Skies Of America

Review by Thom Jurek

Here’s what is known about Ornette Coleman’s first recorded orchestral symphonic work (he had written others previously and had them performed but never put on tape): After hiring conductor David Measham and the London Symphony Orchestra, British musicians’ union rules prohibited Coleman from using his own quartet to play on the record. As a result, he had to re-examine the work without the concerto grosso form and, to fit the work on a single LP, he had to cut many of the recurrent themes of the work. It is also known that the recording quality isn’t the greatest. So what? The bottom line is this: In the 21st century, Skies of America, which was Ornette’s first attempt at employing his newly developed harmolodic theory (whereby using modulation many players could solo at once using different keys), still sounds ahead of its time. Though there are 21 bands marked on the cover, this is a single unbroken work with many of the themes recurring — either in that they had long been present in Ornette’s musical iconography, or would become so. (Check the theme in “The Good Life,” as it evolved from “School Work” from 1962 and became “Dancing in Your Head” in the late ’70s.) Coleman himself solos beautifully in the middle of the disc, from “The Artist in America” on and off until the work’s end with “Sunday in America.” This is loaded music: politically, emotionally, and also spiritually.