Loneliness
Before becoming known as a musician, when I worked in a big department store, one day, during my lunch break, I came across a gallery where someone had painted a very rich white woman who had absolutely everything that you could desire in life, and she had the most solitary expression in the world. I had never been confronted with such solitude, and when I got back home, I wrote a piece that I called "Lonely Woman."
Ornette Coleman
“The Other's Language: Jacques Derrida Interviews Ornette Coleman, 23 June 1997”; translated by Timothy S. Murphy; recorded by Thierry Jousse and Genevieve Pereygne; Genre; June 1, 2004; V37 N2
Coleman was a saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, composer, and progenitor of the “free jazz” tradition.
This interview was translated from the published French translation (Les Inrockuptibles no. 115 (20 aout-2 septembre 1997)) back into English because the original transcript was lost.