ABSTRACT
Harmolodics is about the relationship between style and process in improvisation. It is also about human rights and issues surrounding equality. Simply put, Harmo - lodics respects every single voice in an ensemble, without creating a preference or elevated function for any one instrument. This is consistent with the founding principles of Jazz, expressed in the music of Louis Armstrong and King Oliver. Of Armstrong and Oliver, Ornette says, “they had something to back them up, and that’s what we call Sound.” When Ornette said that to me, it brought to my mind the opening sentence from the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.” Sound is the fundamental principle of music, and Ornette is saying that the origins of Jazz contain that funda mental principle-Sound. Sound is a term that Ornette often uses idiosyncratically. In addition to the textbook definition of Sound, Ornette’s approach to the topic includes emotion, source, human connection-the metaphysical origins from which his music emerges.
