Ornette Coleman - 1958
‘Invisible’ is the first song on Ornette Coleman’s debut album “Something Else!!” We can find many of the components of “Collective Form” Jazz here.
Right from the start Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and Billy Higgins had a fully formed vision of how they wanted their new music to sound but finding a like minded bass player would need to wait for their third album, “The Shape of Jazz to Come”. When we discussed the characteristics of this “Collective Form” (Link) we outlined some key features of the style.
Rhythmically, drummer Billy Higgins sticks to traditional, Period based drumming here. By 1960 Coleman was playing with both Higgins and the more Pulse oriented drummer, Ed Blackwell (Link).
Structurally, ‘Invisible’ is 8 bars long with an 8 bar bridge (A-A-B-A). The bridge is improvised. I would guess that Coleman envisioned the break as a collective improve with incidental harmony but the bass player sticks to a more traditional “Unbroken Chain” of II-V changes.
The A-section builds tension chromatically from Db to F followed by a III-VI-II-V-I ending on C.
Coleman always seemed to ground his compositions and improvisations in the blues (Link). Notice how the riff at the end of the A-section uses b3, b7 and b5.
If your preparing an improvisation on this piece keep in mind repetition and motifs are the main forms of Aural Logic in this style. I sketched out a little bridge to help make this point. The little 1/4 – 1/8 – 1/4 pattern in bar 11 is repeated throughout. There is also a little call back to the A-section in bars 14 and 15. Use upper structure content freely by overlaying pentatonic structures a tone above the root movement.
Try maintaining a “roots” feel with octaves, fifths and thirds rather than the “jazzy” feel of dominant 7ths.