Song X
| Song X | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Pat Metheny and Ornette Coleman | ||||
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Publication |
1986 |
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admission |
1985 |
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| Label (s) |
Geffen (original) Nonesuch (20th) |
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Format (s) |
LP, CD |
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running time |
48'30 "or 66'44" |
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| occupation |
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Pat Metheny |
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Studio (s) |
The Power Station, New York City |
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Song X is a jazz album by Pat Metheny and Ornette Coleman with a specially compiled quintet . The album was recorded on December 13 and 14, 1985 by Jan Erik Kongshaug and released in March 1986 by Geffen Records . A differently mixed version was released in August 2005 under the title Song X: Twentieth Anniversary (with six additional songs from the same recording session).
History of the album
Metheny was influenced by Ornette Coleman's free jazz since his early youth. With the 1980 released album 80/81 , in which, in addition to Randy Brecker and Dewey Redman , Charlie Haden and Jack DeJohnette were involved, he left the paths of simple smooth jazz for the first time . Even on his early albums he occasionally interpreted Coleman themes, for example on Bright Size Life (1976). On the album Rejoicing (1983) he worked with Coleman's old rhythm group , in a trio with Haden and Billy Higgins , and presented three pieces by Coleman. Again and again he expressed his desire to Haden to record with Coleman. This persuaded Coleman. At year-end 1985 it was so far: Metheny and Coleman practiced for three weeks eight hours a day together before they met with Haden, Ornette's son Denardo and Jack DeJohnette in the studio to the shared album Song X einzuspielen. Metheny said afterwards: "I've never experienced anything like Ornette: We played five or six takes of each piece, and you could have used each one."
The recordings were made at the time when Metheny switched from ECM to David Geffen's label; he brought the finished production with him. “ Song X was written before I actually signed the contract. I said: here guys, this is the first record. And they said: great! ”However, due to time pressure, the pieces were not mixed optimally and minor errors could not be corrected.
Track list
All titles are compositions by Ornette Coleman , unless otherwise noted
- Song X 5:38
- Mob Job 4:13
- Endangered Species 13:19 (Coleman, Metheny)
- Video Games 5:21
- Kathelin Gray 4:15 (Coleman, Metheny)
- Trigonometry 5:09 (Coleman, Metheny)
- Song X Duo 3:08 (Coleman, Metheny)
- Long Time No See 7:36
Title list of Song X: Twentieth Anniversary
- Police People 4:57
- All of Us 0:15
- The Good Life 3:25
- Word from Bird 3:48
- Compute 2:03
- The Veil 3:42
- Song X 5:38
- Mob Job 4:13
- Endangered Species 13:19 (Coleman, Metheny)
- Video Games 5:21
- Kathelin Gray 4:15 (Coleman, Metheny)
- Trigonometry 5:09 (Coleman, Metheny)
- Song X Duo 3:08 (Coleman, Metheny)
- Long Time No See 7:36
Tracks 1-6 were previously unreleased and were also recorded in December 1985.
The music
Metheny used synthetic guitar sounds in all of the pieces - mostly he had a Roland GR 303 connected to the Synclavier - and in some cases simulated the sound of a saxophone so much that in the original mix it was not possible to distinguish him and Coleman in all places .
The title track of the album, Song X, has been played by Coleman since 1977. The collective improvisation with a "hyperactive guitar" all the time, which sometimes sounds like the echo of the saxophone voice, sounds "upset" and is a "hot affair".
Mob Job was presented laid back with a swing feeling and with its lyricisms formed a successful contrast to the title track. Coleman’s violin playing with its “bony logic” doesn’t seem artificial.
Endangered Species with its ecstatic-screaming theme again offered space for a wild and extensive collective improvisation, in which the alto was in the background behind the garish guitar. Metheny transformed his guitar into a polyphonic orchestra using a connected synthesizer and stereo amplification, “whose turbulence sometimes even threatens to swallow Coleman's sharp lines. And beneath the density of the melodic events a double drum thunderstorm simmers, which in turn pushes Charlie Haden's bass lines into the background. ”The musicians involved immediately agreed that the recorded interpretation of the piece could not be beat. “We felt it when we were in the studio. Everyone screamed when it was over. ”Years later, Metheny was“ 100% proud ”of this recording.
Video Games serves as a showcase for Metheny: After the simple eight-bar theme has been introduced twice with the saxophone, the guitarist takes over and plays an increasingly complex solo. Kathelin Gray is a “simple ballad ” in which the guitar and saxophone play in unison for long stretches . Trigonometry is a lively bebop line that Coleman takes up very elegantly, although he is somehow not playing lyrically; Metheny's “truncated melodicity” can also be admired here. Then comes a second version of the title track, Song X Duo , an unaccompanied duo by Metheny and Coleman. The rocking Long Time No See , which Coleman recorded with Yoko Ono as early as 1968 , contains all sorts of surprises: Metheny suggests the old wise Santa Lucia at the end of his lyrical solo ; Ornette Coleman plays a series of seemingly unrelated melodic episodes, which Denardo Coleman puts an end to with an interjection from It Don't Mean a Thing .
effect
On New Year's Eve 1985/86 the musicians (without DeJohnette) performed in Fort Worth in the Caravan of Dream and presented their music together. In the spring of 1986 the quintet then went on tour in the United States and presented the album that had just been released. “The Song X tour in America was one of the most exciting tours I've ever been on. The audience ... had no idea that the music would be so ›far out‹. People just went there. And the tour had the full support of this huge record company. "
Measured in terms of numbers, the record sold well, more than 200,000 copies in the first year alone, which is “quite astonishing” for an avant-garde album. In readerpoll the downbeat was Song X chosen album of the year. But the criticism was divided: The improbable combination of musicians caused considerable "head scratching". While for some it was "one of the events of the 1980s" (according to The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz ), others considered the album to be "practically unplayable" (according to The Times ). For the Coleman biographer Peter Niklas Wilson, on the other hand, the album was “a lively, dynamic, inspired production (whereby the studio-live character of the recording may also have played a role)” that would make “Metheny despisers” think.
Brian Olewnick rated Song X three and a half (out of five) stars for Allmusic . ; Thom Jurek, on the other hand, gave the album, which was expanded for the 20th anniversary, four stars. Even John Fordham is for The Guardian four out of five stars; he emphasizes that on the new mix it no longer sounds as if this was a Coleman album with guest Metheny, but that the guitarist's subtleties can be heard much more clearly. The new edition of Song X was named Jazz Reissue of the Year (single CD) at the Jazz Journalists Association's 2006 Jazz Awards.
literature
- Max Harrison , Eric Thacker, Stuart Nicholson : The Essential Jazz Records. Vol. 2: Modernism to Postmodernism London, New York, Mansell 2000, ISBN 0720118220
- 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
Individual evidence
- ↑ The scoring information relates to the pieces on the original record
- ↑ cf. Harrison, Thacker, Nicholson: The Essential Jazz Records , pp. 575f.
- ↑ a b Litweiler Ornette Coleman , S. 190
- ↑ a b c d e Arne Schumacher Interview with Pat Metheny (1988) , Jazzthetik 3/1988
- ^ A b Fordham Ornette Coleman / Pat Metheny, Song X , The Guardian, September 23, 2005
- ^ A b c Harrison, Thacker, Nicholson: The Essential Jazz Records , p. 576
- ↑ a b c d e Litweiler Ornette Coleman , p. 191
- ↑ a b cf. Peter Marsh Pat Metheny / Ornette Coleman Song X - Twentieth Anniversary Review (BBC)
- ↑ a b c d Peter Niklas Wilson: Ornette Coleman , p. 174
- ^ Harrison, Thacker, Nicholson: The Essential Jazz Records , pp. 576f.
- ^ A b c Harrison, Thacker, Nicholson: The Essential Jazz Records , p. 577
- ↑ both cit. n. Harrison, Thacker, Nicholson: The Essential Jazz Records , p. 576
- ↑ Review of Song X
- ↑ Song X (Twentieth Anniversary Edition)
- ↑ cf. Megaphone # 168 (Jazzthetik 9/2006) ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
