Free jazz legend and icon of the avant-garde Ornette Coleman will take over London's Southbank Centre riverside venues and spaces as the 16th director of Meltdown. Reflecting the restless, unfettered spirit of this year’s director, Meltdown in 2009 will provide a platform for avantrockers, jazz and world music artists alike - giving free reign to reinvention, improvisation and the collaborative concerts Meltdown is renowned for.
Tony Allen, long acknowledged as Africa’s finest kit drummer, plays the Meltdown Launch Party on June 12th. Other artists confirmed to appear in Ornette Coleman’s free-spirited Meltdown are: Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Sean Lennon, Cornelius, Moby, The Roots, The Master Musicians of Joujouka and Bachir Attar, Patti Smith, The Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra, David Murray, Gwo-Ka Masters, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Baaba Maal, Yo La Tengo, Bobby McFerrin, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Carla Bley, Robert Wyatt and The Bad Plus.
Learn more and see schedule at http://meltdown.southbankcentre.co.uk/2009-ornette-colemans-meltdown/
