Science Fiction

Listening to Ornette Coleman's 1971 album Science Fiction this evening, perhaps my favourite Ornette album, a dazzling salvo of high velocity fire music brimming over with brilliant ideas and memorable hooks. I've always loved the title of this album - one would think it more suited to Herbie Hancock's early 70's albums with their electronic window dressing, but here it lends a much more enigmatic flavor, echoing the futuristic mood of album titles like Tomorrow Is the Question and The Shape of Jazz To Come. Columbia's 2000 remaster of the album, part of the expanded 2-disc Complete Science Fiction Sessions sounds incredible and one to play loud, with James Jordan's spacey production complimenting some terrific performances from Don Cherry, Billy Higgins and in particular Charlie Haden delivering some fantastic angular basslines that wouldn't sound out of place on a moody post-punk album. I love the album sleeve also, an ethereal sunset river vista layered several times to create an exotic, impossible alien landscape. Science fiction indeed !