Biography

Ornette Coleman (1930-2015) changed the course of jazz through albums like The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959). His music deconstructed the harmonic and rhythmic conventions that dominated mainstream jazz music, creating a dissonant and chaotic sound that could border on grating. Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Coleman’s earliest musical exposure was to blues music. Eventually he fell in love with bebop, and moved to Los Angeles in 1949. There Coleman met many people he would collaborate with throughout his career, including Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. When he broke onto the jazz scene in 1959, critics lambasted him for carelessly breaking jazz’s rules. Though most criticism targeted Coleman’s abandonment of jazz convention, his music engaged deeply with musical and cultural tradition. The use of collective improvisation and polyrhythms recalls New Orleans jazz, and even African music. Furthermore, Ornette Coleman never lost his blues roots, and continued to include various ethnic influences in his music. Coleman’s 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation established the term “free jazz,” though the label would annoy Coleman and other avant-garde pioneers. To Coleman, “free” dismissed the thought that went into the music, while musicians like Archie Shepp rejected “jazz” for its connections to the music industry’s exploitation of black artists. Although Ornette Coleman was controversial, he influenced jazz greats like John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Eric Dolphy.