Genesis of Genius: The Contemporary Albums is a logical bundling of Ornette Coleman’s debut album with its follow up into a single offering, recordings which in hindsight are of significance historical importance in the history of jazz. Now out from Craft Recordings, Genesis of Genius combines the two albums – Something Else!!!! and Tomorrow Is the Question! – that the iconic Coleman made for Contemporary Records. Although the alto saxophonist didn’t start at his highest point, a reassessment more than sixty years on reveals that while the music he made may have fallen short of his aspiration, it nonetheless attained a high level of quality originality.
It’s not possible to discuss his first two albums without putting it in context with the nine albums that followed. Beginning with The Shape of Jazz to Come, Coleman’s Atlantic sides from 1959 to 1961 detonated a bomb within jazz that challenged the very notion of what constituted jazz at the very moment when this world was celebrating new artistic heights from Kind of Blue, Time Out, Giant Steps, Mingus Ah Um and other classics from 1959.
Heard today, the Atlantic sides don’t sound as radical as they were thought to be then, but there’s no question that it opened up the door to what could be possible in both harmony and rhythm, and helped to suggest that even in Western music the two don’t necessarily have to be all that distinguishable from each other. We take that for granted today, but the much-heralded music of our times from artists ranging from Pat Metheny to Tim Berne wouldn’t exist without being preceded by Ornette Coleman.
Yet, Ornette didn’t start out being a full-blown revolutionary. Those Contemporary releases were the work of a revolutionary-in-training. He was a genius back then but still working out a few things, despite the audaciousness of his album titles.
For that debut album Something Else!!!!, Coleman already had Don Cherry and his pocket trumpet next to his own plastic alto saxophone, which signaled that this was not about conforming. He also enlisted Billy Higgins on drums, who would later become another centerpiece of his classic quartet. Walter Norris on piano and Don Payne on bass rounded out this particular band, but Norris’ appearance is very notable for the simple fact that it would be the last time Coleman used a keyboard in his recordings for the next thirty years.
“Invisible” gets the album off to a crisp, bebop start and though there’s a little bit of Lennie Tristano in the harmonics, this beginning likely did not set off alarms among jazz purists. Already by “The Blessing” the piano becomes totally dispensable because the theme as enunciated by the two-horn front line is powerful enough to stand on its own, though Norris’ and Payne’s asides probably eases the transition from the familiar to the exotic.
“Jayne” is eminently catchy, not so much forward looking but hard to get out of your head; even the piano sounds perfectly at home on this tune. The rapid-fire lines on “Chippie” almost disguise an unusual note pattern and Cherry is able to sail through it much more confidently during his feature than Norris did for his.
“Angel Voice” swings strongly, and we’re treated to Payne’s wholly in-the-pocket bass solo. “When Will The Blues Leave?” portrays Ornette Coleman’s devotion to the blues that will never waver, but soon afterwards transform. Coleman saves the best for last: “The Sphinx” feels more like what he would later call harmolodics than anything else on his first album.
On the sophomore record Tomorrow Is the Question!, Coleman cleans up a few things needed to get to the vision realized on the world-changing next album, namely, doing away with piano accompaniment and tightening up his coordination with Cherry. Still, Tomorrow also falls just short of being that Coleman breakthrough because the Charlie Haden/Billy Higgins rhythm section (Haden had already played alongside Coleman, Cherry and Higgins as part of Paul Bley’s quintet in 1958) was replaced by Percy Heath or Red Mitchell on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums.
“Tears Inside” is another blues workout, but Coleman’ unique sax diction is already well-defined at this point, and in retrospect, the forlorn “Lorraine” feels at spots like a dry run for “Lonely Woman” and “Peace.”
The title song is a bit of a gauntlet for the drums and bass, but Heath, at the time anchoring the Modern Jazz Quartet, performs admirably. Manne’s drumming occasionally feels a little out of place in this music, which is no knock on Manne; he is one of the all-time greats. But even he couldn’t fully grasp Coleman’s concept because it was too far removed to his own, more conventional vision of jazz and it shows up on adventurous numbers like “Mind And Time” and “Endless.” However, on the dizzying Coleman delight “Rejoicing” the Manne/Heath unit manage to not get left too far behind.
One element of Coleman’s artistry that was already in place on these first two albums was his composing ability. Songs such as “When Will The Blue Leave?”, “The Blessing,” “Jayne,” “Rejoicing,” “Tears Inside” and “The Sphinx” have been widely covered, proving that many artists had found a lot to like about the pre-Atlantic period.
In all, Genesis of Genius is partially realized potential, but what is realized is already standing apart from most of the jazz of the day. Mere months after Tomorrow Is the Question! was recorded, Coleman, Cherry, Higgins and Charlie Haden would begin the history-making recordings for Atlantic Records. But those first two albums are mildly diminished only in hindsight; on their own, they stand up superbly well. And without Something Else!!!! and Tomorrow Is the Question!, there probably wouldn’t be The Shape of Jazz to Come. These might not be the ‘legendary’ albums of what soon followed, but this is where the legend of Ornette Coleman begins. That’s enough to make this collection essential for even moderate fans.
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