Ornette Coleman, the jazz master whose boundary-pushing experimentation influenced everyone from John Coltrane to The Grateful Dead to Philip Glass, has passed away this morning at the age of 85.
Coleman’s collaborations with Don Cherry in the late 1950s and early ’60s altered the trajectory of of jazz—look no further than 1959’s audaciously titled The Shape of Jazz to Come for proof. Coleman’s virtuosic alto sax runs and his group’s wild rhythms would eventually give rise to free jazz; 1960’s Free Jazz LP is cited as the genre’s first recording.
Later in life, Coleman worked as a composer, then returned to jazz, playing with an electric “double quartet” that featured two guitars, two basses, and two drummers in addition to Coleman’s alto sax.
He continued to innovate well into the 21st century, releasing the Pulitzer-winning Sound Grammar in 2006.
Watch Coleman and his band play The Shape of Jazz to Come‘s “Lonely Woman” live at Jazz a Vienne in 2008 below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSmYTc1Jv7w
(via FACT)
