Ornette Coleman is Dead!

I went to an Ornette Coleman tribute Hal Wilner put on in the park near my house just about one year ago today.

Ornette is a jazz guy, perhaps the most popular of the free jazz players, and a musical giant. What I learned a year ago was that Lou Reed loved Ornette, but then so do many. I remember at poker games in the loft on Lispenard Street I would sometimes put Ornette on as a distraction, but somehow the beauty of his sounds won the day more often than I won the hand.

This one is live from Prince Street in 1970, same neighborhood as the poker (though 10 years earlier), and chosen especially because of the groovy vibe. (That’s Charlie Haden on the bass, Dewey Redman on tenor, and Ed Blackwell on the drums. )

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