Exciting but apart from 3 cuts it's far from top rate Ornette
1. The sound quality is sometimes poor, particularly the drumset, with the sounds of the individual instruments merging together in an indistinct mess. The audience applause after solos irritates me too.

2. The music is typically Ornette: as he's said in the past, in a sense he's been playing the same tune most of his career. In this live performance he continues the tradition, re-using his elegant licks: a type of bebop as a previous reviewer stated. Sure it may seem very old-fashioned by now but the soulful execution is usually timeless. (Mozart used an already well established musical language but trancended any need to develop it.)

There's very little of Coleman's idiosyncratic trumpet and violin work which after my 30 years as an Ornette fan I find generally more exciting than his sax playing. (For example the cut Falling Star from a live concert in Copenhagen 1965 has some delicious offerings of both: see "all my reviews".)

3. With regard to the drumset work by Denardo, as well as being poorly recorded it tends to a busy, unrelenting style often with simplistic cymbal sizzle overkill which for me is often quite irritating. If only he could appreciate silence and more of a sense of space - in some of the more reflective passages I longed for a total absence of percussion. Still, as Coleman often seems to favor what some people have unflatteringly called "scrambled egg music", the drumset style and arrangements may be at Coleman's direction.

The good:

5 stars for the beautiful rendition of "Sleep Talking" which makes this CD a must have for my collection of about 30 albums under the Ornette name.

5 stars for the elegantly arranged "Waiting for You" which also has tasty individual performances, particularly the arco bass work and Coleman's sax work.

5 stars for "Once Only", again an elegant arrangement which tells a story over time.

Overall, for those new to Ornette: there are much better Coleman albums available with superior drumming and groove. (E.g. Ornette! recorded Jan 1961 with drumming to die for by Ed Blackwell, very tasty bass playing from the brilliant Scott LeFaro and some excellent work by Don Cherry on pocket trumpet.)

Pulitzer Prize Winning Album!
It was announced today that this album won the Pulitzer Prize for music. Congratulations Mr. Coleman!

Switching Instruments
Coleman's play on different instruments showed a lot of skill, but the music seemed to lose some of its spontaneity in the process. The jazz represented to me a kind of neo-be-bop that lacked lyrical luster and moving harmonies.

jwc

Not a Coleman fan after all.
Thought Coleman was a different type of jazz musician than he is. If you want melody and mellow, forget Coleman. If you like dissonance, try him

Just Beautiful
The return of acoustic Ornette Coleman, beautifully recorded, a wonderfully intuitive and interactive band, and the leader playing as sweetly as he ever has in his life. This is my favorite album of Ornette's since Song X and a reminder that the jazz greats just get better and better as they age.