Ornette Coleman
Three re-issued albums reinforce the claim that jazz recordings hit their peak from 1956 to 1964.
Read MoreThe music this band produced was famously challenging: it was also often surprisingly beautiful.
Read MoreOrnette Coleman turned to me and said, “You know, you can never really be out of tune. You are always in tune with something.”
Read MoreTwo pianoless quartets + two restless leaders = some of the best music of the last few years.
Read MoreHere is a personal selection of recordings in the saxophone trio format. These linear collaborations have been part of the jazz scene for at least seventy years now. The results are almost always illuminating and exhilarating, and a review of them offers a miniature history of saxophone styles.
Read More“Ornette was looking for those notes, the ones that feel no pain.”
Read MoreThis collection demonstrates that the music of Ornette Coleman is in tune with something elemental and essential in the human spirit.
Read MoreSo there was the Ornette Coleman Quartet, leading off the final side of vinyl with a cut that changed my life, “Lonely Woman.”
Read MoreThe profound impact of Ornette Coleman can be seen in the reactions of the music world to his passing.
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Jazz Commentary: Ornette Coleman — An Outsider Cracks the Egg
The final, ineluctable quality that Ornette Coleman brought to the table was that he had an individual “voice,” which is the sine qua non and preeminent ethos in jazz.
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