Rabble Without A Cause, May 22: the 65th anniversary of “The Shape of Jazz to Come”
On May 22, 1959, Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins entered the studio to record music that set the stage for avant garde music to come
On this day in 1959, Ornette Coleman started a jazz revolution. He, along with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins, recorded what would become the seminal album, The Shape of Jazz to Come. Coleman’s intention was to call the album “Focus on Sanity”, after another track on the album. Nesuhi Ertegun of Atlantic Records convinced him that the eventual title would give listeners “an idea about the uniqueness of what they were going to hear”.
On the show, we are going to hear the album in its entirety, as well as two outtakes from that recording session that were only released in 1970 and 1971.
I believe that what Ornette Coleman is playing will affect the whole character of jazz music profoundly and pervasively.
Martin Williams, Liner Notes
Gunter Schuller was asked by Ornette Coleman to assist with the editing of the album. Gunter Schuller had the following to say about the playing on the album:
Perhaps the most outstanding element in Ornette’s musical conception is an utter and complete freedom. His musical inspiration operates in a world uncluttered by conventional bar lines, conventional chord changes, and conventional ways of blowing or fingering a saxophone. Such practical ‘limitations’ did not even have to be overcome in his music; they somehow never existed for him. Despite this -- or more accurately because of this -- his playing has a deep inner logic, it is based on subtleties of reaction, subtleties of timing and colour that are, I think, quite new to jazz -- at least they have never appeared in so pure and direct a form. Ornette’s musical language is a product of a mature man who must speak through his horn.
We will end the show with a track from the album “Free Jazz” released in 1960, that shows the evolution of the Ornette Coleman sound.
You can listen to the show live on CKCU FM 93.1 or via live streaming. Shortly after broadcast it will be available for streaming on demand.