Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Focus on Sanity
2. Chronology
3. Peace
4. Congeniality
5. Lonely Woman
6. Monk and the Nun
7. Just for You
8. Eventually
9. Una Muy Bonita
10. Bird Food
11. Change of the Century
12. Music Always

Disc 2:

1. Face of the Bass
2. Forerunner
3. Free
4. Circle With a Hole in the Middle
5. Ramblin'
6. Little Symphony
7. Tribes of New York
8. Kaleidoscope
9. Rise and Shine
10. Mr. and Mrs. People
11. Blues Connotation
12. I Heard It Over the Radio

Disc 3:

1. P.S. Unless One Has (Blues Connotation No. 2)
2. Revolving Doors
3. Brings Goodness
4. Joy of a Toy
5. To Us
6. Humpty Dumpty
7. Fifth of Beethoven
8. Motive for Its Use
9. Moon Inhabitants
10. Legend of Bebop
11. Some Other
12. Embraceable You
13. All

Disc 4:

1. Folk Tale
2. Poise
3. Beauty Is a Rare Thing
4. First Take
5. Free Jazz

Disc 5:

1. Proof Readers
2. W.R.U.
3. Check Up
4. T. & T.
5. C. & D.
6. R.P.D.D.
7. Alchemy of Scott Lafaro

Disc 6:

1. Eos
2. Enfant
3. Ecars
4. Cross Breeding
5. Harlem's Manhattan
6. Mapa
7. Abstraction
8. Variants on a Theme of Thelonious Monk (Criss-Cross): Variant I; ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45960 in Music
• Brand: Coleman
• Released on: 1993-11-16
• Number of discs: 6
• Format: Box set

Amazon.com essential recording
The opportunity to possess--in one convenient package--every recording Ornette Coleman made for Atlantic is an opportunity most fans of modern jazz would be hard pressed to turn down. (It must be noted, however, that many jazz fans would have a very easy time turning down anything Ornette recorded, thank you very much). But for Coleman fans, this collection is an embarrassment of riches. Arranged chronologically by recording date, the set collects music from 1959 to 1961, the period many consider Ornette's most vital. Included are sessions from Free Jazz, Ornette!, The Shape of Jazz to Come, Twins, The Art of the Improvisers, Change of the Century, To Whom Who Keeps a Record, and This Is Our Music. As a bonus, producers have also included a handful of previously unreleased tracks. Packaged with gorgeous photos, terrific liner notes from Robert Palmer, as well as copious discographic information, Beauty is a terrific package. As for the music, the recordings are clean, with excellent stereo separation (usually featuring Ornette in one channel and pocket trumpeter Don Cherry in another). But what really sets this collection apart is how clearly the spirit of the music is visible. Beauty bristles with that coiled, edge-of-the-chair excitement that Ornette could so easily summon, capture, and manipulate. And while Coleman's horn playing here is genuinely pulse-quickening and vital, what also emerges from this set is the strength of his band. While Ornette was tensed and ready to pounce, the more esoteric Cherry was able to float and drift with the currents of music's emotion. Behind them, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Ed Blackwell could roar like an open-throttle race car or purr like an idling sedan. But no matter what speed, this is music that gives the listener the impression it is going somewhere. And, of course, for Ornette Coleman, the destination isn't the point, it's the journey. S. Duda

Amazon.com
The most astonishing thing about hearing Ornette Coleman's Atlantic recordings today is how accessible they seem. Back in the early '60s, when they were first released with immodest titles like "Change of the Century" and "The Shape of Jazz to Come," all we could hear was the way the alto saxophonist and his quartet felt free to disregard the usual bounds of keys and measures in their solos. Because Coleman's music was, in fact, the shape of jazz to come, his innovations don't seem so novel now. What we hear instead are the beauty of Coleman's melodies and the passionate bluesiness of his quartet's playing. --Geoffrey Himes

Customer Reviews

Groundbreaking and essential listening.
Ornette Coleman's arrival in New York in 1959 signalled a change in the jazz world, a change whose rippling effects are still felt to this day. His legendary residency at the Five Spot club and his recordings with Atlantic Records polarized the jazz community at large-- some heralded him as the next logical step from the innovations of Parker and Gillespie, some heralded him as an upstart with no real theory behind him and no mastery of his instrument. One thing is certain, Coleman's music has had long-lasting effects, and his influence can be heard throughout jazz with musicians as diverse as Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, John Zorn and Branford Marsalis all citing Coleman as an influence. During these first years in New York, Coleman was signed to Atlantic Records, where he released six groundbreaking albums and had enough leftover material for three further albums and half a dozen further tracks. Such prolificness he'd never repeat in his career-- indeed the two and a half years he spent on Atlantic accounts for about a third of his released studio recordings. All of this material is collected here as "Beauty is a Rare Thing".

The music of Ornette coleman is actually much easier to digest than most people would give it credit-- loosely stated, the critical part of his music is that the soloist determines the direction of the piece, not chord changes or some other limitation. The rest-- the odd harmonies, the intentional off key playing, etc., are all less essential. If this idea of spontaneous structure is something you can accept, you'll likely be able to enjoy Coleman's music.

The records on here include several of his classics-- the six studio albums released during his tenure on Atlantic-- "The Shape of Jazz to Come", "Change of the Century" (both featuring the quartet of Ornette Coleman on alto, Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Billy Higgins of drums), "This is Our Music" (with Coleman, Cherry, Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell), "Free Jazz" (featuring a double quartet of Coleman, bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy, Cherry, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, Haden, bassist Scott LaFaro, Higgins and Blackwell), "Ornette!" (Coleman, Cherry, LaFaro, Blackwell) and "Ornette on Tenor" (Coleman on tenor, Cherry, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Blackwell). Additionally, the three extras albums-- "To Whom Keeps a Record", "Twins" and "The Art of the Improvisers" are here in their entirity (although all material is presented in chronological order). Many classic and groundbreaking performances are contained here-- standards "Lonely Woman", "Peace", "Focus on Sanity", several takes on "Revolving Doors" under different titles, lovely ballad "Just For You", and of course, the stunning "Free Jazz" session.

Of course, included in the set is the obligatory liner note essays, including pieces by Coleman and Cherry, and some quotes from musicians about Coleman, positive and negative.

Is this for everyone? Probably not. If you're curious, pick up "The Shape of Jazz to Come", it'll give you an idea. If you're exploring Coleman, this material is all essential and probably worth the investment.

A major document
This set is one of the most important reissues of the 1990s, the beneficiary of increasingly intelligent reissue policies by the major record companies. _Beauty Is a Rare Thing_ finally does justice to Coleman's principal body of work, recorded for Atlantic from 1959 to 1961. CD reissues of the original albums have flitted in & out of existence with maddening unpredictability over the years, so this set is the only easy way to obtain the whole body of work. In addition it has many previously unreleased tracks.

Perhaps it's superfluous to comment closely on the music inside. I once commented to a friend that it's music that seems to me strikingly _complete_. That perception is hard to unpack entirely, perhaps, but speaks of how the music seems both coherent & integral & yet surprising & raw after even many listens. While certainly it's a long distance from the aggressive "energy" playing of the mid-1960s of Coltrane, Sanders &c, every time I listen to Coleman's music it still sounds almost alien, with a strangeness at its heart that is hard to dispel.

The first two discs, _The Shape of Jazz to Come_ & _Change of the Century_, were recorded with the Cherry/Haden/Higgins band in 1959; they remain his most popular quartet discs, & contain most of his best-known compositions--"Ramblin'", "Una Muy Bonita" & the immortal "Lonely Woman". These three tracks are exemplary showcases for the brilliance of Charlie Haden: "Ramblin'" for instance is a classic dissection of the blues, where Haden ignores the codified 12-bar form but instead marks the divisions between choruses by switching between rhythmic stops & a walking line. "Lonely Woman" is an intricate exercise in multiple rhythmic layers, a desolate ballad performed by the horns, who float over Haden's out-of-tempo stops (which sonds like they're coming from some middle-eastern instrument) & the unexpectedly fast & tense rhythms of Higgins' drums.

Coleman may have arrived in New York with his concept fully formed, but his recordings are anything but static expositions of this concept, & the 3rd album, _This Is Our Music_, is already stranger & more alien than the previous recordings. The key to this is the replacement of Higgins with Ed Blackwell, a drummer who sounds unsettlingly different from any other drummer of the period. This date (actually three sessions from July & August 1960--the nearly 2 CDs' worth of tracks from this date, including 5 previously unreleased ones, are the key recoveries of this boxed set) is especially notable for his one quartet rendition of a standard, "Embraceable You"--one of those versions of a much-loved standard which is both a desecration & elevation, rather like Charlie Parker's "All the Things You Are" or Coltrane's "My Favourite Things".

The set presents the next bit of material out of order. Disc six contains two "third-stream" scores by Gunther Schuller from December 19th & 20th of 1960, performed by a large ensemble including a stirng quartet, Jim Hall on guitar & Bill Evans on piano. The first is "Abstraction", a palindromic musical construct which cracks open to yield an acappella Coleman solo; the 2nd is a 15-minute set of variations on Monk's "Criss Cross". These two tracks form a suggestive context for the date recorded the next day (the 21st), which is Coleman's own effort at a large-scale music: _Free Jazz_ (on disc 4). This features a double quartet: Coleman, Cherry, Dolphy, Hubbard, La Faro, Haden, Blackwell, Higgins. It's hard to comment on this, some of the most difficult music Coleman recorded in his career. Even those who find it hard going should persist--not least because of the conclusion, one of the best moments in recorded jazz: the alternate bass solos & drum solos remain unrivalled for vibrancy, colour & imagination.

The increasing abstraction of Coleman's music at this point is marked by _Ornette!_, a quartet with Cherry, La Faro & Blackwell. By now the more obviously blues-based early music has been replaced by something much more oblique & enigmatic, a change felt both in La Faro's quizzical, unpredictable bass playing, & in Blackwell's prominence in the music. Though the music swings forcefully, both bass & drums often break from a conventional time-keeping role, & the music has a raw, almost primitive edge to it that wasn't as apparent with the warm-toned Haden & the sweet cymbal work of Higgins. "C. & D." is a drum feature, & Blackwell's performance sounds like something off an ethnographic recording, not a jazz disc. This is potent & disconcerting music, & it's fortunate that another 10-minute track has been rediscovered, the previously unknown "Proof Readers".

The last music included here is _Ornette on Tenor_, which besides the change of the leader's instrument features a change of bassist--Jimmy Garrison, who didn't last much longer with the group (he famously quit onstage in frustration one night, & later that year began work with Coltrane). His driving, uncomplicated bass playing is appropriate to an album which emphasizes the R&B element in Coleman's music.

In addition to the principal albums, this set includes the contents of several earlier albums that contained previously unused material from these sessions, _Twins_, _The Art of the Improvisers_, & _To Whom Who Keeps a Record_ (the last is very rare, a Japan-only release from 1975). The most important track among these is the "First Take" of _Free Jazz_ (half the length), though really all of the material is just as good as the original albums.

This set is not the best way to begin acquaintance with the music--rather like Parker's infinite variations on the blues & "I Got Rhythm" when collected into a mammoth boxed set, the music here can seem too much of a piece to the uninitiated. But the more it's explored, the more this music seems almost limitless in its nuance & range.

The Definitive Ornette Coleman Collection!!
Alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman broke new boundaries for Jazz music when he burst onto the music scene in 1958. His radical approach stripped the music of any fixed melody or harmony in favor of pure spontaneous improvisation. This was the birth of Free Jazz and was quite innovative and nearly unheard of for its time.
Ornette's recordings for Atlantic Records are not only milestones for the label but for Jazz music in general. His quartet did not include a pianist which immediately throws out chordal structures altogether. The groundbreaking "Free Jazz" recording of 1961 finds Ornette in a 'double-quartet' setting consisting of two reeds, two trumpets, two bassists and two drummers all going head-to-head in a monumental epic improvisation. This recording as well as his smaller quartet recordings are included in the 6-CD boxed set "Beauty Is A Rare Thing" - a thorough detailed musical history of Ornette's complete recordings for Atlantic Records (1959-1962).
Each track in this set is presented in the order that it was recorded beginning in mid-1959 with the sessions that produced the pioneering classic "The Shape Of Jazz To Come" and ending in late-1961 with his lone tenor sax album "Ornette On Tenor" as well as two 'avant-garde' classical style pieces composed by Gunther Schuller which Ornette contributed to. While it may seem odd for devotees to hear this music in a different order than what's on the original albums, it doesn't get in the way of making this an absolute enjoyable listening experience. While some tracks are without a doubt better than others, nearly every piece of music in this boxed set is a gem.
The extensive booklet included in this set includes an extended essay by music critic Robert Palmer as well as commentary from those who know Ornette. Even Ornette himself contributes to the liner notes. There are also small details on the recording sessions as well as a discography and some rare photos of Ornette and his quartet.
With all this said, this is an extraordinary set from one of Jazz's controversial but acclaimed pioneers. This is definitely a must for the die-hard Coleman fan. If you've got the bucks to shell out for this set, this also serves as the perfect introduction to his music as well.