The Shape of Jazz to Come is an influential
albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
by
Ornette ColemanOrnette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
. It was his debut album for
Atlantic RecordsAtlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, who released it in late 1959.
The Shape of Jazz to Come was one of the first
avant-garde jazzAvant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...
albums ever recorded. It was recorded in 1959 by Coleman's
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
-less quartet. The album was considered shocking at the time, because it had no recognizable chord structure and included simultaneous
improvisationImprovisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
by the performers in a much freer style than previously seen in jazz.
Coleman's major breakthrough was to leave out chord-playing instruments.
The Shape of Jazz to Come is an influential
albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
by
Ornette ColemanOrnette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
. It was his debut album for
Atlantic RecordsAtlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm & blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, who released it in late 1959.
The Shape of Jazz to Come was one of the first
avant-garde jazzAvant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...
albums ever recorded. It was recorded in 1959 by Coleman's
pianoThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
-less quartet. The album was considered shocking at the time, because it had no recognizable chord structure and included simultaneous
improvisationImprovisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
by the performers in a much freer style than previously seen in jazz.
Coleman's major breakthrough was to leave out chord-playing instruments. Each selection contains a brief
melodyA melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
, much like the tune of a typical jazz song, then several minutes of free improvisation, followed by a repetition of the main theme; while this resembles the conventional head-solo-head structure of
bebopBebop or bop is a style of jazz characterized by fast tempo, instrumental virtuosity and improvisation based on the combination of harmonic structure and melody. It was developed in the early and mid-1940s...
, it abandons the use of chord structures.
The album was a breakthrough work, in that it helped establish the avant-garde &
free jazzFree jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s.Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
movement. Later avant-garde jazz was often very different from this, but the work laid the foundation for the format in which nearly all later avant-garde and free jazz would be played.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 246 on
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
magazine's list of
the 500 greatest albums of all timeThe 500 Greatest Albums of All Time is the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone magazine published in November 2003.Related news articles: The list was based on the votes of 273 rock musicians, critics and industry figures, each of whom submitted a weighted list of 50 albums...
.
Personnel
- Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
– alto saxophoneThe alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by the Belgian instrument designer in 1841 Adolphe Sax. The alto, with the tenor, is the most common size of saxophone...
- Don Cherry
Don Cherry was an innovative African-American jazz trumpeter whose career began with a long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman, and who would go on to live and work with a wide variety of musicians in many parts of the world.-Biography:Cherry was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and...
– cornetThe cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the medieval cornett or cornetto....
- Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden is an American jazz musician. He is a double bassist, probably best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman...
– double bassThe double bass, also called the upright bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The name, "double bass," derives from the early use of the instrument to double—an octave lower where possible—the bass part written...
- Billy Higgins
Billy Higgins was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.
– drumsA drum set is a collection of drums, cymbals and sometimes other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person . The term "drum kit" first became used in the 1700s in Britain...