Where to Start with Ornette Coleman

June 15, 2015 by Scott Timberg
CultureCrash
THE great Texas-born jazz musician, who died last week, worked in a number of genres — free jazz, symphonic music, funk — and it can be hard for newcomers to get a sense of him.

Here’s how I began my Salon piece on Coleman:

Miles Davis said he must be “all screwed up inside” to play that way he did. Max Roach punched him in the mouth after he saw him play. But Ornette Coleman, who died today off cardiac arrest at 85, lived longer than almost any jazz great, he made important and challenging music for decades.

read more: http://www.artsjournal.com/culturecrash/2015/06/where-to-start-with-ornette-coleman.html