Ornette Coleman: Music is a Verb

Warren Allen

CD/DVD Reviewer since 2008

Warren is a freelance writer working in New York and Boston.

Recent articles (53 total)

Published: September 21, 2009

Whatever Harmolodics is, whether Coleman is deserving of the crown that he's been given, or whether he's just been jiving for a lifetime—all these questions ultimately matter little. What matters to Coleman, and what has always mattered, can only be found in the ears of his audiences, and within his own. That is the music.

"Imagine," he says, "that you could go and play a sound—and that's what I hope you do, play a sound that no one has heard—then all of a sudden, they're smiling and dancing and joining. That's like taking a cure, you know? That's a really good thing."

Selected Discography

Ornette Coleman Complete Live at the Hillcrest Club (Gambit, 2007)
Ornette Coleman Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar, 2006)
Joe Henry Scar (Fontana Mammoth, 2001)
Ornette Coleman/Joachim Kuhn Colors (Polygram Records, 1997)
Ornette Coleman Tone Dialing (Harmolodic, 1995)
Howard Shore/Ornette Coleman Naked Lunch (RCA, 1992)
Ornette Coleman Virgin Beauty (Portrait, 1988)
Pat Metheny/Ornette Coleman Song X (Nonesuch, 1985)
James "Blood" Ulmer Tales of Captain Black (DIW, 1978)
Ornette Coleman Dancing In Your Head (A&M, 1973)
Ornette Coleman Skies of America (Columbia/Legacy, 1972)
Ornette Coleman Complete Science Fiction Sessions (Columbia/Legacy, 1971)
Ornette Coleman New York Is Now! (Blue Note, 1968)
Ornette Coleman Who's Crazy? (Affinity, 1966)
Ornette Coleman The Empty Foxhole (Blue, Note 1966)
Ornette Coleman Town Hall Concert (ESP, 1962)
Ornette Coleman Free Jazz (A Collective Improvisation) (Atlantic, 1960)
Ornette Coleman This Is Our Music (Atlantic, 1960)
Ornette Coleman The Shape of Jazz to Come (Atlantic, 1959)
Ornette Coleman Twins (Atlantic, 1959)
Ornette Coleman Change of the Century (Atlantic, 1959)
Ornette Coleman Something Else!!!!: The Music of Ornette Coleman (Contemporary/OJC, 1958)