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"The Shape of Jazz to Come" – Ornette Coleman

19 snips
Mar 9, 2026
A deep dive into Ornette Coleman’s radical 1959 record and the uproar it caused in jazz circles. Short tracks and the quartet’s interplay are broken down track by track. The hosts explain harmolodics, the album’s melodic focus, and how it rippled through jazz history. Tension between technique and vision and memorable reactions from jazz legends are highlighted.
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INSIGHT

Ornette's Unconventional Path Shaped The Record

  • The Shape Of Jazz To Come emerged from Ornette Coleman’s nontraditional path, not the usual sideman apprenticeship most jazz giants followed.
  • Coleman came from Texas R&B and blues, played a plastic sax, and recorded few prior dates before his 1959 breakthrough.
ANECDOTE

Hustle And A One Day Recording Session

  • Coleman moved to California, worked menial jobs, studied theory on lunch breaks, and John Lewis helped get him an Atlantic deal.
  • The quartet recorded The Shape of Jazz to Come in one day and then began a legendary Five Spot residency in New York.
INSIGHT

Harmolodics Swaps Melody And Harmony

  • Harmolodics reorients melody and harmony so written harmony can become melody and vice versa, dissolving fixed chord roles.
  • Don Cherry describes learning unison heads then letting the written harmony morph into new melodic material in performance.
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