Ornette: Made in America (1985)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Ornette:  Made in America (1985) – S. Clarke

NOT a straightforward doco about great jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman but instead something more impressionistic from famed documentarian Shirley Clarke (The Cool World, 1963).  We begin in the early ‘80s with Ornette receiving the key to the city of Fort Worth where he was born in advance of a concert (recorded as Opening the Caravan of Dreams, 1983) featuring his composition “Skies of America” accompanied by a symphony orchestra.  Then, we bounce around in time, with some concert footage from 1968 and a visit to the Master Musicians of Jajouka in Morocco (cue William Burroughs and Brion Gysin). He plays the violin as well as the saxophone. All the while, we see glimpses of child actors playing Ornette as a kid or a teen with a big saxophone wandering around Fort Worth (which looks dilapidated) – these scenes intimate the difficulties Ornette must have faced on the road to success.  Later we meet Denardo, both as a pre-teen and older playing with PrimeTime and see him chatting with his dad.  Only late in the picture do some talking heads appear discussing Ornette and his influence (the negative reaction to his “different” music in the late 50s/early 60s). The man himself offers a number of anecdotes and insights (something about wanting to be voluntarily castrated) but I’ll still never understand what he means by harmolodics.  Clarke probably tries too hard to make the film as experimental as Coleman’s music but her approach does add value; nevertheless a straightforward documentary and a concert film would nicely accompany this art film.  And I’m just happy to listen to the man’s incredible music.