Old And New Dreams
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Old and New Dreams was an 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 ...
group that was active from 1976 to 1987. The group was composed of
tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...
player
Dewey Redman Walter Dewey Redman (May 17, 1931 – September 2, 2006) was an American saxophonist who performed free jazz as a bandleader with Ornette Coleman and Keith Jarrett. Redman mainly played tenor saxophone, though he occasionally also played alto s ...
(doubling on musette),
bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...
Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playin ...
,
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
er
Don Cherry Donald Stewart Cherry (born February 5, 1934) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, coach, and television commentator. He played one game in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Boston Bruins. After concluding a playing career in the A ...
and
drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...
mer
Ed Blackwell Edward Joseph Blackwell (October 10, 1929 – October 7, 1992) was an American jazz drummer, best known known for his work with saxophonist Ornette Coleman. Biography Blackwell was born in New Orleans on October 10, 1929. His career began ther ...
. All of the members were former sidemen of
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 ...
progenitor and
alto saxophonist The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E, smaller tha ...
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 ...
, and the group played a mix of Coleman's compositions and originals by the band members. The members of Old and New Dreams had deep personal and musical ties to Coleman. Dewey Redman attended high school in
Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
, where his classmates and bandmates were Coleman,
Charles Moffett Charles Moffett (September 6, 1929 – February 14, 1997) was an American free jazz drummer. Biography Moffett was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended I.M. Terrell High School with Ornette Coleman. Before switching to drums, Moffett ...
, and
Prince Lasha William B. Lawsha, better known as Prince Lasha (), (September 10, 1929 – December 12, 2008) was an United States of America, American jazz alto saxophonist, flautist, baritone saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist and English horn player. Life a ...
. He was featured on a number of Coleman's albums, beginning with ''
New York Is Now! __NOTOC__ ''New York Is Now!'' is an album by the American jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman released on the Blue Note Records, Blue Note label in 1968.
'' and '' Love Call'', both recorded in the spring of 1968. Ed Blackwell met Coleman in
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
in 1949, and the two later shared a house in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. Blackwell joined Coleman's band in 1959 during a gig at the Five Spot, replacing
Billy Higgins Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop. Biography Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, be ...
, who lost his cabaret card. He made his first recorded appearance with Coleman in 1960 on '' This Is Our Music''. Don Cherry met Coleman in the mid-1950s while playing in a band called the Jazz Messiahs, and, after joining his band, was featured on over a dozen albums with Coleman, beginning with the saxophonist's 1958 debut recording ''
Something Else!!!! ''Something Else!!!!'' (subtitled ''The Music of Ornette Coleman'') is the debut album by jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman. It was released by Contemporary Records in September 1958. According to AllMusic, the album "shook up the jazz world", rev ...
''. Charlie Haden met Coleman shortly after the 1958 recording session, and at the time was playing with
Paul Bley Paul Bley, Order of Canada, CM (November 10, 1932 – January 3, 2016) was a Canadian jazz pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing and his early live per ...
. In the fall of 1958, Coleman, Cherry, Haden, and Higgins joined Bley for a six-week job at the Hilcrest Club in Los Angeles, recording the material released in the 1970s on '' Live at the Hilcrest Club 1958'' and ''
Coleman Classics Volume 1 ''Coleman Classics Volume 1'' is a live album by pianist Paul Bley, saxophonist Ornette Coleman, trumpeter Don Cherry, drummer Billy Higgins and bassist Charlie Haden recorded in California in 1958 and released Bley's on the Improvising Artists l ...
'', after which the four continued as a quartet, with Blackwell later replacing Higgins. Cherry, Haden, and Blackwell appeared with
John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the Jazz#Post-war jazz, history of jazz and 20th-century musi ...
on the album '' The Avant-Garde'', recorded in 1960 and featuring three Coleman compositions, and continued to record extensively with Coleman through the 1960s and 1970s. In the early 1970s, Redman and Haden, along with drummer
Paul Motian Stephen Paul Motian (March 25, 1931 – November 22, 2011) was an American jazz drummer, percussionist, and composer of Armenian descent. He played an important role in freeing jazz drummers from strict time-keeping duties. Motian first came t ...
, joined
Keith Jarrett Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also be ...
's band, while Cherry and Blackwell toured and recorded together. The four also appeared together on the Coleman albums ''
Science Fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
'' and '' Broken Shadows'', recorded in 1971. In 1975, Coleman formed his electric band
Prime Time Prime time, or peak time, is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for television shows. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
, and shortly afterward, Jarrett's group disbanded. The following year, after the notion of reforming the acoustic Coleman quartet fell through, the four recorded their first album as Old and New Dreams. Regarding the group's origins and approach to improvisation, Haden commented: "before we met, all of us were already hearing and wanting to play things that other musicians weren't playing... We were after something like pure spontaneity... improvising on the feeling of the tunes we were playing rather than on the chord structures. When we would try that individually, back in the mid-1950s, the musicians we were playing with would get upset. But when we finally got together, we were able to play the most spontaneous music we'd ever played." He continued: "Some people still think that we just get up and start improvising... but our playing has its own structure. Instead of following a regular chord pattern, we use the melodies of the compositions as a guide and create new chord structures every time we play them. That's why playing really challenging compositions, Ornette's and our own, is so important to us. In a similar vein, Redman stated: "the improvisation... relates to the melody, whatever the melody is stated at the beginning, and you, when you improvise around that... you're relating to that structure. However, that can be very complex, because... you might be thinking of the melody, but you might also be thinking of... different phrases that go with the melody or maybe go against the melody." The group toured intermittently over a period of roughly eleven years, and released two records on the German jazz label
ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...
: a self-titled release in 1979 and ''
Playing Play is a range of Motivation#Intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsically motivated activities done for recreation. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other high ...
'', recorded live, a year later. These discs were bookended by a pair of discs on the Italian
Black Saint Black Saint and Soul Note are two affiliated Italy, Italian independent record labels. Since their conception in the 1970s, they have released albums from a variety of influential jazz musicians, particularly in the genre of free jazz. History ...
label: a studio record from 1976 (also
self-titled An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
) and 1987's '' A Tribute to Blackwell'', capturing a performance at a birthday celebration for Blackwell. A 1986 performance, with Paul Motian substituting for Blackwell, was released by Condition West Recordings in 2017 with the title ''Old and New Dreams Live in Saalfelden, 1986''. Cherry and Blackwell later appeared (without Redman) on Haden's 1989 album '' The Montreal Tapes: with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell'', and the entire group reunited for the last time in 1991 at
Alice Tully Hall Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The hall is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and Philanthropy, philanthropist whose donations assis ...
for an event called "Dewey's Circle", where they were joined by pianist
Geri Allen Geri Antoinette Allen (June 12, 1957 – June 27, 2017) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. She taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh. Early life and education Allen was born in Pontiac, Michigan ...
. Blackwell died in 1992, Cherry in 1995, Redman in 2006, and Haden in 2014. In 2017, Dewey Redman's son, saxophonist
Joshua Redman Joshua Redman (born February 1, 1969) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He is the son of jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman (1931–2006). Life and career Joshua Redman was born in Berkeley, California, to jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman a ...
, recorded '' Still Dreaming'' as a tribute to Old and New Dreams.


Reception

Reviewer
Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author. Life and career Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Beginning in 1974, Yanow was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles and was the jazz e ...
called Old and New Dreams "one of the late '80s finest groups", and stated that "they joined
The Mingus Dynasty ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
,
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, and Dameronia as bands that weren't simply repertory units, but evolving groups using a great composer's material as a starting point for their own peerless interpretations."
Stanley Crouch Stanley Lawrence Crouch (December 14, 1945 – September 16, 2020) was an American cultural critic, poet, playwright, novelist, biographer, and syndicated columnist. He was known for his jazz criticism and his 2000 novel ''Don't the Moon Lo ...
wrote that the band "made it clear... how very different what rnetteColeman had introduced into jazz was from the bulk of the music played by those usually said to be in the jazz vanguard. They swung, they were melody makers, and the whole tradition of jazz flowed through their playing exactly as it did from the best of the musicians who had come forward since the bebop movement of the forties."
Robert Palmer Robert Allen Palmer (19 January 1949 – 26 September 2003) was an English singer and songwriter. He was known for his powerful and soulful voice, sartorial elegance and stylistic explorations, combining soul, funk, jazz, rock, pop, regga ...
stated: "The band's style is as broadly eclectic as the players' disparate personalities and experiences. But Old and New Dreams is also a kind of floating conservatory that keeps the music of the early Coleman quartets - the original 'free jazz' - alive and before the public."
Francis Davis Francis John Davis (August 30, 1946 – April 14, 2025) was an American author and journalist known for having been the jazz critic for ''The Village Voice'' and a contributing editor for ''The Atlantic''. He also worked in radio and film, and ...
wrote: "If the myth that Coleman had to be physically present in order for his music to be played properly persisted in some quarters, Old and New Dreams dispelled it once and for all. The band played Coleman's music with a joy and a sense of purpose that bore witness to Coleman's acuity as a composer. The success of Old and New Dreams showed that the music that had once been both hailed and reviled as the wave of the future had taken a firm enough hold in the past to inspire nostalgia."


Discography

Studio albums: * '' Old and New Dreams'' (Black Saint, 1977) * '' Old and New Dreams'' (ECM, 1979) Live albums: * ''
Playing Play is a range of Motivation#Intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsically motivated activities done for recreation. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other high ...
'' (ECM, 1980) * '' A Tribute to Blackwell'' (Black Saint, 1987)


References

{{Authority control American jazz ensembles ECM Records artists Black Saint/Soul Note artists Musical groups established in 1976 Musical groups disestablished in 1987 American musical quartets 1976 establishments in the United States