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September 20, 2010
Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden: 'Soapsuds, Soapsuds' (1978 Artists House LP)
Ornette Coleman followed his first two electric albums ('Body Meta' and 'Dancing in your head', both recorded in 1976) with an acoustic album of duets with his 'classic quartet' bassist Charlie Haden. I can only take Mr. Coleman at his word that 'there is a singer named Allison Mills who makes her own soap suds'. 'Soapsuds, Soapsuds' opens with the theme from 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman', one of Coleman's rare non-originals. Louise Lasser starred as the pigtailed and depressed housewife 'Mary Hartman' in Norman Lear's 'controversial' soap opera spoof. It was on every weekday right before the evening news. The gloopy title music is a parody of standard telenovela schmaltz and has been lodged in my head now for more than three decades. In any case, it's a nice tune; Coleman and Haden play it mostly straight (although Haden's solo spot begins with his harmolodic trash compaction of the plummy open-sixth accompaniment into sarcastic double-stopped minor seconds.) 'Mary Hartman' segues into four O.C. originals, including the first appearance of 'Sex Spy' – one of my favorite of Coleman's occasionally kinky song titles.Ornette Coleman is on tenor saxophone and trumpet; Charlie Haden is on bass. (I posted Haden's earlier duets album 'The Golden Number' on the High Pony Tail.) This is a vinyl rip with some light ClickRepair work. The surface noise at the beginning of Side One quickly improves. I have included a PDF of the booklet came with the Artists House LP. It contains transcriptions of the music, as well as discographies for both Coleman and Haden, current as of 1978.
Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden: 'Soapsuds, Soapsuds' – FLAC and scans
Originally from Avant que j'oublie, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Sep 20, 2010 at 05:13 PM