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.

The Shape Of Jazz To Come

1959 found Coleman very busy: He abandoned the piano entirely for Tomorrow Is The Question!, a quartet featuring Shelly Manne on drums. Coleman encountered double bassist Charlie Haden — perhaps his most important collaborator — and formed a regular group with him, Cherry, and Higgins. The quartet recorded The Shape of Jazz to Come in 1959, with Atlantic Records, who had signed Coleman to a multi-album contract.

Related Topics:
1959 - Shelly Manne - Double bass - Charlie Haden - The Shape of Jazz to Come - Atlantic Records

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The Shape of Jazz to Come was, according to critic Steve Huey "a watershed event in the genesis of avant-garde jazz, profoundly steering its future course and throwing down a gauntlet that some still haven't come to grips with." http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020405051055370436&sql=Artkxikbhbb39 While definitely — if somewhat loosely — blues-based and often quite melodic, the album's songs were harmonically unusual and unpredictable. Some musicians and critics saw Coleman as talentless hack; others regarded him as a genius.

Related Topics:
Blues - Album

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Coleman's quartet received a lengthy — and sometimes controversial — engagement at New York City's famed Five Spot jazz club. Such notable figures as The Modern Jazz Quartet, Leonard Bernstein and Lionel Hampton were favorably impressed, and offered encouragement. (Hampton was so impressed he reportedly asked to perform with the quartet; Bernstein later helped Haden obtain a composition grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.) Opinion was, however, divided: trumpeter Miles Davis famously declared Coleman was "all screwed up inside," and Roy Eldridge stated he'd listened to Coleman drunk and sober, but couldn't understand or enjoy his music either way.

Related Topics:
New York City - Five Spot - Modern Jazz Quartet - Leonard Bernstein - Lionel Hampton - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation - Miles Davis - Roy Eldridge - Drunk

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On his best-known early recordings for the Atlantic Records, Coleman led a piano-less quartet with Cherry on trumpet, usually Charlie Haden, but sometimes Scott LaFaro on double bass and either Billy Higgins or Ed Blackwell on drums. These recordings are collected in a boxed-set, Beauty is a Rare Thing.

Related Topics:
Atlantic Records - Piano - Trumpet - Charlie Haden - Scott LaFaro - Double bass - Billy Higgins - Ed Blackwell - Drums

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