Science Fiction (Ornette Coleman album)

Science Fiction is an album by the American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, recorded in September and October 1971 and released on Columbia Records in February 1972.^[2]

Science Fiction
Studio album by Ornette Coleman
Released	February 1972[1]
Recorded	September 9, 10 & October 13, 1971
Studio	Columbia Studio E, New York
Genre	Avant-garde jazz free jazz
Length	37:03
Label	Columbia
Ornette Coleman chronology
Broken Shadows (1971) Science Fiction (1972) Skies of America (1972)

In 2000, the album was re-released along with Broken Shadows (recorded during the same sessions but not released until 1982) and several unreleased tracks as The Complete Science Fiction Sessions.^[3]

Recording

Science Fiction features Coleman's early 1970s quartet, consisting of Coleman (alto saxophone, trumpet, violin), Charlie Haden (double bass), Ed Blackwell (drums), and Dewey Redman (tenor saxophone).^[4] It also features performances by former Coleman sidemen Billy Higgins (drums), Don Cherry (pocket trumpet), and Bobby Bradford (trumpet), and vocals by Indian-American singer Asha Puthli on two tracks and American poet David Henderson on the title track.^[4]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
DownBeat	[6]
Pitchfork	9.5/10[7]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[4]

The AllMusic review by Steve Huey awarded the album 5 stars and stated: "Science Fiction was [Coleman's] creative rebirth, a stunningly inventive and appropriately alien-sounding blast of manic energy... Science Fiction is a meeting ground between Coleman's past and future; it combines the fire and edge of his Atlantic years with strong hints of the electrified, globally conscious experiments that were soon to come. And, it's overflowing with brilliance".^[5] The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide called it "fascinating" and "multifaceted" in another five-star review.^[4] Reviewing the album for Pitchfork, Daniel Felsenthal called it "a one-of-a-kind dispatch from the vibrant, polygenic, and contested lofts of downtown New York" and "a welcome return to the singable, quintessentially Southern melodicism that counterbalanced [Coleman's] dauntless early oeuvre".^[7]

Track listing

All compositions by Ornette Coleman.

1. "What Reason Could I Give?" – 3:06
2. "Civilization Day" – 6:04
3. "Street Woman" – 4:50
4. "Science Fiction" – 5:03
5. "Rock the Clock" – 3:16
6. "All My Life" – 3:56
7. "Law Years" – 5:22
8. "The Jungle Is a Skyscraper" – 5:26

• Recorded at Columbia Studio E, NYC on September 9 (tracks 2, 3, 7 and 8), September 10 (track 4) and October 13 (tracks 1, 5 and 6), 1971

Personnel

• Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone, trumpet, violin
• Don Cherry – pocket trumpet (tracks 2–4)
• Bobby Bradford – trumpet (tracks 4, 7–8)
• Carmine Fornarotto, Gerard Schwarz – trumpet (tracks 1 and 6)
• Dewey Redman – tenor saxophone, musette (tracks 1, 4–8)
• Charlie Haden – double bass, electric double bass with wah-wah pedal
• Billy Higgins – drums (tracks 1–4, 6)
• Ed Blackwell – drums (tracks 1, 4–8)
• David Henderson – recitation (track 4)
• Asha Puthli – vocals (tracks 1, 6)