''At the "Golden Circle" Stockholm'' is an

avant-garde jazz Avant-garde jazz (also known as avant-jazz and experimental jazz) is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. It originated in the early 1950s and developed through to the late 1960s. Orig ...

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

in two volumes by the

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Jazz: A Colle ...

Trio, documenting concerts on the nights of December 3 and 4, 1965, at the Gyllene Cirkeln jazz club in Stockholm. Both volumes were released in early 1966. This marked the beginning of Coleman's contract with

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...

after he left

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. It also debuted Coleman’s usage of the trumpet and violin, instruments in which he took three years teaching himself to play after leaving Atlantic.

Reception

The music has been described as "brilliant, optimistic closely unified thematic improvisations". "Snowflakes and Sunshine" marked the introduction of his unconventional violin and trumpet playing. "In Coleman's hands, both instruments are refunctioned into 'sound tools' (...) producers of sounds, rhythms and emotions." ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...

'' listed both volumes as part of its "Core Collection" and gave each a four-star rating (of a possible four stars). Pitchfork ranked the album as the 156th best of the 1960s. The 2002 CD reissue includes previously unreleased bonus tracks in both volumes.

Track listing

''All tracks written by Ornette Coleman.''

Volume 1

# "Faces and Places" # "European Echoes" # "Dee Dee" # "Dawn" # "Faces and Places" (Alternate take) (*) # "European Echoes" (Alternate take) (*) # "Doughnuts" (*) (*) Previously unreleased bonus tracks included in the 2002 CD reissue.

Volume 2

# "Snowflakes and Sunshine" # "Morning Song" # "The Riddle" # "Antiques" # "Morning Song" (Alternate take) (*) # "The Riddle" (Alternate take) (*) # "Antiques" (Alternate take) (*) (*) Previously unreleased bonus tracks included in the 2002 CD reissue.

Personnel

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alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

David Izenzon David Izenzon (May 17, 1932 – October 8, 1979) was an American jazz double bassist. Biography Izenzon was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. He graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and later received a master's deg ...

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double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

Charles Moffett Charles Moffett (September 6, 1929 – February 14, 1997) was an American free jazz drummer. Biography Moffett was born in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended I.M. Terrell High School with Ornette Coleman. Before switching to drums, Moffett ...

—

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

References

{{Authority control Ornette Coleman live albums 1966 live albums Blue Note Records live albums Live free jazz albums Live avant-garde jazz albums