Ornette Coleman – Tomorrow Is The Question! (2023 Reissue)

Description

On his second outing for the Contemporary label, Ornette dusted the piano from the bandstand and focused instead on a quartet. For some unexplained reason,Billy Higginswas replaced byShelly Manne; the only constants remain Coleman andDon Cherry. The focus, then, is on the interplay between the altoist and trumpeter in executing Ornette’s tunes, which were, more than on the preceding album (Something Else!, recorded a year earlier), knottier and tighter in their arrangement style. The odd-syncopation style of the front line on numbers such as “Tears Inside,” which comes out of the box wailing and then simmers down into a moody, swinging blues, was a rough transition for the rhythm section. And the more Ornette andCherrytry to open it up into something more free and less attached to the tune’s form, the moreManneand especially bassistPercy Heathhang on.

Still, there are great moments here: for example, the celebratory freedom of “Giggin’,” with its wonderful trumpet solo, and “Rejoicing,” which has become one of Coleman’s classics for its elongated melody line and simple obbligato phrasing, which become part of a wonderfully complex solo that keeps the blues firmly intact. The final track, “Endless,” is pure magic. AfterMannecarries it in 6/8, Coleman uses a nursery rhyme to move to the solo terrain and, when he does, the solo itself becomes a part of that rhyme as evenDon Cherryfeels his way through it in his break. And, if anything, this is one of the things that came to define Ornette — his willingness to let simplicity and its bright colors and textures confound not only other players and listeners, but also him too. In those days, Coleman’s musical system — although worked out in detail — always left room for the unexpected and, in fact, was played as if his life depended on it. As a result, Tomorrow Is the Question! was a very literal title; who could have guessed the expansive, world-widening direction that Coleman’s system would head into next? via AllMusic

Label:Craft Recordings, Contemporary Records
Series:Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series
Format:Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Stereo, 180g
Reissued:2023 / Original Release: 1959
Genre:Jazz
Style:Avant-garde Jazz

File under: Jazz – Saxophone