[NewMusic] Ornette on Ornette

[Phillip Greenlief]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/6927534.stm

One of jazz's great innovators, Ornette Coleman, has spoken of his
feelings after receiving two major music awards at the age of 77.

Coleman has won both a lifetime achievement Grammy and the Pulitzer
Prize for music in recent months, the latter awarded for his latest
album Sound Grammar.

The saxophonist told BBC World Service's The Beat programme that
although he has often had a prickly relationship with critics, "I can't
say it doesn't mean anything."

"It makes me aware of the growth that I have achieved," he said.

"I do honour people that know more than I do, and tell me if it's good,
if it has meaning.

"If I have found a way to share what I do, to inspire people to go even
further than what I don't know yet - that idea is the most supreme form
of expression in culture."

Ideas

Coleman is known as one of the great jazz innovators, pioneering
improvised "free jazz."

In 1960, his album Free Jazz split the jazz world. By discarding jazz
elements such as fixed chord changes, Coleman was hailed as
groundbreaking by some.

And he remains unapologetic about how he has pushed at boundaries
through his career.

"I've had people say, 'you can't play like that' - and I say, 'what do
you mean - I've already played it.'

"I'm not trying - I'm playing."

However, early 1960s acclaimed jazz musicians such as Miles Davis
regarded Coleman's music as a direct affront to their years of training
- something Coleman rejects.

"I have taught myself everything I know."

"I wasn't thinking of insults, I was thinking of ideas," Coleman said.

"Imagine - if you don't have ideas, what are you going to do?

"They weren't playing movements, they were playing changes. I was
playing ideas, changes and non-transposed notes."

He recalled in particular the day his mother bought him a horn when he
was a young boy.

"I thought it was a toy and I played it the way I am playing today," he
said.

"I didn't know that you had to learn to play, I thought you had to play
to play. And I still think that.

"I didn't know that music was a style and that it had rules and stuff. I
thought it was just sound. I still believe that.

"I am not that sensitive or that weak to believe that because someone
says I can't do something, I haven't done it.

"I have taught myself everything I know. I have written symphonies, and
no-one has taught me. Because I realised that the human being is all
there is."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/6927534.stm

Phillip Greenlief
c/o Evander Music
PO Box 22158 Oakland, CA
94623-9991
www.evandermusic.com