Harmolodics is a musical philosophy and method of

musical composition Musical composition can refer to an Originality, original piece or work of music, either Human voice, vocal or Musical instrument, instrumental, the musical form, structure of a musical piece or to the process of creating or writing a new pie ...

and

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

developed by American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

saxophonist-composer

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Ja ...

. His work following this philosophy during the late 1970s and 1980s inspired a style of forward-thinking

jazz-funk Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat, electrified sounds, and analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creation of a genre that ranges from ...

known as harmolodic funk. It is associated with

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz, experimental jazz, or "new thing") is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through the late 1 ...

and

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

, although its implications extend beyond these limits. Coleman also used the name "Harmolodic" for both his first website and his record label.

Description

Coleman defined harmolodics as "the use of the physical and the mental of one's own logic made into an expression of sound to bring about the musical sensation of

unison Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...

executed by a single person or with a group". Applied to the particulars of music, this means that "harmony, melody, speed, rhythm, time and phrases all have equal position in the results that come from the placing and spacing of ideas". (see: aspects of music) Harmolodics seeks to free musical compositions from any tonal center, allowing harmonic progression independent of traditional European notions of tension and release (see:

atonality Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on ...

). Harmolodics may loosely be defined as an expression of music in which

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

, movement of sound, and

melody A melody (), also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combination of Pitch (music), pitch and rhythm, while more figurativel ...

all share the same value. The general effect is that music achieves an immediately open expression, without being constrained by tonal limitations, rhythmic pre-determination, or harmonic rules. Ronald Radano suggests that Coleman's concepts of harmonic unison and harmolodics were influenced by

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

's theory of aleatory while

Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...

suggested that harmolodics is based on the superimposition of the same or similar

phrases In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very ...

, thus creating

polytonality Polytonality (also polyharmony) is the musical use of more than one key (music), key simultaneity (music), simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one di ...

and

heterophony In music, heterophony is a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line. Such a texture can be regarded as a kind of complex monophony in which there is only one basic melody, but realized at the same time ...

. Coleman had been preparing a book called ''The Harmolodic Theory'' since at least the 1970s, but this remains unpublished. The only other known explanation of harmolodics that was written by Coleman is an article called "Prime Time for Harmolodics" (1983). Proponents include

James Blood Ulmer James "Blood" Ulmer (born February 8, 1940) is an American jazz, free funk and blues music, blues guitarist and singer. Ulmer plays a Gibson Byrdland guitar. His guitar sound has been described as "jagged" and "stinging". His singing has been ...

and

Jamaaladeen Tacuma Jamaaladeen Tacuma (born Rudy McDaniel; June 11, 1956) is an American jazz funk avant-garde bassist, composer and producer born in Hempstead, New York. He was a bandleader on the Gramavision label and worked with Ornette Coleman during the 197 ...

.Gioia, Ted (1990). ''The Imperfect Art: Reflections on Jazz and Modern Culture'', p. 43. . Ulmer, who played and toured with Coleman during the 1970s, has adopted harmolodics and applied the theories to his approach to jazz and blues guitar (for example, '' Harmolodic Guitar with Strings'').

Record label

In 1995, Coleman and his son, Denardo, established the Harmolodic record label, which had a marketing and distribution arrangement with

Verve Verve may refer to: Music * The Verve, an English rock band * '' The Verve E.P.'', a 1992 EP by The Verve * ''Verve'' (R. Stevie Moore album) * Verve Records, an American jazz record label Businesses * Verve Coffee Roasters, an American coffee h ...

/ PolyGram. The label released its first album, Coleman's ''

Tone Dialing Dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling is a telecommunication signaling system using the voice-frequency band over telephone lines between telephone equipment and other communications devices and switching centers. DTMF was first developed ...

'', in September 1995. Harmolodic went on to release new albums by Coleman and

Jayne Cortez Jayne Cortez (May 10, 1934 – December 28, 2012) was an African-American poet, activist, small press publisher and spoken-word performance artist. Her writing is part of the canon of the Black Arts Movement. She was married to jazz saxophonist ...

, and also reissued some of Coleman's previous albums. The label was based in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Discography

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Jazz techniques Record labels established in 1995 Defunct record labels of the United States Verve Records labels

Description

Record label

Discography

See also

References

External links