The Shape of Jazz to Come evolves

In Paris, Denardo Coleman & Co. bring it all together

Here’s my DownBeat article on “The Shape of Jazz to Come” as performed at the Jazz a la Villette festival in Paris August 30 by Denardo Coleman and star improvisers (saxophonist Isaiah Collier, trumpeter Wallace Roney Jr., pianist Craig Taborn, guitarist Marc Ducret, bassist Brad Jones), the Ostinato Orchestra and conductor Ernst Theis.

To attend rehearsals, spend time with the players, hear the concert (and a couple others at the enormous fest) was a peak musical experience of a most exciting year¹ and even longer: I’ve been happily ears wide open to Ornette Coleman’s music for decades, it always refreshes me, and I find his his vision of a greater overall music world, founded on sound and feeling in combustion rather than assumption based on historical categorization or stylistic labels, idealistically appealing. I’ve written about this at length in Miles Ornette Cecil - Jazz Beyond Jazz (which, by the way, is currently on sale, hardcover for 85% off!)

Background: In my late teens I liked Ornette’s albums of original songs recorded with his brilliant quartet in ‘59 - The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century and This is Our Music - and was entranced by Free Jazz, his double quartet with my reeds hero Eric Dolphy. But my real breakthrough in appreciation of Ornette arrived with his ambitious, genre-defying album Science Fiction. Ever since, I’ve been attentive to his works breaking from instrumental group conventions.

Ornette attempted to explore and expand in every direction what he was first introduced to by Gunther Schuller as “Third Stream” but eventually conceived for himself as “harmolodics.” His efforts as recorded are of mixed interest. The compositions on Jazz Abstractions are by Schuller, but Ornette blows hard — and hear him duet with Dolphy playing flute “Variations on a Theme of Thelonius Monk (Criss Cross),” Variant IV). Forms and Sounds with and for the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet is less compelling than his transcriptions for strings on Alice Coltrane’s Universal Consciousness or his under-rated Chappaqua Suite for studio orchestra and trio plus Pharaoh Sanders.

Prime Design, for Denardo and string quartet, is among the best, but try to find it.

I was lucky to attend the performance that piece, in the Cactus Dome of Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as the first performance of Ornette’s symphonic concerto grosso, Skies of America, with the Fort Worth Symphony under direction of John Giordano; and to hear it again and in New York City, the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur. But in Paris, Denardo Coleman, Ornette’s son and drummer with him since age 10 (he’s now 69) has taken a giant step towards realizing just such a grand unity of soloist(s)-band-orchestra-rhythm. It was inspiring, enthralling and energizing to me — all that good stuff. Here are photos and a video clip Denardo produced, promising more to come.

width=”100%” height=”352” frameBorder=”0” allowfullscreen=”“ allow=”autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture” loading=”lazy”></iframe>

Sona Jobarteh is the first woman to be recognized as a griot in Gambia.

1. in 2025 I’ve finished a draft of my second novel, swum throughout summer in the Olympic pool nearby, danced with my daughter at her two fabulous wedding ceremonies, had a short story wait-listed and published at JerryJazzMusician.com and have written three others, had two successful (minor) maintenance surgeries, have advanced work on the Jazz Institute of Chicago archives, wrote about the 60th anniversary of the AACM and Chicago music thriving despite government thugs harrassing the city, moderated a podcast about jazz and organizing for social change with Terri Lyne Carrington, Marc Ribot and Orbert Davis, and have prepared the Jazz Journalists Association for my retirement after 32 years as pres. Next year may be even better.