Jazz, and music in general, has lost an avant-garde icon. Ornette Coleman, composer, alto saxaphonist and the Prophet of Freedom, passed away on Thursday in Manhattan, following a cardiac arrest. An unconventional introduction to music led to Coleman’s lifelong suspicion about the rules and formulas of Western harmony, which ultimately led to his often contentious yet greatly influential contribution to jazz.
Coleman become one of the figureheads, alongside John Coltrane, for the ‘free jazz’ movement (the name of which was taken from Coleman’s 1960 album), less structured by formulaic chord progressions and harmonies. Coleman was uncomfortable with the term’s attachment to him, possibly owing to the level of composition on his works. His curiosity for the unique, new and unusual in music was cleverly put together throughout his many brilliant and beautiful recordings.
Coleman’s irregular approach to his craft can perhaps best be explained through his 1995 interview with Michael Jarrett. Coleman said of those he played with, ‘I don’t want them to follow me, I want them to follow themselves, but to be with me.’ This is encapsulated in his concept of ‘unison’, where a group can play together, yet in completely different keys. As interesting from a historical and educational perspective as he is from a musical one, his influence on jazz (not to mention related genres including soul and hip hop) was – and remains- unparalleled.
The jazz great, with his favoured plastic white alto sax, was an equally proficient trumpeter and violinist. Some of his awards include the 2001 Praemium Imperial, an international prize given by the imperial family of Japan for outstanding contribution and development in the arts, the 2004 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, the 2009 Miles Davis Award and a 2007 Pullitzer Prize for his album Sound Grammar.
We pay our respects with the beautiful Sleep Talking, off this lauded and monumental album:
Rest in peace.