ABSTRACT
Seven years ago, I wrote a chapter on Harmolodics for the book Better Get It In Your Soul (Hamilton and Rush 2008). The chapter was mostly written by me and then edited, as is this book, by my co-author Reid Hamilton. That chapter was also written as a result of conversations with Ornette Coleman, who is known in Jazz circles for his generosity in entertaining long discussions with virtually anybody. Shortly after the book was published, Geri Allen and I pushed successfully for Ornette to become an honorary Doctor of Arts at the University of Michigan. At the reception, I asked Ornette if we could talk at even greater length about Harmolodics, with the hope that I could write a longer, more complete take on the theory, as well as a more “raw” version of Ornette’s views on race, improvisation, and his place in history.
