| Author |
Message |
    
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1916
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 11:18 am: | 
|
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9607210 (Web site has links to listen to 3 songs from the album.)
Ornette Coleman Wins Music Pulitzer
Ornette Coleman has won the Pulitzer Prize for music with his recording Sound Grammar, a document of a 2005 concert recorded live in Italy.
Coleman's music was not among the 140 music nominees. Pulitzer panelists used their prerogative to skirt traditional rules by purchasing the CD and nominating the 77-year-old jazz master. This is the first time a recording has won the music Pulitzer, and a first for purely improvised music.
The concert features an unorthodox line-up of instruments, including two double basses (one plucked, the other bowed), Coleman's son Denardo on drums, and Coleman himself playing alto saxophone and trumpet.
Coleman has continued to shake up the jazz world ever since releasing his innovative recording The Shape of Jazz to Come in 1959.
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1930, Coleman received his first saxophone at age 14. His mother saved money to buy the instrument by working as a seamstress. At first, Coleman struggled to find his own sound on the alto saxophone, but eventually developed his own formulas of composition, breaking down traditional definitions of harmony and melody.
The concept, called "Harmolodic," Coleman says, "removes the caste system from sound."
Coleman has written music outside of the jazz realm, including string quartets, music for dance, woodwind quintets, and in the early 1970s, a symphony called "Skies of America," composed with support from his Guggenheim Foundation Grant.
In 1994, Coleman earned a MacArthur "Genius" award, and has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters
|
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8329
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 11:31 am: |
|
Good for him! He appears frequently in Chicago clubs and is the darling of the traditional jazz crowd. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 4159
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 04:26 pm: |
|
You ain't about to TRY to tell us you dig Ornette Coleman, are you, Grandmama? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8344
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 05:40 pm: |
|
Can you read, you ignorant blimp?? |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 2094
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 07:19 pm: |
|
Thanks Yvettep. That was refreshing article (for a change). I've always been a serious fan of Ornette's music. I love it! It's not accessible to the average listener by any means but for those who are disciples of creative improvised music, he is a major innovator along with John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor and Charlie Parker.
|
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4551
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 08:21 pm: |
|
Hey! What are you saying??? All of Yvette's articles are refreshing 
|
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1930
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 08:55 pm: |
|
LOL @ Mzuri! Ntfs, I'm glad you said that cuz for me his stuff has definitely been a disciplined, acquired taste. But I tell you what: A few years ago I picked up a sax after having not played since undergrad and I 'bout blew a blood vessel in my brain. That the brother is still at his age blowing at all deserves an award! |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 2096
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 10:29 pm: |
|
"But I tell you what: A few years ago I picked up a sax after having not played since undergrad and I 'bout blew a blood vessel in my brain. That the brother is still at his age blowing at all deserves an award!"
I heard ya! I used to try to play the tenor. Hey, it ain't as easy as it looks! Ya gotta have natural talent or a lot of training. I had neither. But as I said, I have always been a fan of Ornette's music. Love his first Atlantic recording, "This Is Our Music". Awesome group. Ornette has always been at the forefront of creative improvised music.
I have a very extensive collection of his recordings. One time when he came to San Diego and played at the UCSD campus, he had his group "Prime Time". He walked out on stage, picked up his horn, looked around and starting playing -blam!!!! It was like a 100 foot tidal wave that hit the audience! It was so intense and loud, people started looking around, scratching their heads, getting up and walking out. They had absolutely no idea what he was doing. I loved it!!!
|
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 8353
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 02:29 pm: |
|
Well, I be. Who'd have ever thought Yvette and NTFS once dabbled in sex play - oops, I mean sax playing! Love Ya!
Ornette Coleman is an acquired taste. It's like he marinates his reeds in LSD. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1940
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 05:27 pm: |
|
LOL @ Cynique. Oh yeah: alto--marching, jazz, symphonic, and pep bands in high school. (Just fooled around on it in college.) But no more. Like I said, I no longer have the lung power, apparently. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 2112
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 - 11:09 pm: |
|
"Ornette Coleman is an acquired taste."
No doubt about it! I don't think I would put on an Ornette recording at a party. Ha! Ha! Ha! But to illustrate a point, when I lived in Japan, I went to a local mall and they were piping in Ornette playing "Un Muy Bonito". I was stunned! That would never happen in the U.S.! But the Japanese are much more advanced about about all genre's of jazz. It's a religion to them. They are very hard core about the music.
"It's like he marinates his reeds in LSD."
Oh, I'm sure it sounds like that to some people. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
|
|
Email This Page