Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American musician who played the saxophone, trumpet, violin, and composed music. He is best known for helping create the free jazz genre, a term from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. His early works often avoided the harmony-based structures, tonality, chord progressions, and fixed rhythms common in earlier jazz styles. Instead, Coleman focused on experimental improvisation, using group collaboration and blues-inspired phrasing. Thom Jurek of AllMusic described him as "one of the most well-liked and controversial figures in jazz history," noting that while he is now celebrated as an innovator and genius, he was once seen by others as rebellious, disruptive, or even dishonest.

Coleman was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. As a teenager, he taught himself to play the saxophone. He began his career performing in local R&B and bebop groups before forming his own jazz group in Los Angeles, which included musicians such as Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. In November 1959, his quartet started a controversial residency at the Five Spot Café in New York City, and he released the influential album The Shape of Jazz to Come, his first record for Atlantic Records. Coleman’s later albums for Atlantic in the early 1960s greatly influenced the direction of jazz during that time. His compositions "Lonely Woman" and "Broadway Blues" became important early examples of free jazz.

In the mid-1960s, Coleman left Atlantic Records for other labels, including Blue Note and Columbia Records. He began performing with his young son, Denardo Coleman, on drums. He explored symphonic music with his 1972 album Skies of America, which included the London Symphony Orchestra. In the mid-1970s, he formed the group Prime Time and experimented with electric jazz-funk and his concept of harmolodic music. In 1995, Coleman and his son Denardo created the Harmolodic record label. His 2006 album Sound Grammar won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, making Coleman the second jazz musician ever to receive this honor.

Biography

Ornette Coleman was born Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman on March 9, 1930, in Fort Worth, Texas. He grew up there and attended I.M. Terrell High School. He joined the school band but was asked to leave after he played freely during a performance of John Philip Sousa’s march “The Washington Post.” He later played R&B and bebop music on the tenor saxophone and formed a group called The Jam Jivers with Prince Lasha and Charles Moffett.

In 1949, he accepted a job with a traveling show from New Orleans and later worked with rhythm and blues performances. After a show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he was attacked, and his saxophone was broken. This event led him to switch to the alto saxophone, which he played in New Orleans. The alto saxophone became his main instrument for the rest of his life. He later joined the band of Pee Wee Crayton and traveled to Los Angeles. While working in Los Angeles, he held jobs like an elevator operator while continuing to pursue music.

In Los Angeles, Coleman met other musicians, including Ed Blackwell, Bobby Bradford, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins, and Charles Moffett. With help from friends and a successful audition, he signed his first recording contract with Contemporary Records. His debut album, Something Else!!!! (1958), included tracks he recorded with Don Cherry, Walter Norris, and Don Payne. That same year, he briefly joined a group led by Paul Bley that performed in Los Angeles. The album Tomorrow Is the Question! later shocked the jazz world. Some musicians criticized his style, but conductor Leonard Bernstein praised his work.

In 1959, Atlantic Records released Coleman’s third studio album, The Shape of Jazz to Come. Music critic Steve Huey called it a major event in the development of avant-garde jazz. In 2017, Jazzwise magazine ranked it third on their list of the 100 best jazz albums of all time.

Coleman’s quartet performed at the Five Spot Café in Manhattan for a long time, which caused some debate. Leonard Bernstein, Lionel Hampton, and the Modern Jazz Quartet supported him. Hampton wanted to perform with Coleman’s group, and Bernstein helped Charlie Haden get a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. A young Lou Reed followed Coleman’s quartet in New York City. Miles Davis once said Coleman was “all screwed up inside,” but later supported his work. Dizzy Gillespie said he did not know what Coleman was playing, but it was not jazz.

Coleman’s early sound was partly due to his use of a plastic Grafton saxophone, which he bought in 1954 in Los Angeles because he could not afford a metal saxophone.

On his Atlantic Records albums, Coleman’s band members included Don Cherry on cornet or pocket trumpet, Charlie Haden, Scott LaFaro, and Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Billy Higgins or Ed Blackwell on drums. His recordings for the label were collected in the box set Beauty Is a Rare Thing in 1993.

In 1960, Coleman recorded Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, which featured two quartets. The album was 37 minutes long and was one of his most controversial works. In 1962, DownBeat magazine gave it five stars, while another reviewer gave it zero stars. Coleman did not like the term “free jazz,” which became a name for a new genre of music.

After his time with Atlantic Records, Coleman’s music became more angular and connected to avant-garde jazz. After his quartet ended, he formed a trio with David Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums. He also started playing trumpet and violin. His friendship with Albert Ayler influenced his style on these instruments. Charlie Haden sometimes joined the trio to form a two-bass quartet.

In 1966, Coleman signed with Blue Note and released the live album At the "Golden Circle" Stockholm, featuring Izenzon and Moffett. Later that year, he recorded The Empty Foxhole with his son Denardo Coleman and Charlie Haden. Some musicians thought Denardo’s appearance was not wise, but he later became Coleman’s main drummer.

Coleman formed another quartet with Haden, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones. Dewey Redman joined the group and usually played the tenor saxophone. In 1968, Coleman’s quartet performed with Yoko Ono at the Royal Albert Hall. A recording from their rehearsal was later included on Ono’s album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band.

Coleman explored string instruments in Town Hall, 1962, leading to the 1972 album Skies of America with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Like Miles Davis, Coleman later played electric instruments. His 1976 album Dancing in Your Head featured two electric guitarists and was his first with the group that became known as Prime Time. This marked a new style for Coleman, but he still used his concept of harmolodics.

In the 1980s, Coleman’s albums with Prime Time, such as Virgin Beauty and Of Human Feelings, used rock and funk rhythms. Jerry Garcia played guitar on three tracks of Virgin Beauty. Coleman joined the Grateful Dead on stage in 1993 during several songs.

In 1985, Coleman and guitarist Pat Metheny recorded Song X.

In 1990, the Italian city of Reggio Emilia held a festival in Coleman’s honor. He performed with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. The festival also included his chamber music and Skies of America. In 1991, Coleman played on the soundtrack of the film Naked Lunch. In 1995 and 1996, he released four records and worked with pianists Geri Allen and Joachim Kühn for the first time in many years.

Two of Coleman’s 1972 recordings, “Happy House” and “Foreigner in a Free Land,” were used in the 2000 film Finding Forrester.

In 2006, Coleman released the album Sound Grammar, recorded live in Germany. It was his first new album in ten years and won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Music, making him the second jazz musician (after Wynton Marsalis) to win the prize.

Personal life

Jazz pianist Joanne Brackeen said in an interview with Marian McPartland that Coleman taught her and gave her music lessons.

Coleman got married to poet Jayne Cortez in 1954. The couple divorced in 1964. They had one son, Denardo, who was born in 1956.

Coleman died from a heart attack in Manhattan on June 11, 2015, at the age of 85. His funeral was a three-hour event with music performances and speeches by many people who worked with him and were his peers.

Awards and honors

• Received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 and 1974
• Inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame in 1969
• Received the MacArthur Fellowship in 1994
• Received the Praemium Imperiale in 2001
• Received the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2004
• Received an honorary doctorate in music from Berklee College of Music in 2006
• Received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007
• Received the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2007
• Received the Miles Davis Award at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2009
• Received an honorary doctorate from CUNY Graduate Center in 2008
• Received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Michigan in 2010

In popular culture

McClintic Sphere is a character in Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel, V. The character is based on Coleman and Thelonious Monk.