Thank you for shining a light on Bobby Bradford. In Los Angeles, Bobby, John Carter and Horace Tapscott shine as beacons for all the younger musicians. Their contributions to the art form are enumerable, yet they are often left out of the history of this music, as are many of the west coast musicians. Their recordings are amazing , a type of space age be bop which could have only come from the west coast. Aggressive and lyrical soloists supported by a pulsing rhythm section, John, and Bobby along with Horace Tapscott are often forgotten by the scholars writing books on so-called free jazz.
People don't seem to remember that, Billy Higgins, Ornette, Don Cherry and Charlie, not to mention Hampton Hawes, Harold Land, Dexter, Wardell Grey, Eric Dolphy, Dodo Marmarosa, Charles Mingus, on and on, all spent a lot of their careers playing and teaching here.
Bobby at 90 is still putting out some amazing music but was recently a victim of the fires here in Los Angeles, losing a lot of his personal items, a loss to the history of music in LA. But he's creating a new legacy with his music, especially his "Suite for Jackie Robinson".
I always assumed the crying baby on “Science Fiction” was there because Henderson's poem was about artificially created life, a literal test tube baby (“no mother-to-be/no father to see”). I didn’t know Coleman had theories about childhood innocence.
True story: When I was in high school, my English teacher allowed us to talk about lyrics in a poetry explication project. After others in the class delivered talks on “American Pie” and Carole King’s “Beautiful” — this was 1973 — I did mine on “Science Fiction,” including playing them the track. I’m pretty sure many of my classmates thought I was crazy, but at least I saved them from going through life without ever having heard Ornette Coleman.
That was a great piece about Science Fiction. I wish you'd gone on to include the other album from the same sessions, Broken Shadows, which is just about as good, of course. Also wish you'd said something about Country Town Blues, because it's a special favorite of mine: the quartet in ideal tandem, and Haden beyond wonderful, the flat-footed country boy who nevertheless swings like a m-therf-cker, wouldn't you say? Always love reading you about the music, jutst about any music. Thanks for the rides.
Hello Mr. Zabor! Thanks so much for dropping by, I admire your writing. Broken Shadows is killer...of course. But I will have to re-listen to Country Town Blues again, for that definitely did not make it all the way to my sympathetic understanding before. Onward!
PS: I dunno if you ever got a look at my crime novel, which came out via a tiny press during Covid lockdown. It's called Street Legal—sorry, Bob—and is set in the weed business, with some Tibetan Buddhism thrown in, and was quick fun to write. I have some copies spare. Currently I'm finishing—I hope—a more 'serious' novel set in Paris in the 60s, and feeling like a young man being back there and then again.
Cool. Very good to hear from you. I've learned a lot from your writing—obviously, I'm not a harmonically infotmed musician, and have entered musical discourse from an obviously different angle, so that reading you has done my appreciation of the music another world of good. I'm not sure why Country Town Blues zeroed in on my as it has done. I'm pretty sure it's not because I think it's 'better' than this or that other cut; it's more, perhaps, that I find it the most typical of the great quartet's nature; though I especially like Charlie's groove on it, as well as both horn solos. Anyway, nice to hear from you, let's keep a dialogue up and maybe get together for a coffee sometime. I listen to more classical music nowadays than I do jazz—age, I guess, but also a break from responsibility, authority, whatever; as for writing, I think I put everything I know into The Bear Comes Home, and I'm generally loathe to repeat myself. Also, like, I dig Bach and the fellas a lot. Thanks and all the best:::::::::Rafi
Brilliant piece. Did TBP record any of the Science Fiction shows with the sextet? That was one of the band’s great highlights, and I would pay good money to be able to revisit it.
Ornette told me, many years after the release of Science Fiction, that he thought the opening track with Asha Puthli would get some jazz radio airplay because it was a vocal. He put it first because that was the first thing program directors would hear, a common practice of course in album sequencing at the time no matter the genre
As a teenager who came to jazz via rock music I loved Science Fiction (part of a two-fer that also included Skies of America) and later was always surprised to find jazz fans who considered Ornette's music "difficult" or "cerebral." Maybe it was, but it was also fun listening.
Great article. Your review is quite illuminating and helps one really get into and understand the music. I've been listening to this record since it came out and I still found this article to be helpful and let me enjoy the music even more.
Love me some Ornette (and Charlie and Billy etc) early in the morning. Btw, playing through "What reason . . " I discovered that I was reading the score as a piano piece (LH F-clef RH G-clef) sounds good though . . .
Don't know whether Ornette and Higgins worked together live between 1960 and 1971, but they appear on one record together between "Free Jazz" at the end of 1960 and "Science Fiction" in 1971 -- Jackie's McLean's "New and Old Gospel" in March 1967, though Ornette, alas, doesn't play any saxophone on that date.
What a wonderfully heartfelt piece. The little description of Cherry's playing -- "Folk music, surrealism, the blues, the avant-garde, deep intelligence, primitive emotion" -- is perfect.
Thank you for shining a light on Bobby Bradford. In Los Angeles, Bobby, John Carter and Horace Tapscott shine as beacons for all the younger musicians. Their contributions to the art form are enumerable, yet they are often left out of the history of this music, as are many of the west coast musicians. Their recordings are amazing , a type of space age be bop which could have only come from the west coast. Aggressive and lyrical soloists supported by a pulsing rhythm section, John, and Bobby along with Horace Tapscott are often forgotten by the scholars writing books on so-called free jazz.
People don't seem to remember that, Billy Higgins, Ornette, Don Cherry and Charlie, not to mention Hampton Hawes, Harold Land, Dexter, Wardell Grey, Eric Dolphy, Dodo Marmarosa, Charles Mingus, on and on, all spent a lot of their careers playing and teaching here.
Bobby at 90 is still putting out some amazing music but was recently a victim of the fires here in Los Angeles, losing a lot of his personal items, a loss to the history of music in LA. But he's creating a new legacy with his music, especially his "Suite for Jackie Robinson".
Thanks for your comment!
I always assumed the crying baby on “Science Fiction” was there because Henderson's poem was about artificially created life, a literal test tube baby (“no mother-to-be/no father to see”). I didn’t know Coleman had theories about childhood innocence.
True story: When I was in high school, my English teacher allowed us to talk about lyrics in a poetry explication project. After others in the class delivered talks on “American Pie” and Carole King’s “Beautiful” — this was 1973 — I did mine on “Science Fiction,” including playing them the track. I’m pretty sure many of my classmates thought I was crazy, but at least I saved them from going through life without ever having heard Ornette Coleman.
Amazing 🤩
You’re my hero.
That was a great piece about Science Fiction. I wish you'd gone on to include the other album from the same sessions, Broken Shadows, which is just about as good, of course. Also wish you'd said something about Country Town Blues, because it's a special favorite of mine: the quartet in ideal tandem, and Haden beyond wonderful, the flat-footed country boy who nevertheless swings like a m-therf-cker, wouldn't you say? Always love reading you about the music, jutst about any music. Thanks for the rides.
Hello Mr. Zabor! Thanks so much for dropping by, I admire your writing. Broken Shadows is killer...of course. But I will have to re-listen to Country Town Blues again, for that definitely did not make it all the way to my sympathetic understanding before. Onward!
PS: I dunno if you ever got a look at my crime novel, which came out via a tiny press during Covid lockdown. It's called Street Legal—sorry, Bob—and is set in the weed business, with some Tibetan Buddhism thrown in, and was quick fun to write. I have some copies spare. Currently I'm finishing—I hope—a more 'serious' novel set in Paris in the 60s, and feeling like a young man being back there and then again.
Cool. Very good to hear from you. I've learned a lot from your writing—obviously, I'm not a harmonically infotmed musician, and have entered musical discourse from an obviously different angle, so that reading you has done my appreciation of the music another world of good. I'm not sure why Country Town Blues zeroed in on my as it has done. I'm pretty sure it's not because I think it's 'better' than this or that other cut; it's more, perhaps, that I find it the most typical of the great quartet's nature; though I especially like Charlie's groove on it, as well as both horn solos. Anyway, nice to hear from you, let's keep a dialogue up and maybe get together for a coffee sometime. I listen to more classical music nowadays than I do jazz—age, I guess, but also a break from responsibility, authority, whatever; as for writing, I think I put everything I know into The Bear Comes Home, and I'm generally loathe to repeat myself. Also, like, I dig Bach and the fellas a lot. Thanks and all the best:::::::::Rafi
Brilliant piece. Did TBP record any of the Science Fiction shows with the sextet? That was one of the band’s great highlights, and I would pay good money to be able to revisit it.
thanks so much for your kind comment! We didn't record that project, unfortunately
Brilliant last sentence.
thank you
Ornette told me, many years after the release of Science Fiction, that he thought the opening track with Asha Puthli would get some jazz radio airplay because it was a vocal. He put it first because that was the first thing program directors would hear, a common practice of course in album sequencing at the time no matter the genre
In a more just world, that opening track would indeed have been a hit!
I agree. I just played it for the first time in quite a while a few minutes ago and it’s still delicious
As a teenager who came to jazz via rock music I loved Science Fiction (part of a two-fer that also included Skies of America) and later was always surprised to find jazz fans who considered Ornette's music "difficult" or "cerebral." Maybe it was, but it was also fun listening.
Nice comment. I’d even argue the Science Fiction is much easier to understand than the serious bebop of Charlie Parker and Bud Powell
Great article. Your review is quite illuminating and helps one really get into and understand the music. I've been listening to this record since it came out and I still found this article to be helpful and let me enjoy the music even more.
Right on
Love me some Ornette (and Charlie and Billy etc) early in the morning. Btw, playing through "What reason . . " I discovered that I was reading the score as a piano piece (LH F-clef RH G-clef) sounds good though . . .
you have discovered Harmolodics! (reading music in the "wrong" clef is part of the practice)
Don't know whether Ornette and Higgins worked together live between 1960 and 1971, but they appear on one record together between "Free Jazz" at the end of 1960 and "Science Fiction" in 1971 -- Jackie's McLean's "New and Old Gospel" in March 1967, though Ornette, alas, doesn't play any saxophone on that date.
nice, I forgot about that. Fun record but yeah, wish we had two altos there at least for a moment
What a wonderfully heartfelt piece. The little description of Cherry's playing -- "Folk music, surrealism, the blues, the avant-garde, deep intelligence, primitive emotion" -- is perfect.
thanks Richard!