Search Results - Coleman, Ornette.
Ornette Coleman
![Coleman at the Enjoy Jazz Festival in [[Heidelberg]], 2008](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Ornette-Coleman-2008-Heidelberg-schindelbeck.jpg)
Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Coleman taught himself to play the saxophone when he was a teenager. He began his musical career playing in local R&B and bebop groups, and eventually formed his own group in Los Angeles, featuring members such as Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. In November 1959, his quartet began a controversial residency at the Five Spot jazz club in New York City and he released the influential album ''The Shape of Jazz to Come'', his debut LP on Atlantic Records. Coleman's subsequent Atlantic releases in the early 1960s would profoundly influence the direction of jazz in that decade, and his compositions "Lonely Woman" and "Broadway Blues" became genre standards that are cited as important early works in free jazz.
In the mid 1960s, Coleman left Atlantic for labels such as Blue Note and Columbia Records, and began performing with his young son Denardo Coleman on drums. He explored symphonic compositions with his 1972 album ''Skies of America'', featuring the London Symphony Orchestra. In the mid-1970s, he formed the group Prime Time and explored electric jazz-funk and his concept of harmolodic music. In 1995, Coleman and his son Denardo founded the Harmolodic record label. His 2006 album ''Sound Grammar'' received the Pulitzer Prize for Music, making Coleman the second jazz musician ever to receive the honor. Provided by Wikipedia