horn and an array of electronic manipulation. On "Visitation," he plays the double-reeded duduk which, in its plaintive, haunting melancholy, recalls Armenian duduk master Djivan Gasparyan's cult classic, I Will Not Be Sad In This World (Opal, 1989).

While many of Molvaer's markers can be found on Re-Vision—techno beats, processed soundscapes, world music references and improvisation—with a purer cinematic purpose it both fits in and stands out amongst Molvaer's growing discography, an album of exceptional beauty, emotional depth and visual resonance.

Track Listing:

 Torn (from the film Hoppet); 

The Beginning (from the film Edy); 

Alone in the Bathtub (from the film Edy); 

Visitation (from the film Hoppet); 

Arctic Dub (from the film Frozen Heart); 

Perimeters; 

Trumpet Player in the Backyard (from the film Edy); 

The End (from the film Edy); 

The Visitor (from the film Hoppet); 

Azads Theme (from the film Hopper);

 Decisions (from the film Hoppet); 

Leaps and Bounds (from the film Hopper).

Personnel: Nils Petter Molvaer: trumpet, all other instruments (1-3, 5, 8, 12), all instruments (10), duduk (4), soundscapes (4, 9, 11); Eivind Aarset: guitars (1-3, 5, 8, 12); Nizamettin Aric: voice (1, 12); Anders Engen: drums (2, 3, 8); Jan Bang: beats and soundscapes (6); Paolo Vinaccia: percussion (12).

Ornette Coleman : The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)

Ornette Coleman 

The Shape Of Jazz To Come 

Atlantic 

1959

Ornette Coleman's Contemporary Records releases Something Else!!!! (1958) and Tomorrow Is The Question! (1959) documented the alto saxophonist's development from the last vestiges of bebop toward a harmonically freer jazz language. Coleman's album titles became more prophetic as they were released. The Shape Of Jazz To Come is a further, but not yet completed, evolution away from harmonic harnesses of the swing and bebop eras.

If Something Else!!!! brought the jazz literati's ears to attention with its spherical, untethered solos; and Tomorrow is the Question! further justified baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan's necessary sans-piano format, then The Shape Of Jazz To Come was the 16-inch shot across the bow of conventional jazz wisdom. It paved the artistic way for the next Coleman recording, The Change Of The Century (Atlantic, 1959). Gone are the chordal patterns that guided alto saxophonist Charlie Parker out of the swing era. Gone is the harmonic anchor of piano or guitar that was a jazz mainstay for years. What is left is a gently directed independent music trajectory, a concurrent and separate mode of invention for four instruments playing with only experience and self-understanding.

The structure (if that is what it can be called) of the six pieces comprising The Shape Of Jazz To Come is presentation of a theme (or traditional head) followed by free improvisation in the solo sections by Coleman and cornetist Don Cherry followed by restatement of the theme, multiple times, in some cases. Coleman hits upon his most empathic band with bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins, who remain reluctant last attachments to the old ways, providing a rock-solid swing to the recording as well as their own informed solo sections without interfering with Coleman's direction.

Coleman's approach is not unlike that employed by trumpeter Miles Davis that same year on Kind Of Blue (Columbia), recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, where Davis entered the studio with sketches of pieces and directed the band to improvise over scales rather than chords. What Coleman did differently with The Shape Of Jazz To Come (recorded May 22, 1959) was to do away with even scalar organization, opening up the solo canvas not simply two-dimensionally, but to fully four dimensions. The result to the jazz world was a full assault on two fronts that would eventually pave the way for post bop and fusion and bolder free jazz exploration.

The Shape Of Jazz To Come in a microcosm, can be heard in "Lonely Woman," a tune so far reaching yet amenable to coverage—by the Modern Jazz Quartet in 1962 on Lonely Woman (Atlantic) and saxophonist John Zorn in 1989 on Naked City (Nonesuch))—that it help ease Coleman's jazz medicine down critically. The rhythm is established by Haden, strumming bass chords, and Higgins, establishing the poly-rhythms of a near Eastern Indian mantra. Coleman and Cherry add their own Eastern flourishes saturated with the blues. It is mournful and searching, with enough dissonance to distract without covering first Coleman's and then Cherry's earthy, nearly down-home solos.

The ballad (if such definitions anymore apply) "Peace" is the most revealing track on the album. It offers Haden duets with the two soloists with appropriately minimal support form Higgins. Coleman and Cherry mix the entire history of jazz into their solos, expressing the results calmly and with purpose. Drawing from all of the genre influences surrounding him, Coleman plotted a course that led to this groundbreaking record, still, oddly, only the beginning of the revolution. In the meantime, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, who, by the end of the next decade, would have exhausted what Coleman starts here, was in New York with Davis making a history of a different sort.

Tracks: Lonely Woman; Eventually; Peace; Focus on Sanity; Congeniality; Chronology.

Personnel: Ornette Coleman: alto saxophone; Don Cherry: coronet; Charlie Haden: bass; Billy Higgins: drums.