The Globe and Mail: At least there's clarity in the music
This article about Ornette Coleman appeared in the Globe & Mail October 27. I don't know how long this link will be good, so read it while you can. The article pokes some fun at Coleman for his desire and also inablity to articulate his musical theories and achievements. As a painter, I can sure understand this. The folks you can talk to about the work are already hip to it.... and the danger is offering up some kind of abridged explanation that subs for the work. Sometimes, it's better to just keep your mouth shut and let others talk about it.
2 comments:
Miller's review of the concert itself was a good deal more favourable than his write-up of their telephone conversation... It seemed rather a mean-spirited piece given that going in, he had to know that what he was going to ask could not be adequately answered with words. Miller also well knew that that there exists a rather extensive literature concerning harmolodics and that a good portion of it has had to do with various critics pointing out that Coleman's attempts to put his musical ideas into words had not been sufficiently discriptive for them. This was to be yet another such article from the get-go.As an idea for an article, it was both recycled and cheap. But when your editor is expecting a story and you are still addicted to having an apartment and eating, taking a cheap shot at somebody else can seem the perfectly sensible thing to do.
I long ago gave up expecting that any of our daily newspapers would have a go at anything like serious music reviews, or art reviews for that matter.
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