Ramblin

Ornette Coleman (alto sax), Don Cherry (pocket trumpet), Charlie Haden (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). From the album Change of the Century (1960).

This album was regarded by Lou Reed as the best ever. The second album of Ornette Coleman’s mythical quartet follows the same steps as the previous one, showing a group with more and more confidence in its revolutionary proposal and in the rapport  of the members of the group. When Coleman concentrates on the melody, his compositions are more attractive, and when he accentuates group interplay, improvisation is freer.

Coleman was often underrated for not having the same instrumental technique and harmonic vocabulary as his predecessors, but his exceptional sensitivity and expression was above all else. Maybe that’s why Change of the Century emerges with such urgency and exuberance, as Coleman was releasing all the ideas and emotions that had been restricted by tradition. That vitality turns this album into an essential purchase and, like The Shape of Jazz to Come, in one of the most outstanding records of Coleman’s career.

This is a funky, swinging theme that Coleman and Cherry play in unison. Its melody is full of blazing energy. Coleman comes in with a lively and optimistic rendition of inspired and convincing phrases while Haden introduces walking at certain times. He is followed by Cherry, who displays a speech not so enthusiastic, but well conceived and eloquent. Next arrives Haden playing with double notes a harmonious and charming solo. Lastly, the group re-exposes the theme, Coleman and Cherry enter into a dialogue and at the end they repeat a sentence of the theme.