Despite persisting labeling of its music as avant-garde, NYCF played unthreatening contemporary jazz almost as often as it explored more daring materials. Two of Thelonious Monk’s loveliest melodies – “Monk’s Mood” and “Crepuscule with Nellie” – were embedded into their sets, as well as three of Ornette Coleman’s more accessible, swinging vehicles, “O.C.,” “When Will the Blues Leave,” and “Emotions.” These pieces provided a perspective of contemporary jazz that placed the adventurous, even bristling originals penned by Don Cherry, Archie Shepp, and John Tchicai, on a relatively undaunting horizon.
