Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Just my opinions --


The indispensibles:

Shape of Jazz To Come
Change Of The Century
At The Golden Circle vol. 1 & 2
Dancing In Your Head


For more adventurous ears:

Free Jazz (a "double quartet" 37 minute jam)
Skies Of America (an interesting "symphony")


Can't get enough of that early quartet stuff:

The Art Of The Improvisors (compilation)
Something Else!!!
Tomorrow Is The Question!
This Is Our Music

(There's a box set with all the Atlantic era stuff, that pretty much covers all of this.)


Further explorations:

The 1962-1970 period is a bit of a dig -- a lot of those LP's are rare/out of print. Movie soundtracks, live albums, Europe-only releases, and a few with his 12 year old son playing drums!

Early 70's stuff is pretty far-ranging; "Science Fiction" (1971) is a highlight.

Later 70's goes "fusion" -- aside from "Dancing In Your Head", my other favorite of this era is "Body Meta" (1976).

My least favorite is "Virgin Beauty" (1988), which sounds like "the worst sort of jazz/rock fusion" to my ears.

Some folks rate "Song X" (1986) which is listed as a Pat Metheny album (I like one track, but am not much of a Metheny fan.)

Another interesting one is "Naked Lunch" soundtrack (1991), with Howard Shore's vertiginous string arrangements (great film too.)

Most recent ones I've heard (Sound Grammar and Sound Museum) continue the classic Ornette sound. If you really dig what he does, all of his music is worthwhile -- while most folks will run away covering their ears, and a smaller portion will be "intrigued by the more approachable stuff, but not enough to dig any deeper than an album or three".

He's the Captain Beefheart of jazz, basically.


EDIT PS -- seems to be pretty broad agreement among HHer's about the cornerstone albums . . . :-)