Ornette Coleman last night

[Michael Eisenstadt]

a disappointing concert/set. one long set. 
almost a full house. 

did not see Hope Morgan nor Jeff but was 
vouchsafed a rare sighting of Phillip Trussell 
whom we all know and love.

Coleman's son drums well, one of the 2 
standup bassists a virtuoso with the bow.
Coleman played trumpet, alto and violin. The 
sax is white plastic with brass keys. The flare 
of the bell is brass. He plays violin lefthanded 
the violin against his chest him standing 
crouched with one foot elevated on a stool
in a backwoods c & w posture. His trumpet 
playing is strong.

the sound of too few instruments was thin and 
unsatisfying. only once for a few moments in 
one of the numbers did i find myself fully
INSIDE the music. YMMV.

Coleman was dressed in a sharp blue suit and
he wore a porkpie hat. why? sartorial decisions
are always a problem. in a NYTimes Sunday 
Magazine interview of Miles Davis by Amiri
Baraka,  Davis described how he chose his 
outfits. He said his threads had to be of a 
piece with his sound. 

the music itself was dissonant (as expected)
with the bowed bass and sax chords often 
in differing scales to one another. a few times
the sonorities of bass & alto merged. surprising 
as one wouldn't imagine that the sonorities of 
bowed bass & sax could be made to sound 
exactly the same.

the bass player was exceptional, short older 
white guy with a bald head. 

Coleman played one of his early compositions
which i recognized. While reprising the theme
the number was of course not identical to the 
original recording. This was from a more lyrical 
period than his current one.