ORNETTE COLEMAN - The Complete Science Fiction Sessions (2000) 2CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Finally, on a pair of CDs in one collection are the rest of Ornette Coleman's Columbia recordings, all of them done before Skies of America. Science Fiction was a regular part of Columbia's jazz catalogue, and Broken Shadows was released on LP in 1982. On this double set, both of those records and three previously unreleased cuts from those sessions are together at last. Coleman assembled mostly alumni for his September 1971 sessions in the Columbia studios. The sizes of the ensembles range from septet to quartet to up to 11 players. His classic early bands are reunited here with trumpeter Don Cherry, saxophonist Dewey Redman, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins. Augmenting these bands in places are pianist Cedar Walton, guitarist Jim Hall, trumpeter Bobby Bradford, vocalist Asha Puthi, and Science Fiction narrator, poet David Henderson. The swinging weirdness quotient is high on Science Fiction, especially on "What Reason Could I Give," "Street Woman," and "Civilization Day." The title track is an out, free-blowing fest that sounds hopelessly dated but is still cool, and on the tracks "School Work," "Broken Shadows," and "Happy House," listeners hear the first traces of the themes Coleman continues to employ. The inclusion of alternate takes offers the listener a cleaner view of the kind of harmonic theory Coleman was working against when he created harmolodics. Some of the oddities on these sessions are the seeming incongruities between Redman and Hall on "Good Girl Blues," with Webster Armstrong's singing with Walton's piano and Coleman just undermining the entire thing, trying to force another dimension out of the blues, or perhaps a new one into them. Elsewhere, on "Rock the Clock," listeners hear Coleman's first experiments with electricity, with a funky backbeat straining to maintain itself against his sawing violin, note-spattering trumpet; then there are Redman's bluesy post-bop chromatics (quoting Brubeck's "Take Five" in his solo) moving atop a funky doubled-up backbeat and one scary amplified Charlie Haden bass. Science Fiction is a stellar collection of Ornette-ology assembled in one place. This is some of his very best material, archived and issued the way it should have been in the first place.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1-1    What Reason Could I Give 3'07
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Timpani – Billy Higgins
Trumpet – Carmine Fornarotto, Gerard Schwarz
Vocals – Asha Puthli
1-2    Civilization Day 6'05
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
1-3    Street Woman 4'50
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
1-4    Science Fiction 5'02
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Trumpet – Bobby Bradford
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
Voice [Poet] – David Henderson
1-5    Rock The Clock 3'17
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone, Suona [Musette] – Dewey Redman
Trumpet, Violin, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
1-6    All My Life 3'56
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Timpani – Billy Higgins
Trumpet – Carmine Fornarotto, Gerard Schwarz
Vocals – Asha Puthli
1-7    Law Years 5'22
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Trumpet – Bobby Bradford
1-8    The Jungle Is A Skyscraper 5'27
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Trumpet – Bobby Bradford
1-9    School Work 5'36
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Trumpet – Bobby Bradford
1-10    Country Town Blues 6'25
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
1-11    Street Woman (Alternate Take) 5'46
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
1-12        Civilization Day (Alternate Mix) 6'04
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
2-1        Happy House 9'47
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Trumpet – Bobby Bradford
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
2-2    Elizabeth 10'26
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Trumpet – Bobby Bradford
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
2-3    Written Word 9'44
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Trumpet – Bobby Bradford
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
2-4    Broken Shadows 6'42
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Trumpet – Bobby Bradford
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry
2-5    Rubber Gloves 3'24
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
2-6    Good Girl Blues 3'05
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Guitar – Jim Hall
Piano – Cedar Walton
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Vocals – Webster Armstrong
2-7    Is It Forever 4'49
Alto Saxophone, Composed By – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Ed Blackwell
Guitar – Jim Hall
Piano – Cedar Walton
Tenor Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Vocals – Webster Armstrong

ORNETTE COLEMAN QUINTET - Complete Live at The Hillcrest Club (1958-2007) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Ornette Coleman's epic 1959 LPs The Shape of Jazz to Come and Change of the Century were pivot points in modern post-bop jazz and early creative music. This recording is a prelude to those epics, a live two-night engagement in October of 1958 at the Hillcrest Club in Los Angeles. The Coleman quintet, with trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins, plus a then-young pianist Paul Bley, sets up that new shape of jazz. This eight-selection set features three of Coleman's signature originals, two standards, and three lesser-known, fairly rare pieces that Coleman did at the time. The program kicks off with Charlie Parker's "Klactoveedsedstene," an on-fire free bopper where Coleman's alto sax in tandem with Cherry reflects a quest for cleanliness and innocent, alive freshness, well transferred, balanced, and reproduced digitally. Whoever tagged this music unlistenable needs to revisit the symbiosis of the front-line horns present. Three of Coleman's all-time immortal compositions on call are the relaxed and easily swung harmolodic dream "The Blessing" accented by Ornette's piquant alto, the call-and-response-laden "When Will the Blues Leave?," and the post-bop evergreen "Ramblin'." The stairstep ascending and descending melody for "Free" also remains arresting, taking no prisoners. It's interesting how alleged rebel Coleman pays reverence to two ballad standards, Roy Eldridge's pensive "I Remember Harlem" and Cherry's trumpet-led "How Deep Is the Ocean?" Closing is the frantic, scattershot two-minute improvisation "Crossroads." A major fault of this recording is Bley's piano, which is unfortunately so far down in the mix that it is virtually inaudible. One really has to strain, even with headphones, to hear the true depth of Bley's clearly brilliant, probing, but muffled and muted playing. There's no doubt as to the historical and musical significance of this date, and it belongs in the collection of any follower of Coleman, despite the one production flaw. Michael G. Nastos  
Tracklist :
1    Klactoveedsestene 12:07
Written-By – Charlie Parker
2    I Remember Harlem 3:52
Written-By – Roy Eldridge
3    The Blessing    9:38
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
4    Free    5:39
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
5    When Will The Blues Leave?    14:29
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
6    How Deep Is The Ocean? 4:35
Written-By – Irving Berlin
7    Ramblin'    14:06
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
8    Crossroads    1:54
Written-By – Ornette Coleman
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden
Drums – Billy Higgins
Piano – Paul Bley
Trumpet – Don Cherry

CHERRY FIVE - Cherry Five [1975]

This band included Tony Tartarini (vocals), Carlo Bordini (drums, he later started a captivating project with Rustichelli) and three musicians who later founded GOBLIN: Claudio Simonetti (keyboards), Massimo Morante (electric guitar) and Fabio Pignatelli (bass). The music on CHERRY FIVE's eponymous album is very YES-oriented (like DRUID, ENGLAND or MIRTHRANDIR) but the keyboards sound more virtuosic.

The album "Cherry Five" ('75) is a real treat for all progrock lovers: strong and fluent compositions, very melodic and flowing with many good ideas. The emphasis is on the keyboards (Hammond organ and vintage synthesizers), especially the "Tronmaniacs" will be delighted! This is one of the gems of Italian progrock from the Seventies, a bit overlooked due to the attention for PFM, Le ORME, BANCO and GOBLIN. Progarchives

Tracks Listing
1. Country Grave Yard (8:18)
2. The Picture of Dorian Gray (8:28)
3. The Swan is a Murderer Part 1 (3:53)
4. The Swan is a Murderer Part 2 (5:07)
5. Oliver (9:30)
6. My Little Cloud Land (7:43)
Total Time: 43:19
Line-up / Musicians
- Claudio Simonetti / keyboards
- Massimo Morante / guitars
- Fabio Pignatelli / bass
- Tony Tartarini / lead voice
- Carlo Bordini / drums, percussion

CHERRY FIVE - Cherry Five

 [1975] Cinevox / CBR320 / scans

O Púbis da Rosa