“Something here?.”

I have been drawn to Ornette’s music since I began playing alto saxophone over 50 years ago. In 1974, after I had left school at 16, I was working in an office and saved up enough money to buy a saxophone after realising there must be more to life than filling out motor insurance claim forms and staring at the office clock hoping it would get to 5pm quickly each day.

Ornette was an early influence and the album Live At The Golden Circle was the first I purchased (along with Bird and Diz) and the tune Dee Dee was the first I tried to learn. The saxophone I bought was a white plastic Grafton alto as I had seen a photo of Ornette with one on those early Atlantic Records albums.

Over the years in my musical and personal development I have a returned to Ornette Coleman and Charlie Parker for further inspiration and each time discovering something new about them and deepening my connection with this music. I have had projects playing this music with like-minded souls over the years.

In recent years I have been going through an Ornette period again now and have transcribed many of these wonderful melodies. In fact, working out these tunes has kept me going through this challenging period in our history. In this new band, In All Languages, it is wonderful to hear how these musicians interpret these melodies as inspirations for improvising together and telling their own story.

Many of Ornette’s melodies have become ‘standards’ being played by many musicians all over the world such as Lonely Woman, Ramblin’ and Law Years but there are many undiscovered gems that are not played as often or at all by others. We have over 100 tunes to draw on and the repertoire is growing. This music is endless. Ornette is the supreme melodist.