- In full:
- Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman
- Born:
- March 9, 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
- Died:
- June 11, 2015, New York, New York (aged 85)
- Awards And Honors:
- Grammy Award
- Pulitzer Prize
- Praemium Imperiale (2001)
- Movement / Style:
- free jazz
- Notable Family Members:
- spouse Jayne Cortez
Ornette Coleman
-
Who was Ornette Coleman?
Ornette Coleman (1930–2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, and a principal initiator of free jazz.
In the 1950s, Coleman developed his "harmolodic theory," which allowed improvisers to forgo set harmonic patterns in favor of more direct melodic improvisation. His early, unorthodox approach to harmony led to rejection by established musicians.
Coleman's first album was Something Else!!!! (1958). He moved to New York City, and his radical ideas and improvisations stirred controversy. His Free Jazz (1960) and Beauty Is a Rare Thing (1961) were also influential.
In the 1960s, Coleman taught himself to play the violin and trumpet. By the 1970s, he preferred composing and formed an electric band called Prime Time. In 2007, he won the Pulitzer Prize for music for Sound Grammar.
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What kind of music did Ornette Coleman play?
Ornette Coleman was a highly influential American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, and a principal initiator of free jazz in the late 1950s.
Coleman developed "harmolodic theory," which allowed improvisers to move away from fixed harmonic patterns to improvise on melodic and expressive elements. His 1960 album Free Jazz used two simultaneously improvising jazz quartets. In the 1970s, he formed an electric band called Prime Time, which fused rock rhythms with harmonically free collective improvisations and remained his primary performance vehicle until the 1990s.
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What instrument was Ornette Coleman best known for?
Ornette Coleman was best known as a jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, and he was the principal initiator of free jazz in the late 1950s. He started on alto and then tenor saxophone as a teen and played in dance bands. His approach to harmony was unorthodox, leading to rejection by other musicians. In his "harmolodic theory," improvisers were free from set harmonic patterns, allowing improvisation on melodic elements. His 1958 album, Something Else!!!!, featured trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Billy Higgins. Later, Coleman taught himself violin and trumpet, using unorthodox techniques. His early style influenced many jazz musicians.
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What is 'free jazz' and how did Ornette Coleman contribute to it?
Free jazz is an approach to jazz improvisation that emerged in the late 1950s and reached its peak in the 60s. The main characteristic of free jazz is that there are no rules; musicians do not adhere to a fixed harmonic structure, and they improvise without fixed tempos or meters.
Ornette Coleman was a saxophonist, composer, and bandleader who was the principal initiator of free jazz in the late 1950s. Coleman developed the "harmolodic theory," where improvisers abandoned harmonic patterns to improvise more extensively upon melodic and expressive elements. His recordings Free Jazz (1960) and Beauty Is a Rare Thing (1961) proved to be very influential.
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Which famous albums did Ornette Coleman record?
Ornette Coleman, a leading figure in free jazz, recorded several famous albums that challenged traditional jazz structures. His early albums, Something Else!!!! (1958), featuring Don Cherry and Billy Higgins, and the quartet's classic recordings, The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and Change of the Century (1960), are among his most influential works.
Moving to New York City, Coleman further experimented with free jazz, releasing Free Jazz (1960), which featured two simultaneously improvising jazz quartets, and Beauty Is a Rare Thing (1961), which explored free metres and tempos. In 2005, Coleman recorded Sound Grammar, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2007. Coleman's innovative approach also led him to explore extended compositions, such as Skies of America (1972), recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra. His explorations into free jazz marked a radical break from conventional jazz forms.
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How did Ornette Coleman influence modern jazz?
Ornette Coleman, a saxophonist and composer, significantly influenced modern jazz as the principal initiator of free jazz in the late 1950s. Coleman's "harmolodic theory" involved improvising directly upon melodic and expressive elements, abandoning fixed harmonic patterns and chord changes.
Coleman's approach led to controversy but also influenced fellow saxophonists and players of all instruments in jazz. His recordings "Free Jazz" (1960) and "Beauty Is a Rare Thing" (1961) were particularly influential, experimenting with free metres and tempos. Although musicians like Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp expanded on Coleman's innovations, they lacked his talent and discipline.
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Ornette Coleman (born March 9, 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.—died June 11, 2015, New York, New York) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader who was the principal initiator and leading exponent of free jazz in the late 1950s.
Coleman began playing alto, then tenor saxophone as a teenager and soon became a working musician in dance bands and rhythm-and-blues groups. Early in his career, his approach to harmony was already unorthodox and led to his rejection by established musicians in Los Angeles, where he lived for most of the 1950s. While working as an elevator operator, he studied harmony and played an inexpensive plastic alto saxophone at obscure nightclubs. Until then, all jazz improvisation had been based on fixed harmonic patterns. In the “harmolodic theory” that Coleman developed in the 1950s, however, improvisers abandoned harmonic patterns (“chord changes”) in order to improvise more extensively and directly upon melodic and expressive elements. Because the tonal centres of such music changed at the improvisers’ will, it became known as “free jazz.”
In 1958 Coleman recorded his first album, Something Else!!!!, which notably featured trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer Billy Higgins. The three musicians, along with bassist Charlie Haden, later formed a band, and the quartet’s classic recordings included The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and Change of the Century (1960). Coleman moved to New York City, where his radical conception of structure and the urgent emotionality of his improvisations aroused widespread controversy. His recordings Free Jazz (1960), which used two simultaneously improvising jazz quartets, and Beauty Is a Rare Thing (1961), in which he successfully experimented with free metres and tempos, also proved influential.
In the 1960s Coleman taught himself to play the violin and trumpet, using unorthodox techniques. By the 1970s he was performing only irregularly, preferring instead to compose. His most notable extended composition is the suite Skies of America, which was recorded in 1972 by the London Symphony Orchestra joined by Coleman on alto saxophone. Influenced by his experience of improvising with Rif musicians of Morocco in 1973, Coleman formed an electric band called Prime Time, whose music was a fusion of rock rhythms with harmonically free collective improvisations; this band remained his primary performance vehicle until the 1990s.
Coleman’s early style influenced not only fellow saxophonists but also players of all other instruments in jazz. In recognition of such accomplishment, he received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for music in 2001. In 2005, with a quartet made up of two acoustic double bass players (one bowing his instrument, the other plucking), a drummer, and Coleman himself (playing alto saxophone, trumpet, and violin), he recorded Sound Grammar during a live performance in Italy; the work, which was said to hearken back to his music of the 1960s, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2007.