Here's what is known about Ornette Coleman's first recorded orchestral symphonic work (he had written others previously and had them performed but never put on tape): After...
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Finally, on a pair of CDs in one collection are the rest of Ornette Coleman's Columbia recordings, all of them done before Skies of America. Science Fiction was a regular...
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Ornette Coleman's first album for Columbia followed a stint on Blue Note that found the altoist in something of a holding pattern. Science Fiction was his creative rebirth,...
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Ornette Coleman's first album in several years and first recording for a major label in quite some time features his 1995 version of Prime Time with two guitars, two...
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For years stretched into decades, iconoclastic jazz hero
Ornette Coleman found little place in his heart or his bands for the piano, until lately. His current acoustic...
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Ornette Coleman is certainly full of surprises in his 60s, recording a duo album with -- believe it or not -- a pianist. For this project, he chose the German pianist...
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This four-part suite is actually a film soundtrack to the debut feature by Conrad Rooks, though it was never used as such. Recorded in 1965, it was performed by the Ornette...
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If there ever was an artist unsuited to a best-of compilation, it's Ornette Coleman. His music is about space and texture within a certain context, not only within the...
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The short-lived but classy Artists House label debuted with this early Prime Time album by Ornette Coleman. At that point Coleman was utilizing guitarists Bern Nix and...
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A wonderful series of duets with old compatriot, bassist Charlie Haden. Title refers to the inclusion of the theme from popular TV soap opera parody of the '70s Mary...
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This unusual album found Coleman taking time off from his electric free funk group, Prime Time, to record acoustic duets with his longtime associate, bassist Charlie Haden....
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Ornette assembles a double quartet--two reeds, two trumpets, two basses, two drummers--for this famous extended free-form piece which not only hangs together nicely but...
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As jazz's first extended, continuous free improvisation LP, Free Jazz practically defies superlatives in its historical importance. Ornette Coleman's music had already been...
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Ornette Coleman's 1965 trio with bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett is easily the most underrated of all his bands. Coming off the light of the famed quartet...
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The second night of Ornette Coleman's two-week stand in Sweden was even fierier than the first, if the recorded documents are to be believed. For starters, December 4 was...
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While it's true this set has been given the highest rating AMG awards, it comes with a qualifier: the rating is for the music and the package, not necessarily the...
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All the Atlantic sides by Coleman are highly recommended (and available in a six-CD boxed set called Beauty Is A RareThing) but this is a good entry place, with one of...
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The second album by Ornette Coleman's legendary quartet featuring Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins, Change of the Century is every bit the equal of the...
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Following the symphonic explorations of 1972's Skies of America, Ornette Coleman became fascinated with the music of Morocco. Dancing in Your Head is the chaotic result of...
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Legendary as the performer/composer who freed jazz from the harmony and songforms of Tin Pan Alley ballads, these pieces show more of Coleman's path since his densely...
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Two sessions, one a reunion of Coleman's original acoustic quartet, the second a set by Prime Time (his electric nom de aggregate). Many of the songs are done by both...
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This is an unusual and very stimulating double CD. On the first CD, Ornette Coleman, on alto and tenor, has a reunion with his original quartet, which is comprised of...
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Coleman with Dewy Redman on tenor sax and ex-Coltrane bandmates Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums. Heavyweights, living up to their...
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The other half of the New York Is Now session, which is, in a sense, ridiculous. Blue Note issued two records when they really had one. There were two dates, April 29 and...
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Recorded during the same session that resulted in the Love Call album (in late April and early May of 1968), New York Is Now is one of the true curiosity pieces in Ornette's...
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It's an understatement to say that Ornette Coleman's stint with Atlantic altered the jazz world forever, and Ornette on Tenor was the last of his six LPs (not counting...
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Ornette Coleman's Atlantic debut, The Shape of Jazz to Come, was a watershed event in the genesis of avant-garde jazz, profoundly steering its future course and throwing...
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This 1958 debut recording by the Ornette Coleman Quintet, which featured Coleman on his trademark white plastic alto, Don Cherry on trumpet, Billy Higgins on drums, Walter...
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Ornette Coleman's brief tenure at Blue Note was neither as seminal as his Atlantic output nor as brazenly ambitious as his early-'70s work for Columbia and later with Prime...
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A quartet side with Don Cherry on trumpet, Red Mitchell and Percy Heath alternating on bass and Shelly Mann on drums. Cherry gets it while the others don't, quite, but...
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On his second outing for the Contemporary label, Ornette dusted the piano from the bandstand and focused instead on a quartet. For some unexplained reason, Billy Higgins was...
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This concert by Ornette's Izenzon/Moffett trio is one of his most accessible and generally overlooked recordings. The interplay is incredible and the group ranges from...
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Ornette Coleman's decision to temporarily retire from music (this ESP disc was his only recording from a four-year period) was unfortunate. His alto playing was getting...
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11 Coleman originals with his Prime Time group and Jerry Garcia sitting in for three cuts. Rather low-keyed and unfocused, compared to the usual PT...
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This CD is often quite exciting, if a bit messy. Ornette Coleman (on alto, trumpet and violin) is heard with his "double quartet" Prime Time, which at the time was comprised...
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In 1996, altoist Ornette Coleman simultaneously released a pair of 14-song CDs; 13 of his pieces are heard in different versions on both releases. Joined by a particularly...
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For this project, altoist Ornette Coleman made one of his very few recordings with a pianist. On a vacation from his electrified Prime Time group, the innovative saxophonist...
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Languages is a quasi-legal release of the Ornette Coleman Quartet in concert in Milan during 1968. The sound quality is wretched; you can't even hear the two basses. Don't...
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Ornette Coleman's 1965 trio with bassist David Izenzon and drummer Charles Moffett is easily the most underrated of all his bands. Coming off the light of the famed quartet...
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The second night of Ornette Coleman's two-week stand in Sweden was even fierier than the first, if the recorded documents are to be believed. For starters, December 4 was...
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In conjunction with the release of Ken Burns' ten-part, 19-hour epic PBS documentary Jazz, Columbia issued 22 single-disc compilations devoted to jazz's most significant...
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Recorded a little over a month after his groundbreaking work Free Jazz, this album found Coleman perhaps retrenching from that idea conceptually, but nonetheless plumbing...
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This disc contains one of Ornette Coleman's lesser-known sessions. In addition to his own alto (and occasional trumpet and violin), Coleman is joined by Dewey Redman on...
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