THE BAD PLUS: SCIENCE FICTION
LONG TREATMENT
THE BAD PLUS PERFORMS THE ORNETTE COLEMAN MASTERPIECE SCIENCE FICTION – WITH RON MILES, TIM BERNE, AND SAM NEWSOME
Ornette Coleman’s 1972 album Science Fiction is widely considered a landmark recording—and especially so for the members of The Bad Plus. Coleman’s singular combination of melodic beauty and avant-garde openness is enhanced by overdubs, vocals and a sonic production unlike any other jazz recording in existence. Science Fiction boldly insists on new spectrums of music that are possible.
After his famous early albums on Atlantic, Coleman reached an apex during the years of 1969-1972, when his core quartet consisted of Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell. Bebop, European modernism and free rhythms were all assimilated and liquefied. Although Coleman’s first quartet with Don Cherry and Billy Higgins was such a success on their debut at the Five Spot in 1959, this new group’s sound had a howling, epic quality – a quality hard to confine to smaller spaces. This sound was meant for the concert hall.
Science Fiction was the outcome of the new band’s single sojourn into a proper studio. The epic quality is captured by huge amplified bass and a weirdly “split” alto tone, almost as if Coleman is double-tracked. The album is a joyous assemblage of all the best musicians associated with Coleman – not just the 1969-1972 quartet, but included Cherry, Higgins and Bobby Bradford too. For the first time ever Coleman took on lyrics in a recording and thanks to Asha Puthli, the results are as memorable as the instrumental melodies.
What reason could I give to live
Only that I love you
How many times must I die for love
Only when I’m without you
Where will the clouds be
If not in the sky
When I die
Science Fiction was the last record of Coleman’s with his peers for the remainder of the decade. Foreshadowed by the Science Fiction song “Rock the Clock”, his next musical foray was with his group Prime Time which featured electric guitars, electric basses and drummers delivering dance beats.
There have been many attempts at reinterpreting the classic acoustic music of Ornette Coleman. One extreme is the approach taken by John Zorn on Spy vs. Spy – loud, aggressive, punk. Another was recently embodied by a concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center where a big band read complicated arrangements of the tunes over a rhythm section emulating the style (but not the spirit) of Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins.
As long as Reid Anderson, Ethan Iverson and David King have been making music together, Science Fictionhas been one of their touchstone records. One afternoon at a radio promo when King suggested The Bad Plus play “Street Woman”, the band didn’t hesitate to rehearse or discuss interpretation. No emulation of style was possible. Instead, the music simply fell out of the trio with complete naturalness.
Coleman’s compositions are too beautiful not to be treated with devoted respect. However, the last thing Coleman himself would want is a simple simulacrum of his style. (As a bandleader, Coleman has never hired musicians that imitate his early collaborators.)Science Fiction in particular boldly insists that any kind of music is possible. It is up to the interpreter to play themselves through Coleman’s melodies.
The Bad Plus has been widely heralded for their innovative re-workings of rock, indie-rock, electronica, and modernist classical music. The group recently tackled Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in the multi-media production ON SACRED GROUND (co-commissioned by Duke Performances and Lincoln Center), and in the wake of fruitful collaborations with Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and Mark Morris, The Bad Plus now turn to a jazz classic with Science Fiction to honor the great master of jazz avant-garde. No strangers to the music of Ornette Coleman, the band had the opportunity to perform selections from Science Fiction at the Walker Arts Center with Coleman himself in the audience. Coleman praised their ability to interpret his own music and artistic philosophy with the signature Bad Plus style, calling it “The performance I enjoyed most…they all sounded like individuals in the way they expressed it for themselves.”
Since the original album features a substantial horn presence, The Bad Plus is teaming up with an additional trio of accomplished musicians from three generations of jazz. Saxophonist Tim Berne is an elder who was a crucial early influence of The Bad Plus, saxophonist Sam Newsome is a peer renowned for both his solo concerts and recordings throughout a very unique career, and trumpeter Ron Miles has had a prodigious career as a bandleader and collaborator with the likes of Bill Frisell.
There will be vocals and possibly an electronic element as the vision of Ornette Coleman is explored by an extraordinary grouping of musicians.
“Searching for beauty” will be the ensemble’s prime directive.
For more information call International Music Network at 978-283-2883 or visit our website: