This work was meant to be a collaboration of a full orchestra, in this case the London Symphony Orchestra (conducted by David Measham) with Coleman’s quartet, but conflicts with the musicians’ union in Britain forced the quartet players from the recording. Skies of America is a third-stream composition, meaning that it encompasses parts of traditional classical music and parts of contemporary jazz. He has pushed limits and created new musical spaces that yearn for response in some kind of dialogue of form and structure. Coleman has been called “no technical virtuoso,” but his musical mind cannot be ignored. Then at other times, such as on Skies of America, Coleman’s music takes on a formal structure that resists earlier boundaries and sets new, more interwoven ones. These forms come from within, from an individual who can mold and meld with Coleman’s temporal musical community. At times his music has verged on the one-world continuity that often leaves the world of economic inequalities behind for a higher vision of musical perpetuity and equivalence. His music sought new forms and structures, not just a lack of form. Coleman’s music has always pressed against boundaries, not wishing to break though, but rather just distorting the norm. Neither Skies of America nor Science Fiction will go over very well at a cocktail party, cultured attendees or no. Call and response must always be done in the same language. Strange rhythms still baffle most people. The boundaries that Coleman pushed may have sprung back in the last few decades. Of course this lack of attention also means minimal commercial success, but then again, Coleman isn’t dead yet and such commercial/cultural accolades seem to rain down upon artists after they’re six feet under.
Ornette Coleman has never been graced by such cultural absorption and sterilization. Now, Picasso prints adorn dorm walls and Coltrane and Davis play quietly in the background of polite, but cultured, cocktail parties. Charlie Parker just made lots of staccato noise. John Coltrane used to hurt people’s ears.