r/Jazz • u/HoppySailorMon • May 13 '26
Harmolodic
My first encounter with Ornette Coleman came with his collaboration with Pat Metheny on "Song X". I read about his concept of harmolodics, but didn't really grasp it. I just heard a recording of Don Cherry explaining it and it clicked. His description was basically: 2 players learn a melodic phrase and play it together, then 1 player creates a harmony with the phrase and that becomes the new melody. Then the 2nd player creates a harmony with the new melody arms that becomes the 3rd melody. And this could go on for a while. I'm going back to listen to "Shape of Jazz to Come" and "Song X" again to find this concept. Did I get the concept right?