This Is Our Music

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With <i>This Is Our Music</i>, Ornette Coleman’s historic early quartet shifted slightly but significantly to include the great Ed Blackwell on drum, taking over for Billy Higgin. But while Blackwell brought his own texture and feel to the group, <i>This Is Our Music</i> seemed sprung from the same source as Coleman’s first two Atlantic, <i>The Shape of Jazz to Come</i> and <i>Change of the Century</i>. The leader’s alto sax and Don Cherry’s pocket trumpet could achieve rough-hewn yet somehow impeccable unisons on brisk swing inventions like “Kaleidoscope,” “Poise,” and “Folk Tale.” And Charlie Haden galloped along: Even as Coleman’s pieces floated free of conventional harmony, the bassist’s walking lines revealed an unshakable understanding of some highly elusive music. His articulate bowing on the out-of-tempo “Beauty Is a Rare Thing,” blending with Blackwell’s subtle mallet, brought out a new, even more exploratory dimension in Coleman’s work. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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