John Litweiler's biography of Ornette Coleman is a short introduction to the life and works of a major figure in the development of jazz after bebop. As such, it is a worthy read and effort to chronicle his life from his Texas childhood to his career in the 1990s. Of course, like Carr's biography of Keith Jarrett, Litweiler's book is not the most objective overview of Coleman's music. In the introduction, Litweiler makes it clear that he sees Ornette as one of the four major figures in the history of jazz, alongside Buddy Bolden, Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. Undoubtedly, Coleman was a major figure in the development of free jazz, but it is not entirely clear how Coleman becomes more seminal than, say, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, or the AACM-affiliated artists out of Chicago. Nonetheless, this leads to the predictable result in which nearly every Coleman recording is praised as exemplary or significant.
At its best, Litweiler's biography should be read with Spellman's Four Lives in the Bebop Business. Litweiler draws on Spellman's important chapter on Coleman, while adding additional layers of detail for Coleman's early life and musical career in periods after 1966. For instance, we learn of the great impact of Coleman's Texas upbringing on his future sidemen, such as Dewey Redman and Charles Moffett, who all grew up in Fort Worth with him. Some of the deep influences of blues and R&B on a young Coleman also become more apparent, just as the the Jim Crow setting limited opportunities for Coleman to be an individual and express himself musically. Coleman's time with a minstrel group in the South and playing in New Orleans are also more interesting than I have realized in the past. For instance, the deep immersion of Ornette's drummer, Ed Blackwell, in New Orleans drumming traditions came about through Paul Barbarin's tutoring of Blackwell. Even more surprisingly, Coleman also played with the father of Wynton Marsalis, Ellis, despite the lack of interest in Coleman's modern jazz in New Orleans.
Coleman's LA years also suggest the importance of California for jazz. Despite the association of the west coast with cool jazz, it becomes clear how a number of innovators were already experimenting and establishing new styles in LA before moving to New York to establish themselves in the jazz capital of the world. It was in LA that Coleman's style began to consolidate (though early on in Texas and the South he was already seen as playing "out there" or "improperly") as he gradually acquired a band (Don Cherry, introduced to him through wife Jayne Cortez, was perhaps his best musical partner). Indeed, according to Eric Dolphy, by 1954 Ornette had already established his unique style on alto saxophone. However, as a black musician attempting something new, he faced adversity from other musicians, racism from bigoted cops in the San Fernando Valley when he ventured to clubs there, and the travails of finding work outside music to support himself. His "big break" eventually came through at the Hillcrest Club engagement of Paul Bley, bringing himself, Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. His first two LPs, with Contemporary Records, established him as a unique composer and soloist, making the trip to New York City almost inevitable after switching to Atlantic.
The remainder of the biography covers responses to Coleman's music in New York, his influence on Coltrane and the explosion of free jazz in the 1960s and 1970s, his frequent changes in band lineup, and his various ventures in composing, demanding higher fees for performances, recording. Litweiler does analyze some of the shifts in Coleman's sound as his solos by the mid-1960s were more slice of life. Like Mingus, Coleman encountered the same problem of being taken as a serious composer while economic necessity forced him to perform in nightclubs for disrespectful audiences. This is certainly one of the reasons Coleman started Artists House, and became a fixture of sorts of the New York arts and loft jazz scene. But precarious financial standing and his desire to reach a larger audience forced Coleman to continue recording, and his curiosity led to different types of bands (Prime Time, a fusion band) or third stream ventures to have his symphonic pieces performed. Whatever one makes of Coleman's harmolodics or improvisations on trumpet and violin is still up in the air, though Litweiler is full of praise for the airy quality of Coleman's trumpet. Even Litweiler doesn't define harmolodics, which may connote more of a feeling rather than a theory of music. No one really knows what harmolodics are. Even the question of atonality or pantonality is not quite clear in Coleman's oeuvre, as Russell's concept of the latter may be more applicable.
Perhaps subsequent biographies of Coleman will cover his 1970s-1990s depth and life in more detail, in particular albums given short treatment by Litweiler. I would have loved to read more about Coleman the person in his later years, as his reputation was firmly established and he was known globally. What would Coleman have made of the state of jazz in the 2010s? The disconnect between black jazz innovators and black audiences during the zenith of free jazz? Coleman personally knew Anthony Braxton and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, but what did he make of the AACM's belief in community performances and arts in the Windy City? Was he still interested in non-Western music's way of relating to audiences, of which he only found a semblance in the church music he heard while growing up? Many aspects of his life and work remain to be studied.
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