he first boxed set in the Blue Note Tone Poet series includes all of Ornette Coleman’s sessions for the label, and it is a stunning collection -- six LPs in deluxe packaging, with four of the six in foldout covers. For those new to the Tone Poet series, it is the premier level of current Blue Note vinyl reissues. The series is the inspiration of “Tone Poet” Joe Harley, who was one of the founders of the Music Matters reissue label. The titles are all mastered by Kevin Gray of Cohearant Audio, pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI, and packaged in gorgeous sleeves with extra Francis Wolf photographs inside.

Ornette Coleman is among the elite of jazz history, one of the few legends whose full name is unnecessary. There is only one Ornette, and once heard, his music is not likely to be confused with anyone else's. His Blue Note years (December 1965 to May 1968) did not produce similarly warm and cuddly titles like those from Contemporary and Atlantic, which most jazz lovers have learned to embrace. Those recordings were controversial in their day but have now settled into the mainstream. Much of this new boxed set remains challenging for many jazz fans, and for those new to Ornette Coleman’s magic, they may seem as controversial as they did during the turmoil of the 1960s, when the titles were released. Those who have not come to terms with the avant-garde records of the 1960s may find the recent Craft Recordings Genesis of Genius boxed set a better entry point. It is a less challenging choice, and its two-LP size is less taxing on the pocketbook and the biceps.

Ornette Coleman’s Blue Note years offer up some of his most interesting music-making. His “harmolodic” and funk and electric music remained in the future. His Blue Note material was his last major body of work to appear on a single label, brief flirtations with Columbia and Impulse! aside. Yet, what one hears most about that period after more than fifty years are complaints about his playing the violin and trumpet and employing his young son Denardo to play drums on The Empty Foxhole. There were complaints about his choices from jazz legends (Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard to name two) and from critics at each stage of his career. Little of this early mud stuck to the wall; some criticism was retracted or reconsidered, and some of it seems cringe-worthy at this point.

The Blue Note years start out traditionally (for Ornette Coleman) with live recordings from the Golden Circle Club in Stockholm recorded in December 1965. In his excellent liner notes to this set, Thomas Conrad reminds us that the Golden Circle recordings were his first after a two-year self-imposed exile from the recording industry. He plays with one of his career’s best ensembles, in a trio featuring Charles Moffatt on drums and David Izenson on bass. Agile and fleet-footed, the trio format is one of the jewels in the Ornette Coleman catalogue and is at once more playful and serious than much of his later playing. And that was just the first volume. In Volume Two, the compiler of the two LPs introduces us to Coleman’s violin and trumpet on some of the titles, and the music is fiercely engaging. Coleman's violin and trumpet skills were rudimentary. His decision to perform and record on those instruments drew not at all muted criticism from critics and musicians. The listener must accept that Ornette was being Ornette, and he was using the instruments in an entirely new way, to produce unique sounds and provoke emotions not normally associated with those musical instruments. These two albums have always been popular with record collectors, the titles that fetch the highest prices of the Coleman Blue Notes. He continued playing live sessions with the trio, sometimes augmented, through 1966, and then in early 1967 he substituted Ed Blackwell on drums for Moffatt. Yet, unless you are an avid fan who, like me, collected all the gray-market releases, these two LPs are the only official release of the trio.

In September of 1966, Coleman went into the Van Gelder Studio to record The Empty Foxhole for Blue Note and mixed things up with a unique new lineup. In that session he began using his ten-year-old son Denardo on drums for studio recordings. No doubt a few labor and child-welfare laws prevented him from employing a ten-year-old in a road band, so the studio was a natural choice. Charlie Haden, who played on Coleman’s first album, takes over on bass for this session. Ornette once again cycles through his alto sax, violin, and trumpet. He obviously intended to stir up controversy playing these instruments and having a ten-year-old drummer, and he succeeded. Freddie Hubbard’s oft-quoted remarks about Denardo’s drumming and Miles Davis’s slightly less scathing remarks about Ornette’s trumpet notwithstanding, this holds up as a fascinating record. It is more playful than some of Ornette Coleman's albums, a result of the interplay between father and son.

Next up is a recording issued under Jackie McLean’s name, New And Old Gospel, recorded at the Van Gelder Studio on March 24, 1967. Here Coleman plays trumpet exclusively (at McLean’s request) and shares the leadership -- if not in name, in fact. Billy Higgins on drums, Lamont Johnson on piano and Scott Holt on bass round out the quintet. This recording is the most “out there” of the boxed set and has received greater critical praise than many of the other five records. Coleman’s playing on trumpet received little carping from critics, no doubt in large part because he and McLean play as one throughout. It is a thrilling recording for those who love abstract, hard-blowing music.

The Round Trip concludes, and provides the name for this boxed set, with New York Is Now! Vol. 1 and Love Call, both albums drawing material from two sessions on April 29 and May 7, 1968, in New York. They feature a unique (for a Coleman) lineup. Coleman plays alto sax, violin, and trumpet. Dewey Redman, who was to become a mainstay of Coleman’s groups, joins the front line on tenor sax. Coltrane’s former sidemen, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums, join for a one-off collaboration. The boxed set takes its name from “Round Trip,” one of Coleman’s heavily covered numbers found here.

Neither of these releases land on most critic’s list of favorite Ornette Coleman albums. Some commentators find that the rhythm section is not entirely compatible with the harmonic structure of the music. I have no issue with that and see it, once again, as Ornette being Ornette. I rank New York Is Now! among my favorites. Coleman and Dewey Redmond are on fire throughout. Coleman’s violin playing is relegated to one curiosity piece, ”We Now Interrupt For A Commercial,” reminiscent of The Who Sell Out but better produced and more entertaining.

New And Old Gospel and New York Is Now! are in most ways the conservative side of Ornette Coleman, but there is nothing wrong with that. These two final Blue Note releases were recorded by Dave Sanders at A&R Recording Studios and have a different sound from the Rudy Van Gelder recordings: less depth and more up-front, in-your-face sound, not unlike what you might hear in the front row of a small, crowded nightclub, except without the club noise.