Rifftides reader David Perrine writes:
In the spirit of your occasional feature, I offer the following quotes. (As you know, a notated F# on alto sax would normally be a concert A— except in the quantum physics-like world of harmolodics.)
‘Poise’ has an F# for its tonic on the Eb alto and a D concert for the transposed key.—Ornette Coleman
[Ornette] took his saxophone out, and I notated what he played. I asked him what chord he was using, and he blew the arpeggio of a G chord thinking it was a B minor.—Herb Geller
No one has to learn to spell to talk.—Ornette Coleman
Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, trumpet; Charlie Haden, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums. August 2, 1960.
“Poise” is included in Coleman’s Complete Atlantic Recordings.