harmolodics

/ ˌhɑːməˈlɒdɪks /

noun

1. functioning as singular jazz the technique of each musician in a group simultaneously improvising around the melodic and rhythmic patterns in a tune, rather than one musician improvising on its underlying harmonic pattern while the others play an accompaniment

Derived Forms

• ˌharmoˈlodic, adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of harmolodics¹

C20: of unknown origin

Example Sentences

“Just Me, Just Me” is his lockdown-era play on “Just You, Just Me” — though it’s got more in common with Ornette Coleman’s wily harmolodics than with any prewar jazz standard.

From New York Times

Most impressively, perhaps, she devotes a sizable section to Coleman’s cryptic and elliptical philosophy of music, which he called Harmolodics, without straining to defend it with academic triple-talk or dismissing it.

From New York Times

In Clarke’s masterly film, which features footage of Coleman in 1968 and again in 1983, he explains the thinking behind harmolodics — the enigmatic term he coined to signify a utopic vision of music-making.

From New York Times

Garcia was a longtime fan and occasional collaborator with the late jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, whose theory of harmolodics was reflected in the Dead's democratic approach to jamming.

From Los Angeles Times

He gave his theory of things the name “harmolodics”—a concept that most of his listeners and even many of his collaborators could only vaguely describe or apprehend.

From The New Yorker