Another attempt at Jazz discussion.
The Shape of Jazz to Come is a fierce and daring album, which comes as quite a surprise after seeing the relaxed, sweatered and mustached Ornette Coleman looking terrifically nerdy on the cover. When it was released in 1959 the album shocked people; blew the doors off previous jazz conceptions. Coleman nearly single handedly created free jazz by removing the restriction of...CHORDS! Up until this point all Jazz, no matter how complicated or out there, used to chord structures and often hand a piano just in order to keep the chord structures moving. Coleman's quartet had no piano and followed no chord structures. Instead, each piece begins with a melody and then breaks into several minutes of free improvisation, held together -barely!- by the rhythm section which itself was improvising freely. This wasn't quite free jazz without key or any structure at all whatsoever, but it opened the doors!
Chord structure wasn't the only tradition Coleman discarded. Jazz etiquette at the time required a soloist to finish his solo before another player began; The Shape of Jazz has moments in it where multiple musicians solo at the same time. This became one of the building blocks of jazz-fusion (though this album is not a fusion album by any means).
Throwing out traditions is not enough to become the father of a new genre, it needs to be accompanied by artistic mastery, and Coleman is a brilliant saxophone player. Incredibly fast runs swirl and dance around each other as Coleman and Don Cherry (not the Hockey guy) exchange music explosions with each other; Cherry's cornet - a higher trumpet - the soprano to Coleman's alto-sax. And the rhythm section that holds it together is near rabid with frantic galloping drums and nonstop walking bass lines following no clear path, but never seeming to lose it's footing.
And yet. And yet! The album, unlike later free jazz, remains enjoyable to more than the avid jazz nerd. The melodies are catchy, and it is not a hard album to listen to.
A phenomenal undertaking and accomplishment.
Summary: Free Jazz is born.
Best Track: "Peace"
Rating: [9/10]
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