This group was one of 3 that I recorded my music with in the late spring of 2015. The first was my quintet with Alex Young, the second was the Liberation Music Collective, and this was the third. I did it all in the space of a month-and-a-half.

Between the LMC taking off more dramatically than I could have anticipated (due in part to the hard work of its other co-leader) and a series of personal health problems that were dramatic in and of themselves, two-thirds of that music sat untouched for a number of years. Upon revisiting the tunes, I found that some of them still sounded pretty good.

OGC (which stands for Ornette Group Coleman, a spoonerism of the band's first bassist) was indeed formed as a repertory group for Ornette's music and performed a full recital's worth of it in January 2016 while its members were still at Indiana University. To record this album to document our prowess, I insisted that we generate some originals. The alto saxophonist and drummer provided several--two of which appear here, as 'Musiker's Tune' and 'Dots and Slashes'--and I provided the rest.

This was a stellar band, which broke up largely due to my ill health. By the time I was better, most of its members were graduating from Indiana University and I couldn't in good conscience keep them away from their studies. I consistently measure my woodwind stand-partners against the rapport that Babineaux and I enjoyed, and I continue to look for Philip Wailes and Sam Bryson in the rhythm section players I work with.

Hopefully you can hear some of that new-minted energy and the joy of the experience Ornette's music helped us find in this new (old) release.

--MDR