Library Person

Ornette Coleman

American saxophonist and composer, developer of harmolodics and a founding figure of free jazz.

Ornette Coleman
Photograph by Andy NewcombeSource
Type
Person
Subjects
Sound Form

Ornette Coleman (1930–2015, Fort Worth, Texas) established free jazz as a distinct practice with The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and the twin-quartet recording Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (1960), moving harmonic and rhythmic structure away from fixed chord changes toward collective, real-time invention. Through the 1970s he elaborated this into harmolodics, a formal theory placing harmony, melody, and rhythm on equal footing, developed further with his electric group Prime Time on albums including Dancing in Your Head (1976). His Sound Grammar (2006) won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Works in the Library

  • Ornette Coleman CONCEPT

    Harmolodics

    Ornette Coleman's theory of harmony, melody, and rhythm holding equal, simultaneous position, developed through the 1970s-80s.

    SOUND FORM