![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1mhod7LTXHkueNW_v6kDy8VmzpUSw7LXHbXayd75M8GUGKU6mW_PS2OS5K3k9LpkpJeQskRKz3uEsTddZkF0AHu1EiLZpe20RQokRwHnVMJia0KIwLEs_odtvE_80M4qWrs46_s171PlW/s200/polckwhi.jpg)
Ma allora … niente armonia, quindi niente accordi classici, niente tonalità … ognuno suona quello che gli pare in qualunque momento: un gran caos? >>
<<In Coleman’s idea does not exist a real “theme”, and the solos are not set on melodic or harmonic variations: the music flows free, without limitation, all only depends on musician’s prompt creativity. Another important aspect: each component of the band can be soloist or accompanist at the same time, without distinction, nor roles and hierarchies. The melody may be proposed by the sax, the trumpet, but also by the bass or drums. But then ... no harmony, no classical arrangements, no tonality... each one plays what he wants at any time: a big mess?>>
Uno dei pochi veri manifesti musicali degli ultimi 50 anni, Free Jazz ne fu anche uno dei più rigorosi e fortunati. Portavoce di un’avanguardia apparentemente ostica e scontrosa, in realtà allegra, fantasiosa e “democratica”. Fu partorito dalla mente dell’altoista Ornette Coleman che già da alcuni anni era alla ribalta della scena con il suo giovane quartetto, musicisti agguerriti e trasgressivi nella proposta, avversati da buona parte dell’establishment, ciò non di meno decisi a perseguire i propri obiettivi. Quelli di Coleman erano pochi, apparentemente semplici, ma di portata sconvolgente: saranno tutti sublimati in questo suo capolavoro.
Primo fra tutti: la disgregazione dell’armonia e delle rigide regole di composizione che da essa derivano. Poi il superamento, o la semplice non curanza, del sistema tonale. Non è poco se consideriamo che tonalità e armonia sono state le colonne d’Ercole della musica occidentale degli ultimi secoli. In un contesto “alto” qualcosa del genere, seppur con un’impostazione molto più rigorosa e completa, fu tento da Schönberg e Berg nei primi decenni del ‘900 con la proposta dodecafonica.
Restando in ambito Jazz, Coleman si impegna anche a trovare un nuovo modo di costruire il brano musicale; pur nelle sue mille sfumature e raffinatezze, il Jazz della fine degli anni ’50 era ancora generalmente impostato attorno ad un tema, alla sua esposizione corale e ad un certo numero di sue variazioni, operate dai solisti supportati da un accompagnamento ritmico. Nell’idea di Coleman non esiste un tema vero e proprio e gli assoli non sono impostati su variazioni melodiche o armoniche: la musica fluisce libera, senza limitazioni, tutto dipende solo dalla creatività immediata del musicista. Altro aspetto non secondario: ogni componente del complesso può essere solista o accompagnatore allo stesso tempo, senza distinzioni, ruoli e tantomeno gerarchie. La melodia può essere proposta dal sax, dalla tromba ma anche dal contrabbasso o dalla batteria.
Ma allora … niente armonia, quindi niente accordi classici, niente tonalità … ognuno suona quello che gli pare in qualunque momento: un gran caos?
No, si tratta di riconsiderare aspetti della musica a cui il pubblico è talmente abituato da esserne assuefatto al punto di non vedere altre soluzioni possibili al suono “armonico e intonato”; e del resto anche gli eroi classici erano “belli e buoni”. Le arti figurative, dal canto loro, già da cinquant’anni avevano superato il concetto di riproduzione fedele della realtà, delle forme, dei colori. Mondrian, Picasso, Mirò hanno dimostrato come si possano dipingere idee, emozioni, stati d’animo, il fluire del tempo, invece dei tradizionali paesaggi, scene sacre o nature morte. Non per caso sulla copertina del disco è riprodotto “White Light” di Jackson Pollock, con il suo frantumarsi su fondo bianco …
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDKpb2H2Vq3vq_T_lIPO4T_8Z0JhUodMkk1LHjG9-WzrJsrcAzZfCl5A-lbFwq5Ml9tOfISE_1LmxzNy7i6uzQ6N11IP6T1h2MSyiSFiPZy5YkCfjT36hh8da_oKWEjApaExadQtGNzrO/s200/jazz_ornette_coleman.jpeg)
Tutti questi concetti trovano in Free Jazz una delle loro migliori realizzazioni. E allora cos’è Free Jazz?
E’ un’improvvisazione collettiva, come dice il sottotitolo, per doppio quartetto; e qui c’è un colpo di genio: non c’è un solo complesso libero di suonare, ma ce ne sono addirittura due che, sfruttando la novità dello stereo, suonano uno nel canale sinistro, uno in quello destro. Jazz al quadrato. I quartetti si rimbalzano idee, frasi musicali, contrapponendo o parafrasando suoni e melodie l’un l’altro. 8 musicisti suonano assieme nello stesso luogo, nello stesso momento seguendo un’impostazione condivisa e accattivante. E gli 8 musicisti in questione erano il gotha della nuova generazione, capitanati da Coleman e Dolphy, tutti entusiasticamente compresi nel progetto.
Entriamo maggiormente nel merito della musica, sfruttando la precisa analisi che fa Martin Williams nelle liner notes dell’edizione in CD. Scopriremo che quello che in apparenza ci pare caos primordiale è in realtà un unico lungo brano di 37’, equamente diviso sulle due facciate del LP originale. Le uniche sezioni scritte (o almeno abbozzate) sono i collettivi che fungono da cerniera tra le diverse parti solistiche. Qui tutti gli otto musicisti suonano in ciò che Coleman chiama “Harmonic hunison”: ogni ottone ha la sua nota, ma queste sono tanto distanziate (so spaced) da suonare non come armonia ma come unisono. Come sempre con Ornette Coleman, la musica funziona meglio delle parole …
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrEteem6NbIgrKjg6tvhifXnYGz2Dr1qJ0t9DxVB5Bl3MxjoHkodIXiZdkcs5233mnlbGluaNyYTnB5JOuTbxh17X_KZfgfDpHbpBQyTEZrUuQGk6LpXRwN4Fmw8JypqyoFQOIEClX1Oy/s200/29353282.jpg)
One of the few true musical “manifesto” in the last 50 years, Free Jazz, was also one of the most rigorous and successful. Spokesman of a vanguard seemingly intractable and sullen, really cheerful, imaginative and "democratic". It was born from the mind of altoist Ornette Coleman already in the forefront with his young quartet, aggressive and transgressive musicians, opposed by much of the establishment, nevertheless determined to pursue its objectives. Those of Coleman were few, seemingly simple, but shocking in significance: they will all be sublimated in this masterpiece.
First of all: the disintegration of the harmony and the strict rules of composition that derive from it. Then the overcoming, or the simple carelessness, of the tonal system. It is not little account if we consider that tonality and harmony were the Pillars of Hercules of the last centuries of Western music. In a "high" context something like this, albeit with a much more rigorous and complete approach, was tempted by Schönberg and Berg with the dodecaphonic theory in the early decades of the 900.
Staying in the Jazz, Coleman also undertake to finding a new way to build the song: even in its many nuances and subtleties, the Jazz of the late '50s was still generally set around a “theme”, its choral “exposure” and a certain number of variations, made by soloists backed by a rhythmic section. In Coleman’s idea does not exist a real “theme”, and the solos are not set on melodic or harmonic variations: the music flows free, without limitation, all only depends on musician’s prompt creativity. Another important aspect: each component of the band can be soloist or accompanist at the same time, without distinction, nor roles and hierarchies. The melody may be proposed by the sax, the trumpet, but also by the bass or drums.
But then ... no harmony, no classical arrangements, no tonality... each one plays what he wants at any time: a big mess?
No, it is to reconsider some music’s aspects to which the public is so accustomed, to being addicted to the point of not seeing other possible solutions to sound "balanced and tuned”; and the rest also classical Heroes were "good and beautiful". The visual arts, for their part, already fifty years ago, had passed the concept of faithful reproduction of reality, shapes and colors. Mondrian, Picasso, Miro has shown how it can paints ideas, emotions, moods, the flow of time, instead of the traditional landscapes, religious scenes and still lifes. Not by chance, on the album cover, is print Jackson Pollock's White Light, with its shattering on a white background ...
Also, it is not entirely true that each player has total freedom. It’s not so much a matter of “free”, but of “freer”; to be freer than it was in the past. A concept that, for the early 60's black community, came to have even a social and political weight. There is, for the free-Jazz improviser, a kind of uncertainty principle, so the music is not forced on the tracks of tonality, harmony and time, but hangs in a "cloud of possibly solutions" such as Heisenberg’s electron.
All these concepts find in Free Jazz one of their best achievements. So what’s Free Jazz?
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIhuqjMXWGRSUkPmU_qj_dc6QzZCNw4bBYs85eg7S05i0pkalyjF5n2DmlA8j3smXWhm4lgf-oe0D7q32IBnMFz9i-Nto8F5WW21UEDFCtq2BAWPVFe7CKwRSW2KOLpKMg97wJNQ8_dHyc/s200/Ornette+Coleman+The+Shape.jpg)
We go more to the point of music, thanks the precise analysis write by Martin Williams in the liner notes of CD edition. We will discover that, what apparently seems primordial chaos, is actually one long piece of 37 ', equally divided on both sides of the original LP. The only sections written (or at least sketched) are collectives that act as a hinge between the different leads. Here, all eight musicians play in what Coleman calls "Harmonic unison" ; here any reeds has its note, but these are “so spaced” to play not as harmonious but as a unison. As always with Ornette Coleman, the music works better than words ...
The A side of the LP is characterized by the reeds solo sections, each about 5 minutes long, almost double for the two leaders Coleman and Dolphy; in order propose a solo: Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet, Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, then Ornette Coleman on alto sax. Side B opens with the Don Cherry’s solo on pocket trumpet. The important thing in the altoist project was that "When the soloist played something that suggested a musical idea or direction to me, I played that behind him in my style". This is perhaps the heart of Free Jazz: the immediate response to emotions and feelings that a certain musical phrase evokes in the other instrumentalists, a game of free association, a charade that could goes on to infinite. As noted by Martin Williams, a kind of polyphony based, inter alia, on a basic emotional component. And that is exactly what happens! The soloist begins his section, accompanied by bass and drums of his own quartet, but also, indirectly, by components of the "opposite" band; during the show of his solo, the musicians begin to enter in the discourse, to paraphrase, to counterpoint, repeating the phrases of the soloist. With this general background the record does not slide into anarchy or never transcends the limits of the listen capacity. Take only the Cherry’s solo that opens the B Side: after about a minute alone with bassists and drummers, Coleman took over; at this point the "right" quartet moves with Hubbard first, then with Dolphy‘s nervous counterpoint on the low register of bass clarinet; in the meantime the trumpet player continues undeterred and even leads the free "choir" that just bring back to its solo. The share of penetration, of reaction, collision, of partnership between the two quartets are the musical climax of the album, which is closely built upon the music’s flow and reflow. One of the highest points is the end of side A, in the shared section lead by Coleman. After the fantastic sax solo, stolen from a nursery rhyme in the street, all the "magnificent 8" are engaged in a thrilling clash; Coleman comments "You can hear the others continue to build together so beautifully that the freedom even becomes impersonal."
GO TO 2° PART
4 commenti:
I don’t ordinarily comment but I gotta admit thankyou for the post on this great one : D.
Cool:) I would say say it exploded my brain..!
Non è possibile che su questo bel post appaiano solo due commenti!
grazie Evil.
E' un post molto datato....ogni tanto mi viene voglia di riproporre i primissimi post, di 2 anni e mezzo fa, passati comprensobilmente 'sotto silenzio')
Posta un commento