Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure

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The compelling story of one of America's most adventurous jazz musicians.

Ornette Coleman's career encompassed the glory years of jazz and the American avant-garde. Born in segregated Fort Worth, Texas, during the Great Depression, the African American composer and musician was the zeitgeist incarnate. Steeped in the Texas blues tradition, Ornette and jazz grew up together, as the brassy blare of big band swing gave way to bebop, a faster music for a faster, post-war world.

At the dawn of the Space Age and New York's 1960s counterculture, his music gave voice to the moment. Lauded by some, maligned by many, he forged a breakaway art sometimes called `the new thing' or `free jazz'. Featuring previously unpublished photographs of Ornette and his contemporaries, this is the compelling story of one of America's most adventurous musicians and the sound of a changing world.

Reviews

"Fascinating... There is a great deal of new information in her book about Coleman, particularly about his later nonmusical artistic activities, his general philosophy, and the way that that he influenced other artists including from very different fields. Even those who consider themselves experts on the altoist will find much to learn from this well-written and scholarly book... The Territory And The Adventure has many bright moments, fresh stories, and fascinating information about the life and times of Ornette Coleman."
-- "LA Jazz Scene"
"Following Ornette's departure from the planet, his presence in the world only seems to increase, and his music's influence will no doubt continue far into the future. The poetic conception of music, sound, and life in the broadest sense that Ornette embodied is addressed here through the terrific writing of Golia. This volume is an excellent addition to the ongoing study of one of the greatest improvising musicians of all time."--Pat Metheny, musician, composer, educator
"Golia's forensic, scholarly, original Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure is a very welcome book. . . . Golia--perfectly placed to write this book as one-time manager of the Caravan of Dreams--expertly outlines Ornette's place in a distinctly Texan musical heritage. . . . A fascinating, formidable study of Ornette, with all the seriousness and rigor his life and music deserve."-- "Sounds of Surprise"
"It's always good to learn more about one of America's greatest musicians, and Golia's work has much that is new, especially (at last) a proper overview of Ornette's experience in his hometown of Fort Worth, both in his youth and the 1980s. The Territory and the Adventure is the best book on Ornette Coleman yet."--Ethan Iverson, musician and music critic
"Golia's depiction of the mise en scene of Coleman's life, and her insights into his persona, provide ample material to understand the saxophonist's initial disruption and his long-term influence. . . . Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure gives readers a good sense of Coleman's complex personality. He is described as quiet and, at other times, talkative; non-confrontational though bluntly expressive about being underpaid; sometimes 'Buddha-like' and sometimes withdrawn in the face of negative criticism. He had a vision that was compelling enough to draw a circle of accomplished musicians and to attract the admiration of accomplished non-musical artists. But, a brilliant vision wasn't enough. He needed sufficient will to persist in the face of scathing criticism from jazz musicians and listeners. If you don't know his music, listen."--Steve Provizer "Arts Fuse"
"A giant step in the right direction and the first significant book on Ornette Coleman since John Litweiler's Ornette Coleman: The Harmolodic Life was published in 1992. . . . Golia is very good at contextualizing and explaining . . . and succeeds in exploring in a non-systemically musicological way the mysteries of harmolodics by shedding light on the more arcane side of Ornette's vast artistic curiosity. Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure also is excellent in enhancing our biographical knowledge of Ornette's early life in a very considered way."--Stephen Graham "Marlbank.net"
"Fittingly unconventional. . . . Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure is an atlas in prose, a guide to the territories of varied sorts--social, racial, aesthetic, economic, and even geographic--that Coleman came out of, traveled through, lived near, occupied, left behind, or transformed. . . . Golia covers a lot of territory in tight, direct language that illuminates Ornette Coleman's life and work. . . . Most impressively, perhaps, she devotes a sizable section to Coleman's cryptic and elliptical philosophy of music, which he called Harmolodics, without straining to defend it with academic triple-talk or dismissing it."--David Hajdu "New York Times Book Review"

Author Bio

Born in New Jersey and residing in Egypt, Maria Golia managed one of America's premier progressive music venues, the Caravan of Dreams Performing Arts Center, in Fort Worth, Ornette's hometown. Her previous books include Cairo: City of Sand (2004), Photography and Egypt (2009), and Meteorite: Nature and Culture (2015), all published by Reaktion.