7/19/07

George Coleman on YouTube


Tim Price sent me these links:

with Ahmed Jamal- My foolish heart

with Cedar Walton- Naima

I Could Write A Book: The Music Of Richard Rodgers
My Horns of Plenty
Dynamic Duo

1 comment:

MonksDream said...

This is some great footage of George Coleman. It's funny to analyze my own reaction to the posting. The first few times I was on the blog, I just ignored them.

Then, tonight, I thought, "I gotsta check out some George Coleman, since he's one of my 3 favorite saxophonists whose last name is Coleman, along with Steve and Ornette, but not including Gary er, oops, he's a midget comedian."

After watching both, in particular "My Foolish Heart," I remembered what I always loved about his playing. Here's a guy who has clearly mastered a lot of extended techniques, closed tube harmonics, altissimo, circular breathing, and some interesting false fingerings, but manages to use them all just enough to add color and texture to his solo (feeding in to David's last posting.)

Another thing that I've always liked about George Coleman, is, apart from playing a shitload of saxophone, he plays his own licks. He and Joe Henderson remind me of each other, in that they were both clearly influenced by Trane, but both remain themselves and never sound like they're stringing together a whole bunch of licks.

Instead, they both weave in and out of a melodic lyricism, with some textural, almost mathematical patterns on the keys which help build solid solo architectures. Hats off to both George and Joe, masters of the tenor saxophone.

One more thing, I would love to know what type of mike George uses in the My Foolish Heart footage as the sound is absolutely unbelievable. Maybe it's also the P.A. and the mix, but it maintains a warm dark sound without the normal tinnishness.

9:20 PM

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