Ornette Coleman
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Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation.
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Photos 6
Coleman playing his signature alto saxophone in 1971
Coleman playing the trumpet at the Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, in 1981
Coleman playing the violin with Prime Time in 1978, flanked by guitarists Charlie Ellerbee (left) and Bern Nix (right)
Coleman performing in Toronto in 1982
Coleman playing his Selmer alto saxophone in The Hague in 1994Listen
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About this person
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. His pioneering works often abandoned the harmony-based composition, tonality, chord changes, and fixed rhythm found in earlier jazz idioms; instead, Coleman emphasized an experimental approach to improvisation rooted in ensemble playing and blues phrasing. Thom Jurek of AllMusic called him "one of the most beloved and polarizing figures in jazz history", noting that while "now celebrated as a fearless innovator and a genius, he was initially regarded by peers and critics as rebellious, disruptive, and even a fraud."
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