| as promised...
what a gig....
anyone who gets a chance to see this 4tet should take it. Ornette was wonderful, not lost any of his tone on alto and sounding better than ever on trumpet. Greg Cohen sounded very haden-like, and took a couple of gorgeous solos. Tony Falanga played almost entirely arco, and took the Don Cherry role in the band more than a bassists, playing clean, melodic lines most of the time. When he did try to play a bit of jazz pizz, he wasn't really up to the job, especially in comparison to Greg Cohen.
Dernado is a good, though not in my opinion great, drummer and kept things moving along.
But Ornette's playing was magical, really special atmosphere and when they played Lonely women it brought tears to my eyes!
The only downside to the evening was a boring, soporific and frankly crap set from Andy Sheppard and a percussionist who's name I've forgotten. Such unimaginative programming, the audience was full of great musicians who are continuing the tradition ornette was part of starting, I saw Alan Wilkinson, Lol Coxhill, Roger Turner, Steve Beresford, all the Bates brothers, etc.. any of whom would have been so much more inspired an choice of opener... oh well...
but go and see Ornette, hes playing as great as ever. All these sax players getting better and better as they get old (Wayne Shorter, Sam Rivers) its a privilege to see them! | 
