Jazz Workshop: For Ornette Coleman on his 78th Birthday - Page 3

Yet another contradiction? Well, perhaps it’s just an indication that Blue Note was willing in 1968 to release even the dregs of a recording session. But I like to think of it as emblematic of what your music is really about: possibility. The possibility of music, of the artist, of the beholder.

That’s what we learn from the Harmolodic Theory that you so rejoice in: about the possibilities of all of these things, rolled into one. Ethan Iverson from the Bad Plus explained it the best: Harmolodics is about the potential of every performer to make a composition his own, in the sense of improvising one’s own rhythm, melody, harmony, even arrangement. What I’m not sure he captures is the creative joy, the imagination, that you embody in playing music with that sense of pliability.

But that, of course, is what we celebrate in your work. And in you.

For that reason, Ornette, more than any of the other, equally laudatory things, I celebrate you today. Though your mortality remains on my mind--and doubtlessly, let's face it, yours too--today should really be about your immortality. And it is.

Happy 78th birthday. May the joy you’ve felt, expressed, and imparted on all of us continue. May it be reflected on you. May you, and we, continue to inspire each other to new heights of wonder.

You were right. Beauty is a rare thing. How do you make it seem so common?

See you in a few weeks.

Mike

Article Author: Michael J. West

Michael J. West is a writer, editor, and dilettante jazz critic in Washington, D.C. In addition to BlogCritics, he writes for JazzTimes, Washington City Paper, and AllAboutJazz.com. He occasionally writes at Pop Musicology, too. He's very cute. …

Visit Michael J. West's author page — Michael J. West's Blog