Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

The revolution will be supervised.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

A consequence of cucumbers

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are here: Home / Music / Ornette Coleman RIP

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20Comments

  3. 3.

    Brachiator

    “Una Muy Bonita,” great choice.

    Ornette, Don Cherry on pocket trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, Billy Higgins on drums

    Learned a lot from Haden talking about playing with Coleman:

    “Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry & Billy Higgins and I were lucky enough to have met at the same time as we were feeling the same way about music and that feeling was to play music as if we were hearing it for the first time and creating a new chord structure as we improvised…playing with Ornette was a learning experience, definitely. I had to really listen to everything that he played because he was always modulating from one key to another and I was the only chordal instrument in the band. There was no piano or guitar playing chords and so I had to play chords in my basslines and learn how to create new chord structures. It was a great band.”

  4. 4.

    J

    One of the greatest of them all, and an artist who followed his own completely distinctive muse. He will be missed.

  5. 5.

    burnspbesq

    One of the greats. His music could be difficult to get into (I’d venture to guess that more people have heard Pat Metheny’s version of “Lonely Woman” than any of Ornette’s recordings), but the effort was richly rewarded.

  6. 6.

    Howlin Wolfe

    I was in the subway in NYC in 1980, and Ornette came walking my way. I immediately recognized him from the album covers I have in my collection of LPs. Without thinking, just said out loud, as if he were a friend of mine, “Ornette!”. He looked me like “who the hell is this?”, so I just said I really like his playing and shook his hand. He said “thank you” in that high-pitched voice of his, and went on his way. Later that week (I was there for the Kool Jazz Festival, which say Ornette and Miles Davis come out of multi-year retirements to play there), I heard Ornette’s quartet with Jamaladeed Takumah on bass, and Denardo Coleman on drums.

    He and I also share a birthday, March 9. RIP, fellow Pisces. Wish I could play saxophone as well as you did, Ornette.

  7. 7.

    Ajabu

    I know this is not an Open Thread but this is appropriate:
    Craig Herndon, drummer in my first band in College (Berklee-Boston) died Monday of Prostate Cancer.
    I knew Craig for 52 years. He was an extraordinary musician but, more importantly, he was the most gentle soul I’ve ever known. And always interested in everyone else’s issues. When my wife’s mother died in 1999 Craig spent hours on the phone with her stabilizing her trauma. And at that point, he barely knew her. That was just his personality. In over a half century of friendship I never heard him raise his voice in anger, Never once. An incredible person.He’d always reason with adversaries and win them over.
    He never became famous (in spite of his skill) because he was just about the music.
    I’m so glad I knew him and wanted you all to know him, too.
    I’ll go find some 40+ year old tape and post up some music soon.
    He wasn’t into Invisible Sky Fairies so all the recognition of his passing will be friends. There were many.
    Listent to some 60s Jazz and raise a glass to Craig Herndon, Human being extraodinaire!

  8. 8.

    bystander

    When I read that both Ron Moody and Christopher Lee had passed away, I of course thought of The Rule of Three.

  12. 12.

    Gin & Tonic

    As I remarked in an earlier thread, when Coleman put out an album entitled “The Shape of Jazz to Come”, he had the chops to make that title sound not like hubris, but like a matter of fact.

  18. 18.

    Arclite

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    I’m sad about Christopher Lee, but he had outlived most of his closest friends, so I may be more sad than he may have been.

    He may have been sadder. For what is life without friends?

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @Ajabu: Beautiful tribute to your friend, a fine soul. RIP Craig Herndon.

    I will raise a glass to him tonight but — goddamn! — too many to raise a glass to tonight. Haven’t seen Christopher Lee’s more recent star turns, but he was good in the Hammer films, and seems not to have taken himself too seriously.

    Ornette Coleman: too soon, after BBKing in recent weeks.

    Rest and godspeed, gentlemen.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    @Howlin Wolfe: Like your story. How cool to have met him.

    Remind us on March 9th and we will raise a glass to you and Ornette. (Balloon Juice. Some of us still like to drink! And a toast with a glass of ginger ale or soda is still a glass raised.)

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