Experimental Jazz Performance - Essay Example

Performance Ornette Coleman: Bonnaroo 2007 This experimental jazz performance occurred at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. Ornette Coleman was featured in this festival along with a series of high name performers, that included David Cross, the Police, Tool, Wilco, and the Flaming Lips. I think it’s notable that Ornette Coleman was one of the only recognized ‘jazz musicians’ at the packed lineup. After listening to his set I feel like the title of the album that made him originally famous, The Shape of Jazz to Come, seems incredibly prophetic in light of his continued relevance. The seventy-seven year old Ornette Coleman takes the stage with his classic alto-saxophone, donning a distinct looking yellow suit, black top hot, and purple stripe shirt to great crowd acclaim. After a pause for the uproarious applause, Coleman leans into the microphone and says, “I’d like to thank everyone for standing, living, breathing, doing.” And then exclaims to the audience that, “Everything you want to do you should do tonight.” The speech takes me away to a dream-like imaginative world where only Coleman’s music resides, as the set takes off with “Follow the Sound” -- a song of Coleman’s new Sound of Grammar album. He is accompanied by a band that includes a drummer, a bassist, and a cello player. As the song begins, I hear Coleman’s classic alto-saxophone pierce through the crowd noises and meander through a sound distinctly Coleman-esque. In many ways it makes me recollects the saxophone excellence of a John Coltrane on A Love Supreme as Coleman makes his way up and down scales with great alacrity. While many casual observers in the audience assuredly wonder why there is such fanfare for Coleman and question when the melody will finally occur, I definitely appreciate the unique and important stylings of the avant-garde artist. While Coleman rarely settles on a distinct melody, the sound he produces throughout the set sounds fresh to me. I am used to listening to classic jazz such as Miles Davis and the sometimes caustic, but always original sounds of Coleman are a fresh and welcomed change from the gentrified efforts of more traditional artists. I have to question whether the festival atmosphere is the best venue to appreciate Coleman’s music. While the alto-saxophone and drums pierce throughout the audience, I feel their mediation through amplifiers dilutes the sound quality; for music as intricate and poignant as Coleman’s, it’s ultimately the quality of instrumental tough, the quick turn of melody or drum beat that is most valued, and that is lost for the sake of projection to a mass audience. Coleman continued his set by incorporating some older songs. The effect was stunning. I became engaged and the music took on a communal, allaying some of the deficiencies experienced by such a large show. The musicians began to share a number of grooves – blues, be-bop, classic jazz, and calypso grooves – and then set into an improvisational style that challenged me to follow the melody and pay attention to the shifts in mood. I felt cerebral. Finally, Coleman and the band launched into a bluesy sounding song called “Turnaround.” It was a sinuous song that meandered about until Coleman launched into a series of spasmodic melodies that startled me and made me feel like someone was screaming. Coleman and the band appeared to become fully-engaged in the set and a moment of union occurred between the band, the audience, and the electric music dancing throughout the night’s air. It felt transcendent and uplifting. The entirety of the set felt sometimes dream-like and sometimes purposely challenging to my traditional concepts of musicality. As I listened, I felt I had to use my mind to gain a better appreciation for what he was trying to accomplish. Performance 2 Sun Ra: Live at Chicago Jazz Festival, 1981 This performance occurs in 1981 at the Chicago Jazz Festival and features famed experimental jazz musician Sun Ra, with an accompanying orchestra – or Arkestra, or Sun Ra refers to them. Emerging in 1956, Sun Ra was a prolific artist who released nearly an album a year well through the 1980s, making his discography gigantic. While Sun Ra is recognized as an innovate genius, his eccentric career and performances led him to be oftentimes cast as a gimmick artist. His performances consisted of elaborate costumes and oftentimes odd characters acting out circus like acts, such as spinning plates. After watching this 1981 performance at the Chicago Jazz Festival, I felt many of the same things past audiences have noted. Sun Ra enters the stage wearing an elaborate purple outfit. It can only be described as tribal garb and when he extends his arms it extends like a gigantic cape. His orchestra is featured on a slightly raised stage behind him and they are all wearing bright gold outfits and hats that seemingly contain antennas. It gave me the impression that they are intended to be a hive of bees and Sun Ra the Queen bee, as he conducts the orchestra and intermittently interjects with experimental sounds. I immediately felt transported to an imaginary world unlike traditional jazz concerts. Sun Ra instructs the orchestra to sit down and all but one are seated. The remaining member remains standing and launches into a solo on the saxophone. As the orchestra member flails his hands up and down the saxophone the effect isn’t so much musical as it is performative. I felt like the sounds he produced resembled something you might hear in a jungle. Coupled with the tribal garb, the performance gave me the experience of primitive urges and primal noises. It’s not so much a concert as it is an intense inner-feeling. The soloing saxophonist sits down and the band then launches into a series of spasmodic, start and stop bursts of sound. I felt immediately startled and a bit on edge. Sun Ra begins to conduct them and then begins stomping in syncopation with the sounds. He slowly turns around and begins stomping with melodramatic aplomb and the band matches his rhythm. The effect felt wholly unique as it incorporated performative dance and body movement along with the music. The way it involves the entire body and all the senses was infectious to me. I felt like I was experiencing more than just another band play, and was being extolled to join into an entirely new method of thought. Eventually, two members from the orchestra leave their seats and begin to dance along with Sun Ra. While they sometimes make an effort to play their saxophones, they are more seemingly used as a prop and they shiny gold color matches the bright gold that the bands members are costumed in. It felt more cerebral than visceral. As they swung the saxophones around and danced, I felt almost as if I was witnessing a hybrid form of construction of man and instrument, a new form of music and new form of being. The band members finish spinning their instruments and rolling around on the ground and float back to their positions within the orchestra. Sun Ra conducts the band through another few moments that sounded cacophonous to me and then they suddenly stop. One saxophonist continues playing. I felt that the juxtaposition of the orchestra and the quick transition to the solo saxophone created a startling and melodic effect. Sun Ra conducted the saxophonists as he continues to reach higher octaves. I felt like he had abandoned any traditional form of musicality and was attempting to speak or cry out through his instrument. The higher octaves sounded to me like a screaming child, or scared animal in the jungle being torn apart by lions. It continues until reaching a climactic ending as the drums join in and finishes out the set. Read More