Ornette Coleman - 'The Complete Science Fiction Sessions'

 

"The only credentials you need are human form and planetary citizenship. And that’s all you need to get into this music. It emphasizes the feelings we all share as human beings; each musician plays his own biological rhythms, the dimly-remembered experiences of his past lives, and what he had for breakfast." — Ornette Coleman

One of the most iconic scenes in the original 'Star Wars' trilogy is the one set in the Mos Eisley cantina.  Although it’s a relatively short sequence, the cantina scene holds immense significance in the Star Wars series for showcasing the vastness and (somewhat) diversity of the galaxy.  It’s the small details in the scene, such as the bartender’s refusal to allow droids inside the cantina, that hint at the existence of a broader universe beyond the conflict between the Rebels and the Empire.

The scene is almost perfect, except for one glaring flaw: The Music.


I've read that George Lucas asked middlebrow extraordinaire: John Williams to imagine several creatures in a future century finding some 1930s Benny Goodman swing band music in a time capsule or under a rock someplace, and how they might attempt to interpret it?

What John Williams came up with, has to me, always sounded like all of Duke Ellington's mid-1920s sides for the Vocalion label, blended in to one.  Don't get me wrong here, I absolutely adore everything Duke did.  It's just that, to my ears and eyes, it doesn't fit the scene.

Music that would fit the scene perfectly, is any track from Ornette Coleman's, 'The Complete Science Fiction Sessions'.  Also picture if you will instead of the above pictured cantina musicians (who look like strung out clones of the Pillsbury Doughboy after years of doing "speedballs"), we were treated to Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins (and maybe Asha Puthli) performing a song from 'Science Fiction' in the cantina.  Now wouldn't that be a hip scene?

This of course is just one woman's opinion, your mileage may vary, blah, blah blah...yada yada yada, and all that jazz.

Be that as it may…

'The Complete Science Fiction Sessions' is a collection of Coleman’s 1971 release 'Science Fiction and his 1982 'Broken Shadows'.  While 'Broken Shadows' was released in 1982, it was comprised wholly from material from the 'Science Fiction' sessions.  So really, this 2000 'Complete Science Fiction Sessions' is just that: complete.

Ornette assembled mostly alumni for his September 1971 sessions.  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 musicians in places are pianist Cedar Walton, guitarist Jim Hall, trumpeter Bobby Bradford, vocalist Asha Puthi, and Science Fiction narrator, poet David Henderson.  The voices become part of the mix, bringing language into the music, complicating the abstract nature of music and the "madness" of Ornette’s compositions.

The inclusion of alternate takes provides us with a cleaner view of the kind of harmonic theory Ornette was working against when he created harmolodics. Ornette describes harmolodics as:

"The use of the physical and the mentality of one's own logic made into an expression of sound to bring about the musical sensation of unison executed by a single person or with a group".

This music is deep and as far as the subgenre of Free Jazz goes, this album is very accessible.

For the freeload, what are some of your favorite science fiction books?