Monday, October 8, 2007

Ornette Coleman, an architect

Daniel McClure compares Ornette Coleman's music with the ideas of the Dutch architect and member of the "International Situationists" Constant ( Pop Matters ). Both were trying to achieve a new consciousness liberating the individual from the philosophical restraints in Western society. McClure explains how Coleman expanded the language of bebop when he arrived in New York in the late 50s, developing the music away from Western structures and toward freer playing. He compares Coleman's aesthetic with Constant's utopian ideal city, New Babylon. Both anticipated the cultural and political upheavals of the late 60s, which were aiming at a society in which great diversity and permanent change will be accepted. Serious reading, but worthwhile to give it some thought.

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