ORNETTE COLEMAN – Body Meta (LP-1978 / Artists House – AH 9401)

Label: Artists House – AH 9401 / Artists House – AH 1

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold / Country: Canada / Released: 1978

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded at Barclay Studios, Paris, Dec. 1976 / Mixed at Sound Ideas, N.Y.C.,1978

Artwork [Booklet] – Robert Rauschenberg

Artwork [Cover Backside] – Elizabeth Atnafu

Artwork [Cover Front] – Chief Z.K. Oloruntoba

Artwork [Cover Inside 1] – Barbara Hager

Artwork [Cover Inside 2] – Guy Harloff

Photography By [Artwork Booklet] – Wallace Litwin

Photography By [Artwork Cover] – Mike Hoeye

Photography By [Portrait] – James Hamilton

Engineer – Francis Maimay

Mastered By – Bob Ludwig

Mixed By – John Snyder, Kathy Dennis, Ornette Coleman

Composed By, Producer  – Ornette Coleman

Matrix / Runout: side a: AH9401-A AH-1-A

Matrix / Runout: side b: AH9401-B AH-1-B

This release can be found with least two different versions of the booklet. One with the Rauschenberg art and another (later? more commonly found) version with art by David Sharpe.

A1 - Voice Poetry ............................................................................... 8:10

A2 - Home Grown .............................................................................. 7:45

B1 - Macho Woman ........................................................................... 7:30

B2 - Fou Amour .................................................................................. 8:30

B3 - European Echoes ....................................................................... 9:25

Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone

Bern Nix – guitar

Charlie Ellerbee – guitar

Jamaaladeen Tacuma – bass

Ronald Shannon Jackson – drums, percussion

The establishment of Ornette Coleman's self-determining Artists House label and his electric double-trio Prime Time coincided with the release of Body Meta, which changed many of the business and musical contours of jazz in the mid- to late '70s.

It was an indisputable new music amalgam that Coleman could claim as his own, yet which sprang forth into the so-called M-Base music movement of New York City.

This album was the 1st ever to be released on the Artist's House label back in 1978, & that translates literally to the cover of Body Meta, a gatefold featuring 4 works by different artists, that one on the front is by a tribal leader, probably from when Ornette went to Morrocco to see the Jajouka musicians which inspired Dancing In Yr Head...

Staccato drums then guitars open the album on Voice Poetry, & it flows along brilliantly to feature this new band of guitarists Bern Nix & Charlie Ellerbee, bassist [electric that is] Jamalaadeen Tacuma & drummer Shannon Jackson for a couple of minutes before the arrival of the man himself. He is the star & his playing is as pure & soulful as it was back on the Shape of Jazz to Come, & in a way it's unfortunate that everything else gets buried underneath it after this but it works well. The comparisons to the Trout Mask Magic Band do make sense although this is not as cacaphonous & seemingly chaotic [Beefheart although being highly influenced by Coleman, like to only have himself allowed to improvise while his groups must stick strictly to what he composed & his personality is a bit more obsessive too], Body Meta is one of the rare things worthy of being played directly after that in-a-world-of-its-own masterpiece. Each track here is around 8 minutes which is enough time to explore without losing the listening audience. The next 2 tracks move along nicely in a similar vein whilst Fou Amour [i.e. Mad Love] is a ballad & the guitars are playing parts normally designed for a piano. European Echoes if I'm not mistaken was an older tune from the Golden Circle & is rather graceful but thankfully lets loose a bit on the outro, by which time I want to spin the whole platter again which I could do for hours on end. This is music of pure soul expression & deserves a lot of repeated listening, it's highly danceable/funky too. I would highly recommend it to anyone, for the body and the mind.

By Funkmeister G on April 17, 2001

Every track is different, Coleman's vision has a diffuse focus, but it's clear that things have changed. Even his personal sound is more pronounced, unleashed from shackles, and more difficult to pin down.


And of course, HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone!

If you find it, buy this album!