I have tons of Ornette recordings, but this being an LP-specific listening project, I’m limited to:

• The Great London Concert – It’s great, just like the title suggests.  The first side, “Forms and Sounds for Wind Quintet” is lovely, fascinating.  Then, the band comes on and it’s just amazing from then on.  I love this band, with David Izenson on bass and Charles Moffett on drums.  Check out the amazing Live at the Golden Circle records for more with that great band, recorded on the same tour.  On “Silence,” he quoted “Cherokee,” which was pretty hilarious.  The crowd went wild.
• Skies of America – Wow.  This totally floors me. There’s this great quote from Allmusic (which I found on Wikipedia), that this “is still dangerous and rewarding music.”  I totally agree.  The whole first side is just strings (London Symphony Orchestra), but when Ornette finally comes in on the last track, side one (“The Artist in America”), it’s glorious.  And the backgrounds are like Thrash Metal for Orchestra.
• Soapsuds, Soapsuds – A duo record with the great Charlie Haden.  This is my favorite period for Haden’s playing, the ’70s.  The bummer about my copy of this record is that it comes with an 8-page booklet, which I don’t have.  But the music is amazing, peaceful, searching, curious, lively, lovely.
• Virgin Beauty – This is with Prime Time, Ornette’s electric funk band.  I bought it around 1990, initially because Jerry Garcia is on it, and I was contemplating the Dead.  Actually, I didn’t like it that much at first, because I just couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on.  Now, I love it, even though it’s not the first Ornette album I run to.  In August, 1992, when I moved from the mid-west to Boston, I found myself sitting in the Philadelphia train station next to a drummer.  We were talking.  He had his cymbal bag and I had my basses.  It was a good hang.  Full of myself and over-confident, I said, “I’m moving to Boston to go to Berklee,” as if my destiny was to bring peace and love to the universe through music.  He said, “I’m heading into NYC to play a few gigs with Ornette Coleman.”  It completely flipped me out.  That was Grant Calvin Weston, the drummer on this record, and I think I had even been listening to a cassette of this record on that trip.  The tune “Singing in the Shower” is so Arsenio Hall show, but if it were in Star Wars.

Next up, some Coltrane records.  But this moment brings a problem.  Sitting there on the shelf is the Complete John Coltrane on Prestige, packaged in an LP-sized box, but consisting of CDs!  What to do?  Well, I think I’ll listen to them, because they are absolutely amazing.  Note to self, fix iTunes on this computer…

Best, R.