The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet – Free Jazz
A groundbreaking work that established the name of the “new music,” Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz was so controversial that Downbeat magazine had to feature a double-review of the album with one critic giving it 5 stars and another no stars. Martin Williams writes in the liner notes: “Jazzmen have tried spontaneous group improvising without preconception before, of course – and almost invariably fallen into playing the blues within an acceptable key. It is surely a most telling tribute to the importance of this music that all of these young men, of different experience in jazz, were able to contribute spontaneously and sustain a performance like this one.”
Recommended – Full Listen
A Free Jazz (Part 1) 19:55
B Free Jazz (Part 2) 16:28
Alto Saxophone – Ornette Coleman
Bass – Charlie Haden, Scott LaFaro
Bass Clarinet – Eric Dolphy
Design [Album] – Loring Eutemey
Drums – Billy Higgins, Ed Blackwell
Engineer [Recording] – Tom Dowd
Supervised By – Nesuhi Ertegun
Trumpet – Freddie Hubbard
Trumpet [Pocket] – Don Cherry