Ornette Coleman

Saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman pushed the boundaries of jazz further than just about anyone in the post-bop era, becoming one of the prime movers of avant-garde jazz and developing new modes of musical expression. Born Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman in Fort Worth, Texas, he began playing both jazz and R&B in his teens. In 1949 he took a job touring with Clarence Samuels' R&B band. The following year, he joined the band of blues man Pee Wee Crayton, moving to L.A. with the band and remaining there after getting fired by Crayton. By the time Coleman released his debut album, Something Else!! !, in 1958 he was already pushing at the boundaries of conventional jazz song structures and harmonic sensibilities. In 1959 he moved to New York City, refining his revolutionary approach further on that year's Tomorrow Is the Question. That same year he put together his groundbreaking quartet featuring bassist Charlie Haden, trumpeter Don Cherry, and drummer Billy Higgins, with whom he cut the seminal The Shape of Jazz to Come, an avant-jazz milestone that lived up to its title. By 1960 Coleman was prepared to push the envelope even further; his album Free Jazz was the Big Bang for the fully improvisational subgenre that eventually took its name from that trailblazing record. Throughout the '60s Coleman developed a unique musical language, often with Dewey Redman's tenor sax joining Ornette's alto, and Coleman's precocious pre-teen son Denardo on drums. On 1972's Skies of America Coleman crashed through yet another border by collaborating with the London Symphony Orchestra. In the mid '70s, he forged yet another fresh path by combining jazz, rock, and funk, but in a completely different way than contemporaries like Miles Davis, eventually dubbing the style "harmolodic" to indicate a seamless interweaving of harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic motifs. In subsequent decades Coleman never stopped challenging himself, consistently putting together new bands to tackle different approaches. He died in New York City on June 11, 2015, leaving behind him a music world he had radically altered for the better.