
We used to go hear these guys down on St Simons Island when I was a kid. I just found the old cassette tape and figured I had to transfer it, since it’s nowhere else to be found on the internets. You can’t go wrong with a song about butter beans.

We used to go hear these guys down on St Simons Island when I was a kid. I just found the old cassette tape and figured I had to transfer it, since it’s nowhere else to be found on the internets. You can’t go wrong with a song about butter beans.
Last night to celebrate quatro de mayo, we got together to record a few tunes by Ornette Coleman. This is the newest form of our Ornette Coleman project called “So Roam, Child” consisting of Preston Smith(Bass), Ben Williams(Drums), and me(Piano). We had never played or rehearsed the tunes with Ben before pushing record, but we have all been fans of Ornette’s music for a while and drew from our common knowledge of his melodies and philosophy. All of these recordings were obviously done in one take as you can’t rehearse this kind of music. It just happens. We used three mics and recorded at my house. Enjoy!
This first track is called “Congeniality” and is from The Shape of Jazz to Come
Heard this on H. Johnson in Atlanta few weeks ago and it blew me away. Erroll Garner playing “Once in a While”. I remember sight reading this tune on some gig a long time ago and thinking how boring it was. Obviously, I was wrong.

Tomorrow night at Flicker Bar, Preston Smith and I will be playing the music of Ornette Coleman. We’re going to be playing a bunch of music from “The Shape of Jazz to Come” as well as “Sound Grammar”. We’ll start around 8pm and will play one set of improvised/”free form” music drawing from Ornette’s melodies. I love this music and it’s been a great excuse to study it more.
Our name is “So Roam, Child.” (i.e. haRmolodiCS)
Show is Free!
This is cool but isn’t it obvious that an improviser would have “inhibition turned down and creativity cranked way up” in their brain. Ha!
“When jazz pianists are improvising riffs, their brains act much more like the dreaming brain, with inhibition turned down and creativity cranked way up, a new study finds.”
Hilarious to hear Bill Cosby talking about his experience as a jazz drummer.
I’m playing on WUOG’s Jazz in the lobby in two hours (at 7pm). I’ll be playing with Carlton Owens and Dennis Baraw http://wuog.org/
Let me know if you want me to give a shout out and I will
I’m listening to an interview Ethan Iverson conducted with Keith Jarrett for the BBC. This is great hearing him talk about the American quartet, a huge influence for the Bad Plus. If you’re into jazz and respect an intelligent interview, then check it out.
This will only be up for a few days on the bbc site.