Ornette At 12 / Crisis

This is Ornette on Impulse!, a reissue of two albums long out of print on one CD. Both are live recordings, one from the West Coast, and one from the East Coast. While recorded less than a year apart, "Ornette at 12" was released in 1969, and "Crisis" wasn't released until 1972.ORNETTE AT 12Live at the Hearst Greek Amphitheatre, University of California at Berkeley, August 1968Ornette: alto sax, violin, & trumpetDewey Redman: tenor saxCharlie Haden: bassDenardo Coleman: drumsCRISISLive at New York University's Loeb Student Center, March 22, 1969Ornette: alto sax and violinDon Cherry: trumpet and fluteDewey Redman: tenor saxCharlie Haden: bassDenardo Coleman: drumsWhile it didn't prevent Ornette from landing contracts with Atlantic, Blue Note, and then Impulse!, he was criticized for a lack of technical skill. He doubled down in this period, using his young son Denardo on drums and picking up the violin and trumpet, instruments which he had no experience in playing. Ornette was always a visionary, and his vision was the freeing nature of music as emotional expression. While Denardo's playing clearly improves from the earlier concert to the later one, I have always been impressed by Ornette's rather raw sounds on the trumpet and violin, which are at the service of the music.These recordings are fresh and powerful -- energy music of precisely the sort Impulse! specialized in at the time, with recordings by Coltrane, Archie Shepp and the amazing Sam Rivers Trio. Ornette was always a mild-mannered introvert, but here he was keeping pace with the intensity of the times!Dewey Redman is hard-charging out of the gate on "Ornette at 12," taking the first solo on "C.O.D." He makes a great replacement for Don Cherry from Ornette's original quartet, and would join Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and drummer Ed Blackwell in Old and New Dreams in the 1970s as Ornette went electric with Prime Time."Crisis" is simply stunning, with Cherry rejoining to make a quintet. The opening "Broken Shadows" is a great, tragic melody similar to "Lonely Woman." Haden's "Song for Che" is another powerful melody, and is central to the album. "Trouble in the East" employs Asian-sounding instruments, clearly an homage to the people of Vietnam as the U.S. war was raging.There is some wild music here, even by the standards of the Atlantic Recordings. Ornette had helped create a revolution in sound at the beginning of the decade, and by 1968/1969 he was part of a maelstrom that also included the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and Gyorgy Ligeti's music used in the soundtrack to "2001: A Space Odyssey."Don't miss these long overdue reissues!*** *** ***The 16-page glossy-stock booklet includes color reproductions of the original album covers, the original liner notes, and a 7-page essay by Howard Mandel.

"Crisis" is one of my favorite Ornette Coleman recordings. This recording features Don Cherry(trumpet),Charlie Haden(bass), Dewey Redman(tenor sax,musette), Denardo Coleman(drums),Ornette Coleman(alto sax). Ornette's son is featured on drums and though he is very young at this time he is in my opinion well suited to the performance and amazingly compliments the musicians most of the time by his loose improvisation. This is a strong and dynamic concert featuring compositions such as "Space Jungle" and "Broken Shadows". Also Charlie Haden's "Song For Che" exhibits introspective improvisation and deep emotion. A live concert hall feel is present in the recording. I wish more recordings would have been made available by these musicians all performing together with the addition of Ed Blackwell too, but this performance to me is powerful and full of Ornette's earlier musical vision. "Ornette at 12" album is also offered in this disc.

Crisis was my first Ornette Coleman album and made me a lifelong fan. Ornette At 12 is also a favorite, so I was ecstatic to see them finally being released together. These are a great intro to the width and breadth of Coleman's music. There are some beautiful melodies along with some very adventurous playing. Too bad Don Cherry wasn't with the band on Ornette At 12, but Dewey Redman is on both sessions. Ornette Jr is really showing some drum chops and is really listening to the band. The remastering sound is fine for live recordings from 1969.

Surprised this hasn't been reviewed yet (ok, it has only been out two days) since these classic Impulse albums have never been available on CD. The great Crisis turned me onto Ornette some thirty years ago, and Ornette at 12 has Denardo's sophomore appearance on record. Mine arrives tomorrow and I'm very excited.

Get it if you like O.C.

Christmas Present

Just listen...this music by Ornette from back in the day sounds as fresh and new as if it just came out..great jazz

This excellent CD combines two live IMPULSE! LPs by free jazz giant Ornette Coleman(1930-2015) that have long been out of print.Tracks 1-4('Ornette At 12') were recorded live in Berkeley, California on June 16, 1968 with Coleman(alto sax, trumpet, violin); Dewey Redman(tenor sax); Charlie Haden(bass) & Ornette Denardo Coleman(drums).Tracks 5-9('Crisis') were recorded live in New York City on March 22, 1969 with Coleman(alto sax, violin); Dewey Redman(tenor sax); Don Cherry(trumpet, Indian flute); Charlie Haden(bass) & Ornette Denardo Coleman(drums).These records were criticised when first issued for the presence of Ornette's 12/13 year-old son on drums, and while Ed Blackwell would have been preferable, the music is expressive, adventurous and heartfelt and it's great to have these albums available again at long last.

Long Overdue re-release - been waiting many years. Excellent and part of Ornettes Legacy!

If we set the musical content appreciation aside and focus on the technical aspects of this release, it's inevitable not to be disappointed. In that regard, the Crisis album is the most negatively affected: besides the poor audio quality (worse than the vinyl), the audio image is off-center tending to the left audio channel (the vinyl version has none of these problems).

Este CD contiene dos de las obras que nunca se han restado en CD y es curioso porque ambas aparecieron por vez primera en Impulse. Los discos son "Ornette at 12" y "Crisis" editados originalmente en 1968 el primero y el segundo en 1972, es decir en pleno auge de búsqueda en los EEUU. El primero fue mi descubrimiento de Ornette , que sorprendentemente fue editado en España. Ni que decir tiene que cuando me enfrente a su audición me que dede horrorizado, no podía comprender aquella música en aquel momento, luego me fue fascinando y hoy me parece hasta muy asimilable. El Segundo lo escucho ahora por vez primera y me parece espléndido.El primero toca Coleman, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden y a la percusión su hijo Ornette Denardo que a la sazón tenia solo 12 años.En El Segundo el grupo es Coleman,Don Cherry, Dewey Redman y Denardo. Ambos son fascinantes acordes con la vanguardia real de su tiempo. Los acontecimientos de Detroit y la lucha política imperante en EEUU hacen del segundo álbum una especie de manifiesto político de las vanguardias americanas en jazz, no casualmente contiene el famoso tema de Haden , "Song for Che". En definitiva dos discos en uno donde se pone a prueba al oyente inundando con formulas hasta ese momento desconocidas

Unearthed gems from a very creative time for Ornette, with a killer band despite the fact that many critique Denardo's drumming harshly. Personally, I dig Denardo's approach - at the time of these recordings it lied somewhere between Charles Moffat and Ed Blackwell with perhaps a splash or two of Sunny Murray. Yes he was young, and developed into a stronger player as any musician does over time if they focus on their craft, but I can hear why Ornette chose to employ his son at such an early age...for the spontaneity created by naivety. Creative, exploratory music...