Ornette At 12 / Crisis

As the man who basically invented free jazz and even coined the term, Ornette Coleman has had the vast majority of his catalog reissued on CD, and rightfully so. But there are two records, both recorded for the Impulse! label, that have somehow escaped digitization until now, The first, Ornette at 12, features Ornette on alto sax, trumpet, and violin with Dewey Redman on tenor sax, long-time collaborator Charlie Haden on bass, and son Denardo (age 12 at the time of the August 1968 recording) on drums. The jazz world was still getting over the effrontery of Denardo playing drumshe had made his debut two years earlier on The Empty Foxholewhich may explain why this ones remained in the vaults till now. But Redmans playing on tenor is just stellar, and Ornettes untrained trumpet and violin technique make a nice foil for Denardos fresh approach to the traps. Another boundarypushing record in a career full of them. But if its a puzzle that Ornette at 12 has not been previously reissued, its a downright mystery why Crisis also hasnt come out; recorded live at N.Y.U. with a killer band of Redman, Haden, Denardo, and Don Cherry on flute and trumpet, it takes its place with Broken Shadows and Science Fiction as one of Ornettes great small group recordings of the late 60s and early 70s. The version of Hadens Song for Che is one of the best on record, the rendition of Broken Shadows here is simply beautiful, which is not a term many associate with Colemans playing, and the addition of Don Cherry fresh from his own experiments in Indian and African musicspices up what is already a pretty heady brew. Real Gone Musics two-for-one reissue of this pair of albums features the original gatefold album art and an essay by Howard Mandel, author of Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz. Remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision from original tape sources.