Ornette Coleman, Psychoanalysis, Discourse

A. L. James is a writer and researcher from London.

“A. L. James's brilliant and uncompromising book presents a rigorous and unheard-of way of interrogating the music of Ornette Coleman. It takes its cue from a remark made by Charlie Haden, which becomes the point of departure for a highly speculative journey towards a definition – in logical, topological, and musicological terms – of what it means to 'follow' in music. In the best tradition of continental theory, A. L. James lends a psychoanalytical and philosophical ear to the most banal and yet mysterious – the most enigmatically obvious – details in a musician’s discourse about his music.” Peter Szendy, David Herlihy Professor of Comparative Literature and Humanities at Brown University“In this brilliant technical analysis, A. L. James's harmolodic work of love follows Ornette Coleman in precisely the way he demanded of his fellow musicians, by tracking the movement of the sonic àgalma that both encapsulates and displaces the solitude of the Idea in the space of free difference.” Scott Wilson, author of Scott Walker and the Song of the One-all-alone (Bloomsbury) and Stop Making Sense: Music from the Perspective of the Real (Routledge).

• AcknowledgementsSeries Preface Preface I. What does it mean to follow? II. Transference III. “No one knew where to go” IV. Invisible V. Lonely Woman (Solitude) VI. Lonely Woman (no relation) VII. Skies of AmericaVIII. Conclusion: what does it mean to follow? Appendix Bibliography