This record is like a layer cake, or is perhaps better likened to sweet and sour sauce. The sweet being the almost conventional treatment of the six ‘ordinary’ numbers; the sour – to most ears – being the free-form tracks, Beams, Movement and Spaces.
The accusation has been made before that Joe Harriott, in his free-form work, is merely doing an imitation of Ornette Coleman. I think that is the type of semi-formed opinion which is based on outward appearances only, and which presupposes some laziness in the listener. There is also the assumption that in following Ornette, other musicians are doing themselves a disservice. I seriously doubt if anyone is capable of copying Coleman, even if they want to; his great merit is that he is fiercely individual, and he has the added quality of playing an extremely vocal line. He may have followers, but they are certainly not copyists – their own formidable personalities would inhibit that.
Alright then, if this is Ornette Coleman type music, it is that with a considerable difference. It lacks almost all the vocal form of the original master, it is very schooled, its feeling is much cooler, and it contains a good deal of the mail-fisted Debussy approach which is an essential of Monk.
Of the free-form pieces, Movement is turbulent, Spaces is what its name suggests, reminding one of the definition of a net, ‘holes sewn together with string’. Beams is probably the one to try out on yourself.
The rest of the session is dwarfed by the free-form pieces which all have a built-in impact. They are good, swinging, attractive material, the sort of feeling blowing jazz which is still to be found, and always enjoyable.
Discography
Morning Blue; Beams; Count Twelve; Face In The Crowd; Revival (21½ min) – Blues On Blues; Spaces; Spiritual Blues; Movement (19 min)
Shake Keane (tpt/flg); Joe Harriott (alt); Pat Smythe (p); Coleridge Goode (bs); Bobby Orr (d). London, 1963.
Columbia 33SX 1627 12inLP 32s
