Ornette Coleman : Rolling Stone

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December 13, 2007

Ornette Coleman: Five Key Discs

From early breakthroughs to electric freakouts

Tone Dialing

It is a lot easier to lose yourself in the roaring joy of Ornette Coleman's music than it is to explain why you shouldn't be afraid of it. The saxophonist's code name for his strategy of composition and group improvisation, harmolodics (a pidgin mix of harmonic, melodic and rhythmic), sounds more...

1995 RS: 4of 5 Stars

Dancing In Your Head

1976

Skies Of America

1972

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Biography

Ornette Coleman's bluesy, playful music revolutionized jazz in the '60s by ignoring regular harmonies and rhythms. In the '70s he formalized his "harmolodic" theory and applied it to rock instrumentation with his group, Prime Time, pioneering a powerful and increasingly influential jazz-rock-funk-ethnic-music fusion. In the late '90s, he enjoyed a considerable revival of interest.

Coleman taught...

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Key Tracks