Ornette Coleman

Ornette Coleman (born March 19, 1930) was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s, and one of the most notable figures in jazz history.

Free Jazz

In 1961, Coleman recorded Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, which featured a "double quartet," including Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. The record was recorded in stereo, with a reed/brass/bass/drums quartet isolated in each stereo channel. Free Jazz was, at nearly 40 minutes, the lengthiest jazz recording to date. The music generally featured jazz-oriented melody and steady, swinging pulse, but Coleman's unusual use of harmony and improvised group structure remained controversial.

Related Topics:
1961 - Eric Dolphy - Bass clarinet - Freddie Hubbard - Trumpet - Stereo - Reed - Brass - Bass - Drums

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Coleman meant for Free Jazz simply to be the album title, but his growing reputation placed him at the forefront of jazz innovation, and free jazz was soon considered a new genre, though Coleman has expressed discomfort with the term.

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Among the reasons Coleman may not have entirely approved of the term Free Jazz is that his music contains a considerable amount of composition. His melodic material, although skeletal, strongly recalls the melodies that Charlie Parker wrote over "standard" harmonies, and in general the music is closer to the bebop which came before it than is sometimes popularly imagined. Like Thelonious Monk, Coleman very rarely played standards, concentrating on his own compositions, of which there seems to be an endless flow.

Related Topics:
Free Jazz - Composition - Melodic - Charlie Parker - Standard - Bebop - Thelonious Monk

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