PUNK ROCK IS ALL AROUND YOU

You may have heard that Ornette Coleman passed away last Thursday. Coleman was not just another jazz dude. He practically invented free jazz. As early as high school, he was fucking with things, getting kicked out of the school band for improvising. His method of playing and disregard of accepted norms proved to advance jazz, but when he recorded his landmark albums, Shape of Jazz to Come, and Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, the reactions were mixed. The latter was reviewed twice in Down Beat, with one reviewer giving it five stars and another giving it zero.

The Ornette Coleman Quartet

Here are three cuts from The Shape of Jazz to Come to give you an idea of what the fuss was about. You ought to check out the short interview with Charlie Haden, his bassist at the time, conducted the day Coleman died. There's also a great hour long documentary, 1959 The Year That Changed Jazz, that covers four albums, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um, and Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come. If you're a fellow dabbler, you can walk around tomorrow knowing a little bit more about jazz.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman mp3 at Synthesis Radio
Ornette Coleman - Peace mp3 at For the Sake of the Song
Ornette Coleman - Focus On Sanity mp3 at Foe Wheel
A few years later:
The Ornette Coleman Trio - European Echoes mp3 at Art Decade
Video:
Charle Haden interview at Democracy Now
1959 The Year That Changed Jazz at YouTube