INTERVIEW ORNETTE COLEMAN / JACQUES DERRIDA In preparing these New York projects, you first First the musician reads the framework, then For the Philharmonic I had to write out parts Normally I begin by composing something that I can have them analyse, I play it with them, then I give them the score. And at the next rehearsal I ask them to show me what they’ve found and we can go on from there. I do this with my musicians and with my students. I truly believe that whoever tries to express himself in words, in poetry, in what- ever form, can take my book of harmolodic and compose according to it, do it with the same pas- sion and the same elements. write the music by yourself, and then ask the par- ticipants to read it, to agree, and even to transform the initial writing? for each instrument, photocopy them, then go see the person in charge of scores. But with jazz groups, I compose and I give the parts to the musicians in rehearsal. What’s really shocking in improvised music is that despite its name, most musicians use a “framework” as a basis for impro- vising. I’ve just recorded a CD with a European musician, Joachim Kühn, and the music I wrote to play with him, that we recorded in August 1996, has two characteristics: it’s totally improvised, but at the same time it follows the laws and rules of European structure. And yet, when you hear it, it has a completely improvised feel. brings his own touch to it. have a conversation with sounds, without trying to dominate it or lead it. What I mean is that you have to be … intelligent, I suppose that’s the word. In improvised music I think the musicians are trying to reassemble an emotional or intellectual puzzle, in any case a puzzle in which the instruments give the tone. It’s primarily the piano that has served at all times as the framework in music, but it’s no longer indispensable and, in fact, the commercial aspect of music is very uncertain. Commercial music is not necessarily more accessible, but it is limited. written, or do you leave space for the unforeseen? ing and you hear something that you think could be improved; you could tell me, “You should try this.” For me, music has no leader. What do you think of the relationship between the precise event that constitutes the concert and prewritten music or improvised music? Do you think Let’s suppose that we’re in the process of play- Yes, the idea is that two or three people can When you begin to rehearse, is everything ready, Perhaps you will agree with me on the fact that Repetition is as natural as the fact that the No. I don’t know if it’s true for language, but That’s true. I am not an “Ornette Coleman expert”, but if I that prewritten music prevents the event from taking place? in jazz you can take a very old piece and do another version of it. What’s exciting is the memory that you bring to the present. What you’re talking about, the form that metamorphoses into other forms, I think it’s something healthy, but very rare. the very concept of improvisation verges upon reading, since what we often understand by improvisation is the creation of something new, yet something which doesn’t exclude the prewritten framework that makes it possible. translate what you are doing into a domain that I know better, that of written language, the unique event that is produced only one time is nevertheless repeated in its very structure. Thus there is a repetition, in the work, that is intrinsic to the initial creation – that which compromises or complicates the concept of improvi- sation. Repetition is already in improvisation: thus when people want to trap you between improvisation and the prewritten, they are wrong. earth rotates. act can or must change things, for example, on the political level or in the sexual relation? Can or should your role as an artist and composer have an effect on the state of things? ple have already experienced that before me, and if I start complaining, they’ll say to me, “Why are you complaining? We haven’t changed for this per- son that we admire more than you, so why should we change for you?” So basically I really don’t think so. I was in the South when minorities were oppres- sed, and I identified with them through music. I was in Texas, I started to play the saxophone and make a living for my family by playing on the radio. One day, I walked into a place that was full of gambling and prostitution, people arguing, and I saw a woman get stabbed – then I thought that I had to get out of there. I told my mother that I didn’t want to play this music anymore because I thought that I was only adding to all that suffering. She replied, “What’s got hold of you, you want some- body to pay you for your soul?” I hadn’t thought of that, and when she told me that, it was like I had been rebaptised. Do you think that your music and the way people No, I don’t believe so, but I think that many peo- 36