Ornette Coleman, Jazz Pioneer, Dies At 85

Ornette Coleman, the renowned saxophone master and composer credited as the father of "free jazz," died Thursday at age 85 in New York City, according to various media outlets, including the New York Times.

A representative said that the cause of death was cardiac arrest, the Times reported.

In 1959, Coleman released the album "The Shape Of Jazz To Come," which The Guardian calls "his greatest breakthrough...a break from the bebop style that had been so influential in the genre, and a landmark in avant garde jazz." Coleman's music was so polarizing, there were reports "of people walking out of shows, or arguing at his gigs with fellow audience members," according to The Guardian.

"They were playing changes," he said of the bebop players in 2007, speaking to The Guardian. "They weren't playing movements. I was trying to play ideas, changes, movements and non-transposed notes."

Coleman's music didn't generate substantial radio airplay or sales, but it made a deep impression on John Coltrane, Miles Davis "and other avant-garde jazz artists in the 1960s who were looking for ways to break free from the confines of previous jazz styles and express themselves more fully and emotionally," the Wall Street Journal notes.

Coleman was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1930. He began playing alto and tenor sax at age 14, according to All Music, and developed his adventurous musical spirit at a young age; he was thrown out of the I. M. Terrell High School band for improvising during a rendition of John Philip Sousa's "The Washington Post March," according to Texas Monthly.

Jerry Garcia was among Coleman's admirers. Coleman was invited to sit in with Garcia and the Grateful Dead in 1993. Garcia's estate on Thursday shared comments made by the guitarist and singer about the saxophone player via his official Facebook page.

Coleman is survived by a son, Denardo, and a grandson, Ornette Ali Coleman, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Tags

Jazz, Grateful Dead