This one, I believe, is the first "Ornette, let me borrow your band" records that I'm reviewing. Most of the tracks feature Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, and Eddie Blackwell - all members of Coleman's band. Some tracks have Percy Heath replacing Haden on bass. I find the relationship amongst the MJQ and Ornette Coleman to be fascinating in the early 1960s. They seem, to some point to be polar opposites, yet the MJQ recorded Lonely Woman, published Coleman's compositions, and educated him and Cherry at the Music Inn.
I don't care for this record, and although this may be blasphemous, it is mainly due to the playing of Coltrane! His opening solo on Cherryco sounds very amateur, almost like he is not quite sure what he is doing. I also find the tracks when he plays the soprano sax sound very out of tune.
People have preconceived notions of what Avant Garde means, and I think many people would be interested in hearing how straight ahead this recording is. It is still a band jamming on tunes... it is not quite Ascension, or some of the other late Coltrane recordings.
It is important to mention that although this record was released in 1967, it was recorded in June and July of 1960. This would have been before Coltrane had released "My Favorite Things," just to put things into perspective.
The recording of Focus on Sanity has a funky middle-eastern interlude that is nice. I thought it was it's own tune, but maybe it is part of focus on sanity...
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