‘Tomorrow is the Question’ had a better relationship with the rhythm section - without a chording instrument present the free space allowed the soloist expanded considerably but more needed to be done to accommodate Ornette’s conception. When Charlie Hayden became a permanent addition many of these problems were solved. Hayden was a participatory bassist [vs an accompanying one], following the horn lines free from functional harmonic orientation, and favored the low registers of the instrument - all factors which liberated the improvised line.
Ornette’s music did conform with the concepts of conventional form but while accepting formal structure he ‘omits’ the harmonic implications of form. His is a totally linear approach to making music - the point of reference is not the ‘changes’ but a fundamental ‘sound’…a tonal relationship to one underlying tone rather than functional harmony. The Modal Approach to improvisation - by choosing a modality for improvisation actually is a choice among ‘musical sets’ and the acceptance of the internal order of relationships within the mode. The Focal Tone Approach has no such implications and provides a much freer space for improvisation.
Both approaches can stagnate easily and Coleman’s solution incorporated two elements - motivic improvisation [termed Motivic Chain-association] and shifting to secondary ‘tonal centers’. Motivic improvisation in this context is the invention a Motif independent of the stated Theme: one idea grows from another - linearly - which then evolves into another new idea. It is almost analogous to the ‘Stream of Consciousness’ literary style of Joyce or the ‘automatic writing’ of the surrealists. The shifts to secondary tonal centers develop from these Motivic Chain-associations and independently of time order - while retaining the ability to provide contrast for bridge sections [again, Coleman accepted the concept of conventional form].
One of the major criticisms - I’m sure part of the Five Spot reception - is Coleman’s intonation. He was accused from the beginning of ‘wrong intonation’ - the subtle manipulations of embrochure to bring notes into tune on his instrument. He often speaks of the ‘human quality’ of his intonation - the ‘human pitch’ or ‘vocalization of the sound’: ‘When I play an [f] in a a song called Peace, I think it should not sound exactly like the same note in a song called Sadness’ [from Berendt]. Berendt infers that the [f] should not be equal in vibrations [how pitch is measured] - Jost, on the other hand, indicates that what Coleman is really saying is that they should not ‘sound’ the same. This concept is used within Ornette’s improvisations but - again, as Jost states in referring to his early recordings - he is very off pitch ‘in a very real sense’ and with ‘clashes which cannot be interpreted as expressive technique.
Coleman’s Rhythmic conception is simple in principle and his music often has a ‘folk song’ quality. He does however utilize a type of rhythmic displacement - passages of ‘on the beat’ notes contrasted with just as simple a rhythmic passage but played ‘off beat’. In addition, he often subdivides eighth note lines into odd groupings by shifting accents - the bar line with its implied accents is irrelevant in his music and it is very difficult to determine ‘one’ in his melodic line.
So what do you play? In ‘traditional’ Jazz, the Theme functions as a means to outline the improvisational passages which follow - for both the musicians and the audience. The melodic content provides a reference point for what is to follow and provides a set series of Chord Progressions. In Coleman’s music the Theme determines the expressive content of the improvisations - this Unity of Theme and Improvisation is emotional and expressive rather than formal and functional.
Ornette Coleman’s compositions can be split into two broad and significant categories [several types have ‘crystallized’] - a Type 1 and a Type 2 and both of these are not dependent upon chord structure.
Type 1: exemplified by ‘Mind and Time’, has no implicit harmonic progression[s] but rather a melodicrhythmic line that determines the emotional nature of the improvisation. This line sets the initial tempo…and provides no clear tonal center. Rhythmically, it fits none of the common metric schemes and since it is 11 1/2 bars in length the division of the melody into bars is irrelevant. It should be noted that once a melody is divided by the bar line a series of reoccurring accents is implied. This melodic construction of 11 1/2 bars has an indicated repeat which changes the melodic accents between the first play through and the repeat - notes occurring on beat 1 the first time will occur on beat 3 with the repeat.
What this line essentially provides is a ‘relatively non-obligatory framework for improvisation’ - for range, motion, and perhaps dynamics.
Type 2: exemplified by ‘Congeniality’, which follows an A - B1 - A - B2 standard song form. These sections are actually melodic constructs of contrasting rhythms which set the emotional context of the piece - not one specific emotional orientation but rather these contrasting sections provide ‘emotional’ choices for the soloist to develop an improvised line.
If any one common element can be identified within these two types, ‘Freedom of Choice’ for the soloist must be primary. The constricting elements of functional harmony, a tonal center, and the ‘tyranny’ of the bar line are all absent - but, at the same time, the organization which provides Theme and Improvisational unity remains. It is not a free form performance just a ‘New Way’ of organization, a way freed from the previous confines of chords, standard metric patterns, and tonality.
In 1959, Ornette stated: ‘Perhaps the most important new element in out music is our conception of free group improvisation’. The group which brought this to fruition was the unit which recorded ‘Free Jazz’ in 1960 [Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charles Hayden, Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell, Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, and Scott la Faro]. Prior to this ‘60’s release two previous jazz performance norms remained present - the dominating role of the soloist and the accompanying role of the rhythm section
[in which the Bass and Drums still defined the time] - they had to ‘keep the beat’.
This 36 minute composition is organized around a series of agreements rather than a musical score in the traditional sense. Here, individual passages [‘single complexes’] are led by a different ‘soloist’ and are linked by transitional ‘ensemble’ interludes. Some of these interludes are completely notated while others exist as partially written structures [‘harmonic unison’]. The harmonic unison provided the players with tonal material but with no fixed timing - this would become an important compositional technique in the later development of Free Jazz. The ‘tonal center’ and the tempo were also agreed upon - with Hayden and Blackwell responsible for the fundamental rhythm which was ‘constantly challenged and consciously endangered by la Faro and Higgins’.
The music created on the basis of these ‘agreements’ depends almost totally on the player’s readiness to interact - it was an expansion of the ‘motivic-chain associations’ to a larger group context. Here, these associations develop and evolve within the group as a whole. Ideas introduced by the ‘soloist’ of a given section are taken up by the other musicians, developed further, and then handed back to the soloist in an altered form. It is a network of musical interactions - by imitation, continuation, and contrast that is continually renewed from within by the flow of musical ideas.