ornettology
listen kid -- if you weren't at sardines (website still down, guh) tonight, you missed the best night o' music in the fort this year. i shit you not. that'd be dave williams' ornettology, playing the music of native fort worth son ornette coleman. the band -- daver on tenor 'n' alto saxes and chris white on trumpet 'n' flute, along with the flipside trio riddim section of fort worth symphony assistant principal bassist paul unger and drummer dennis durick -- focused on ornette's early work (his two albs on the cali-based contemporary label and the first three epochal atlantics) as lovingly transcribed by daver over the last coupla months. "a rehearsal would have been nice," chris white opined, but these cats are saturated enough with ornette's song that it woulda been redundant.
the first set was wish fulfillment incarnate as they essayed the bona fide coleman classics "ramblin'" (with unger staying close to the charlie haden bass solo that inspahrd ian dury's "sex & drugs & rock & roll") and "lonely woman," and rendered "blues connotation" in the manner of trane with elvin ca. '61. in general, they hewed to the spirit of the 'riginals rather than the letter, which meant that daver played a lot of tenor, chris soloed on flute as often as trumpet, paul bowed some of his walking lines a la david izenzon and dennis made his drums as organic an extension of self as higgins 'n' blackwell at their most free. ornettology achieved transcendence in their second set, after receiving the enthusiastic huzzahs of the assembled jazz cognoscenti, taking full possession of the material, finding the gutbucket shuffle implicit in "the blessing," and closing with "una muy bonita." personal high point: watching chris white _leaning into_ his solos and dancing to durick and unger's alchemy, caught up in the spirit of the music.
then dennis durick (is there a more inventive, swinging jazz drummer in the metromess? i think not) headed off to sit in with the jazzcats at 6th street live, while paul unger retreated to la casa to spend some time with his parents (in from oregon). also in the house: bassist extraordinaire brandon nelson, who now plays with an army band in new york; guitarist keith wingate, who's been sittin' in some with jhon kahsen of late; and jhon himself, who promised that sardines will be hosting a tribute to saxophonist rachella parks, a "guitar night," and a "women in jazz" night in addition to an encore performance by ornettology. daver promises more gigs, and i understand that the evening's proceedings were digitally recorded. all for the good: this band needs to be heard more.
the first set was wish fulfillment incarnate as they essayed the bona fide coleman classics "ramblin'" (with unger staying close to the charlie haden bass solo that inspahrd ian dury's "sex & drugs & rock & roll") and "lonely woman," and rendered "blues connotation" in the manner of trane with elvin ca. '61. in general, they hewed to the spirit of the 'riginals rather than the letter, which meant that daver played a lot of tenor, chris soloed on flute as often as trumpet, paul bowed some of his walking lines a la david izenzon and dennis made his drums as organic an extension of self as higgins 'n' blackwell at their most free. ornettology achieved transcendence in their second set, after receiving the enthusiastic huzzahs of the assembled jazz cognoscenti, taking full possession of the material, finding the gutbucket shuffle implicit in "the blessing," and closing with "una muy bonita." personal high point: watching chris white _leaning into_ his solos and dancing to durick and unger's alchemy, caught up in the spirit of the music.
then dennis durick (is there a more inventive, swinging jazz drummer in the metromess? i think not) headed off to sit in with the jazzcats at 6th street live, while paul unger retreated to la casa to spend some time with his parents (in from oregon). also in the house: bassist extraordinaire brandon nelson, who now plays with an army band in new york; guitarist keith wingate, who's been sittin' in some with jhon kahsen of late; and jhon himself, who promised that sardines will be hosting a tribute to saxophonist rachella parks, a "guitar night," and a "women in jazz" night in addition to an encore performance by ornettology. daver promises more gigs, and i understand that the evening's proceedings were digitally recorded. all for the good: this band needs to be heard more.
posted by stashdauber at 8:12 PM
1 Comments:
don't even rub it in.
i finished my reading @ Paperbacks Plus with a tremendous headache.
wanted to hustle back to Sardine's for the show, but with my body shutdown i opted to s l o w
things down and crashed in dallas.
maybe i hear the recording sometime.
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