Originally written by Luke Slater · 5 June 2009
The Southbank Centre have announced the final additions and updates for the Ornette Coleman curated Meltdown Festival.
The big and main news is that the man himself will guest star on shows throughout the festival.
Coleman will get on stage with The Roots, Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Patti Smith and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra.
Haden was the original bassist in Coleman's Quartet and this sees the two together for the first time in nearly ten years. They'll play Reflections Of This Is Our Music on the closing night.
Elsewhere, Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip and John Coxon from Spiritualized support Mark Ribot, Evan Parker and Han Bennink in the Queen Elizabeth Hall improvisation session. Koby Israelite has also been confirmed as support for the amazing Baaba Maal in the Royal Festival Hall.
In addition to all of the musical festivities there's also free screenings of documentaries on Ornette Coleman, Master Musicians of Jajouka and Patti Smith in the Clore Ballroom.
The line-up previously looked like this:
The Roots with guest David Murray David Murray & Gwo-Ka Masters Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, featuring Sean Lennon, Cornelius & Antony Hegarty Acoustic Ladyland Baaba Maal Yo La Tengo Moby James Blood Ulmer Bobby McFerrin Patti Smith & Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra + Soap and Skin Mike Patton & Fred Frith Ornette Coleman with guest artist Bill Frisell Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra with guests Carla Bley and Robert Wyatt + The Bad Plus Kieran Hebden AKA Four Tet & Steve Reid with Mats Gustafsson Voicelab People's Choir Ornette Coleman with guests Charlie Haden & Flea Bachir Attar & The Master Musicians of Jajouka
More information about Meltdown - which takes place from 13-21 June - and tickets on their website.