Record of the Day: Ornette Coleman & Prime Time, "Tone Dialing"

Record of the Day: Ornette Coleman & Prime Time, “Tone Dialing”

Ornette Coleman & Prime Time
“Tone Dialing” (Verve/Harmolodic 527483-2)

Jazz purists were truly enraged when Ornette Coleman began his “electric” adventure in the 1990s.
’70 with the formation of Prime Time.

Records like “Dancing in Your Head” and “Time Design” drew heavily from the rock cauldron, combining it with sounds derived directly from funk; in live concerts, characterized by violent sounds and very high volumes, Coleman appeared on stage with unpresentable jackets in psychedelic colors and rafts of dizzying height, worthy of those worn by George Clinton. Fans of classics such as “Tomorrow Is the Question”, “Change of the Century” and “Free jazz” wrote Coleman’s name alongside those of Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock in the list of musician-traitors who have gone to the more commercial wing of music.

Naturally (is it worth saying?) there is nothing banal or artistically compromised in these works which, years later, still sound convincing. In the case of “Tone Dialing”, released in 1995, Ornette inserted ideas derived from the world of rap and hip-hop into his colorful musical mosaic. I well remember the disgusted faces of many “experts” when this album came out; several critics forcefully attacked Coleman, now giving him up for lost artistically. But how do you make a blunder like that, I wonder?

It is enough to listen to magnificent pieces such as “Street Blues” and “Search for Life” or the brilliant “Bach Prelude”, a paradoxical polyrhythmic rewriting of the Prelude in G Major from Bach’s Suite N°1 for cello, to understand that Coleman’s creativity does not it’s foggy at all. After all, Ornette appears in sparkling form both as an author and grappling with the sax, moving with agility on carpets of electronic drums, synthesized basses, winds, sampled voices, jagged and shining electric guitars.
The rhythms alternate enthralling and danceable moments with extremely complex ones, always inspired by the African tradition, which
Coleman manages to combine his own harmonic language with the unmistakable penetrating character of his melodies.

“Sound Is Everywhere” is the title of one of the songs, and it is precisely this total intellectual willingness to be amazed by any existing sound stimulus that makes Coleman one of the few authentic Masters.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.