{"id":7648,"date":"2024-01-21T20:56:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-22T02:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=7648"},"modified":"2024-01-22T18:37:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T00:37:51","slug":"harmony-george-coleman-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/harmony-george-coleman-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Harmony on Your Side: A Conversation with George Coleman (Part Two)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We continue our conversation with NEA Jazz Master George Coleman (read part one here)<\/a> by continuing to discuss his time with Miles Davis, Donald Byrd, the recording session for Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage<\/em>, working with organists, and ballads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PostGenre: There is a famous story about your time with Miles. Tony Williams, especially, had been giving you a hard time over playing fairly traditionally, and you got fed up with Tony’s comments. So, one night with Miles, you shocked everyone by playing a very free solo. You proved that it is not that you cannot play free, just that you choose not to. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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George Coleman: Oh, yeah, that was one of the things. I redeemed myself, and I also enlightened them. One night I decided to show them I could do what they thought I couldn’t. I played \u201cout\u201d, so to speak; played avant-garde, which the others in the group were trying to do during that time. Avant-garde music seemed like the hip thing at that time. For a long time, Herbie, Ron, and especially Tony, kept asking Miles to move away from bebop and towards something more open. They saw me, to some extent, as an obstacle to that happening. They saw me as too old-fashioned in how I approached music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That particular night, I decided to show these guys I could do what they thought I couldn’t. That was what they wanted me to do anyway. So, Miles kicked off a very fast \u201cWalkin\u2019\u201d. Miles played his solo, then went off to the bar and had some champagne, as he often did, while the rest of us played. Herbie played his solo. Then I played mine. I surprised the other guys by playing so \u201cout.\u201d They asked me why I hadn\u2019t been doing that all along. But then Miles rushed up to the bandstand from the bar and said, “Man, what the fuck was that?” He had never heard me play on the outside either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that night, I didn’t go “out” again. I went right back to playing harmony and changes. I just wanted to illustrate to the other guys that I could do it, so they would get off my back. They no longer saw me as some dated MF. They still wanted me to play more “out,” but that wasn\u2019t for me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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