ornettology aftermath

after hearing dave williams' ornettology playing the tunes "the blessing" and "when will the blues leave," i find myself going back and listening to the ornette solos from these tunes excerpted on the bad plus' blog. while both pieces were originally released on ornette's debut elpee something else back in 1958, i first heard 'em in the mid-'70s in versions recorded live at the hillcrest club in l.a., which are the same ones you can hear on the blog. the advantage to the hillcrest sessions is they feature the "classic" coleman quartet (cherry, haden, higgins) along with pianist paul bley (in fact, one of the albums i had was released under bley's name), while something else featured less sympathetic accompanists. i understand that this material has just been released on cd for the first time by some spanish label. it's interesting to hear how fully-formed o.c.'s concept was at this early juncture in his career. even when he plays songs with chord changes (like parker's "klactoveesedstene"), he sounds like himself.