Lonely Woman (composition)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Lonely Woman" is a jazz composition by Ornette Coleman. Coleman's recording of it was the opening track on his 1959 Atlantic Records album The Shape of Jazz to Come. Alongside Coleman's alto saxophone, the recording featured Don Cherry on cornet, Charlie Haden on double bass and Billy Higgins on drums.
Origin
In an interview with Jacques Derrida, Coleman spoke of the origin of the composition:
"Before becoming known as a musician, when I worked in a big department store, one day, during my lunch break, I came across a gallery where someone had painted a very rich white woman who had absolutely everything that you could desire in life, and she had the most solitary expression in the world. I had never been confronted with such solitude, and when I got back home, I wrote a piece that I called 'Lonely Woman.'"
Other versions
Haden and Cherry revisited the song on Old and New Dreams (ECM, 1979), Haden doing so again on Etudes (1987) and In Angel City (1988).
The Modern Jazz Quartet released a version of the song on their 1964 album Lonely Woman. This was one of the earliest recorded covers of a Coleman number.
Vocal versions, with lyrics written by Margo Guryan, have been recorded by Chris Connor (1962), Freda Payne (1964, on After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More!!!) and Carola Standertskjöld (1966).
Other versions have been recorded by:
- Helen Merrill and Dick Katz (on A Shade of Difference, 1968)
- Marzette Watts (with Patty Waters) (on The Marzette Watts Ensemble, 1969)
- Zurich International Festival All-Stars (on From Europe With Jazz, 1971)
- Lester Bowie (on Fast Last!, 1974)
- Old and New Dreams (on Old and New Dreams, 1979)
- Jaki Byard (on Phantasies, 1984)
- Charlie Haden (with Paul Motian and Geri Allen) (on Etudes, 1987)
- Kronos Quartet (on White Man Sleeps, 1987)
- Charlie Haden Quartet West (on In Angel City, 1988)
- Charlie Haden (on The Montreal Tapes: with Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell, 1989)
- John Zorn (on Naked City, 1990)
- 8 Bold Souls (on Sideshow, 1992)
- The Denison/Kimball Trio (on Soul Machine, 1995)
- Joshua Redman (on Momentum, 2005)
- Archie Shepp Joachim Kühn (on Wo man, 2011)
- Brad Mehldau (on Modern Music, 2011)
- Jean-Paul Celea (on Yes Ornette!, 2012)
- Benoit Delbecq & Fred Hersch Double Trio (on Fun House, 2013)
