"Ornette Speaks": graphic novelist Matthew Brown illustrates on-site.

For August’s “Third Thursdays” monthly jazz series concert, artist Matthew Brown, author of the graphic novel Ornette Speaks: A Cartoon Grammar, will create art in real time, accompanied by series host keyboardist Dave Bryant, saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra, bassist Jacob William, and drummer Miki Matsuki and by Daniel Kurganov performing Ornette Coleman’s “Trinity,” a piece for solo violin.

Concert held on Thursday August 15, 8:00 pm. Admission at the door: $10 (cash/check/charge/venmo). Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, 1555 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138. Complimentary "Third Thursdays" concert parking is available at the Everett Street Garage at 10 Everett Street in Cambridge. For further info: dbryantmusic.com/third-thursdays/, bryantequilibria@gmail.com, 617-447-3030.

Matthew Brown was part of the Montreal underground zine scene of the early 1990s, and he credits his artistic approach to inspiration from the work of many free jazz artists, including Archie Shepp, Don Cherry, Thelonius Monk, Eric Dolphy, and Ornette Coleman. In Ornette Speaks, quotes from interviews with Ornette Coleman are presented in a graphic documentary format with a docu-brush style that has been described as “gestural and wild … and emphatically rhythmic.” Brown has since published a graphic novel that explores the life of Eric Dolphy, and a graphic novel on Thelonious Monk is forthcoming. jazz.fm/ornette-speaks-a-cartoon-grammar-matthew-brown-graphic-novel-ornette-coleman/

A livestream of five graphic novel readings by Brown on various topics, accompanied by selections from jazz artists, can also be found at his Ambient Zero Comic Book blog ambientzero.blogspot.com/2020/04/live-stream-graphic-novel-reading-videos.html The fifth reading is from Ornette Speaks: A Cartoon Grammar, which Brown describes as, “A stream-of-consciousness odyssey through words spoken by avant-garde saxophone genius and composer Ornette Coleman, with music by the man himself.”