Of human feelings
| Of human feelings | ||||
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| Ornette Coleman studio album | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Antilles | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD (Japan) |
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Title (number) |
8th |
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running time |
36:21 |
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Studio (s) |
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Of Human Feelings is a jazz album by Ornette Coleman . It is the third album with his electric group Prime Time and also the first digital sound recording ever recorded in New York City.
History of origin
Coleman, who had had a difficult relationship with the record companies for a long time, wanted to found his own Phrase Text production company in 1979 . The first direct-to-disc recording took place in March 1979 in the New York RCA studio; however, due to mechanical problems with the recording apparatus, the results were unusable. On April 25, 1979, Coleman went to the studio with his band at the time, this time to CBS , to use the new digital technology there. This recording was the first digital recording in New York; therefore the inclusion found its way onto the front page of the next issue of Billboard . It was initially planned to sell the recording on a Japanese label ( Trio Records ); Coleman then stood in the way of a contract, so that the search for a new sales partner and there was a considerable delay. In 1981 the tapes were then sold to Antilles .
For a short time, Calvin Weston took the place of Ronald Shannon Jackson in the sextet Prime Time , in which both the guitars and the drums were doubled (unlike the bass in the 1980s). With the exception of the drummer who had been replaced, the band had already played together since 1976; According to Coleman, this simplified the recording process considerably: “We only recorded all the pieces once; all numbers were first takes . And there was no [additional] mixing. It's almost exactly how we played it. "
About the album
Some of the compositions are already known from previous albums and performances: What is the Name of that Song? combines two of Coleman's older themes ( Love Eyes and Forgotten Songs or Holiday for Heroes , so on Skies of America ). Sleep Talk was previously called Dream Talking , Air Ship was previously announced as Meta and Times Square as Writing in the Streets .
The themes of the pieces are mostly simple and riff-oriented and the grooves of the two drummers are “unusually clear and elementary”. This contrasts with “the concentrated harmonic, melodic -› harmolodic ‹- complexity of the polyphony of two guitars and a guitar-like agile bass” and Coleman improvising on top of it on the saxophone.
Track list
page A
- Sleep Talk - 3:34
- Jump Street - 4:24
- Him and Her - 4:20
- Air Ship - 6:11
Side B
- What is the Name of that Song? - 3:58
- Job Mob - 4:57
- Love Words - 2:54
- Times Square - 6:03
Reviews
According to the German Coleman biographer Peter Niklas Wilson , Of Human Feelings is "probably the catchiest, yes, one might say: the most commercial of the records that Coleman recorded up to 1979 - and that is not in the least meant in a derogatory way." "Inspired group music."
Even Stuart Nicholson emphasized the neatness of the album; Compared to the two previous albums with Prime Time, these are far more convincing statements. This time there is "a stomach-related intensity that was just as focused as in his acoustic recordings." Robert Christgau's review also goes in the same direction: He emphasizes that these recordings are "a breakthrough, if not a miracle" : A “warm, audible harmony of funk ” would be generated . The functioning of the band was said to be “participatory democracy” and thus a piece of practiced utopia.
Scott Yanow , who gave the album the second-highest rating (four and a half stars) for Allmusic , notes that none of the eight tracks are enthralling in terms of its theme, but in the context of Coleman's “innovative band” they are a “good platform” for his solos would work in his often witty and free (often oddly melodic) style.
In contrast to the above-mentioned reviews, however, the American Coleman biographer Litweiler said that the album produced "no new insights" and mourns a loss of complexity compared to the earlier edition of Prime Time due to the change of drummer : The two guitarists stayed in the background, while Coleman is playing up front and Tacuma is busy (and more virtuoso than on previous albums) producing responses to him on his bass.
literature
- John Litweiler: Ornette Coleman. A Harmolodic Life Morrow & Cie, New York 1992
- Peter Niklas Wilson: Ornette Coleman. His life, his music, his records Oreos, Schaftlach 1989
Web links
- Of Human Feelings at Allmusic (English)
- Robert Christgau on Coleman records
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c See J. Litweiler Ornette Coleman , p. 170
- ↑ Stephen Stills had already recorded digitally in Los Angeles in February ; see. Billboard February 17, 1979, p. 1
- ↑ Stuart Nicholson Jazz: The Modern Resurgence (1990), p. 97
- ↑ cit. n. PN Wilson Ornette Coleman , p. 168
- ↑ a b c P. N. Wilson Ornette Coleman , pp. 167f.
- ^ Max Harrison , Eric Thacker, Stuart Nicholson: The essential Jazz Records: Modernism to Postmodernism , London, New York, Mansell 2000, ISBN 0-7201-1822-0 , p. 574
- ↑ See J. Litweiler Ornette Coleman , pp. 170f.