Week 25: Ornette Coleman’s The Shape of Jazz to Come

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With the release of The Shape Of Jazz To Come, (1959, Atlantic Records) his debut as a band leader with his quartet, Ornette Coleman put his stamp in jazz music. Coleman had developed a new sound, experimenting with the boundaries of time and harmony. His style would soon be labeled as “free jazz”. Coleman headed into the studio at Radio Records in May of 1959 in Hollywood, California with his quartet. A common sound on this record is the absence of harmonic instruments, but a repetition of a main theme, free improvisation, then back to the theme. This form resembles be bop, despite the lack of piano or guitar. One tune on the record, “Lonely Woman,” became Coleman’s only tune to achieve ‘standard’ status in jazz. While some tunes on the record kept a bit more to the be bop tradition, like “Chronology”, other tunes like “Eventually” were highly experimental for the late 50′s. “Eventually” features Ornette in a lengthy introduction, playing through no standard harmony, and no conventional tone either; Ornette Coleman’s tone was beckoning, harsh, and whiney at times, reminiscent of blues players. He communicated a melody, rather than just played it.

Coleman’s release earned him a lengthy residence at the famous New York jazz club Five Spot. His music was usually met with resistance, but was also met with support from other jazz musicians like Lionel Hampton and Leonard Bernstein. Many other musicians, like Miles Davis and Roy Eldridge, were hesitant to accept Coleman’s new movement. Coleman even played a plastic saxophone, because in his earlier days of playing he could not afford a metal sax. He explained the sound of the plastic horn as dry, less resonant than a metal horn.

In many ways Ornette Coleman laid down the groundwork for the free jazz movement, and later the avant-guard jazz movement. The Shape Of Jazz To Come was aptly titled because it did just that, it showed jazz audiences and musicians alike the possibilities in harmony, time, structure, and improvisation, even though it was a pretty conservative representation at free jazz. Coleman’s record was placed on Rolling Stone’s list, the 500 greatest albums of all time, and was included in the National Archive’s recordings.