Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 - June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxoph… Read Full Bio ↴Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 - June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer. He was one of the founders and major innovators of the 1960s free jazz movement and one of the most notable figures in jazz history.
Coleman was born in 1930 in Fort Worth, Texas where he participated in his high school band until being dismissed for improvising during "The Washington Post" march. He began performing rhythm and blues and bebop, initially on tenor saxophone. He later switched to alto, which has remained his primary instrument. Coleman's timbre is perhaps one of the most easily recognized in jazz; his keening, crying sound draws heavily on the blues. Part of the uniqueness of his sound came from his use of a plastic saxophone on his classic early recordings (Coleman claimed that it sounded drier, without the pinging sound of metal), though in more recent years he has played a metal saxophone.
Coleman is most famous for his albums The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959), Free Jazz (1961), and Skies of America (1972). In The Shape of Jazz to Come, he and his famous quartet, consisting of Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on upright bass, and Billy Higgins on drums, play solos free of a chordal structure, due in part to the absence of the pianist or guitarist that had been traditional in jazz. On Free Jazz, Coleman brings together his quartet from the previous album, together with multi-instrumental reedist Eric Dolphy, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Ed Blackwell for a forty-minute double-quartet recording. This recording was perhaps his most controversial because it featured dense instrumentation with only brief and dissonant moments of composition, allowing for horn players to chime in to accompany the soloist, and because it contributed the name "Free Jazz" to the avant-garde jazz movements of the 1960s. Skies of America is Coleman's first symphony, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. Coleman can be heard playing on this recording, beginning with the movement "The Artist in America".
In the 70s, Coleman, like Miles Davis before him, took to playing with electrified instruments. The 1976 jazz-funk album Dancing in Your Head, Coleman's first recording with the group which later became known as Prime Time, prominently featured electric guitars. While this marked a stylistic departure for Coleman, the music maintained certain similarities to his earlier work. These performances had the same angular melodies and simultaneous group improvisations – what Joe Zawinul referred to as "nobody solos, everybody solos" and what Coleman called 'harmolodics' – and although the nature of the pulse was altered, Coleman's rhythmic approach did not. Harmolodics encompassed the central musical approach of Coleman's later period, and he has explained it variously in depth, particularly in an interview with the WIRE magazine 257, July 2005 issue.
In the 1980s, albums like Virgin Beauty and Of Human Feelings continued to use rock and funk rhythms, sometimes called free funk. Jerry Garcia played guitar on three tracks from Coleman's 1988 album Virgin Beauty: "Three Wishes", "Singing in the Shower", and "Desert Players". Coleman joined the Grateful Dead on stage once in 1993 during "Space", and stayed for "The Other One", "Stella Blue", Bobby Bland's "Turn on Your Lovelight", and the encore "Brokedown Palace". Another collaboration was with guitarist Pat Metheny, with whom Coleman recorded Song X (1985); though released under Metheny's name, Coleman was essentially a co-leader, having contributed to all the compositions.
In 1991, Coleman played on the soundtrack for David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch; the orchestra was conducted by Howard Shore. It is notable among other things for including a rare sighting of Coleman playing a jazz standard: Thelonious Monk's blues line "Misterioso". The mid-1990s saw a flurry of activity from Ornette: he released four records in 1995 and 1996, and for the first time in many years worked regularly with piano players (either Geri Allen or Joachim Kühn).
In September 2006 a live album titled Sound Grammar with his newest quartet (Denardo drumming and two bassists, Gregory Cohen and Tony Falanga) was released. This was Coleman's first album of new material in ten years, and was recorded in Germany in 2005. It eventually won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for music, making Coleman only the second jazz artist to win the prize.
Coleman continued to push himself into unusual playing situations, often with much younger musicians or musicians from radically different musical cultures. An increasing number of his compositions, while not ubiquitous, have become minor jazz standards, including "Lonely Woman", "Peace", "Turnaround", "When Will the Blues Leave?", "The Blessing", "Law Years", "What Reason Could I Give" and "I've Waited All My Life". He has influenced virtually every saxophonist of a modern disposition, and nearly every such jazz musician, of the generation that followed him. His songs have proven endlessly malleable: pianists such as Paul Bley and Paul Plimley have managed to turn them to their purposes; John Zorn recorded Spy vs Spy (1989), an album of extremely loud, fast, and abrupt versions of Coleman songs. Finnish jazz singer Carola covered Coleman's "Lonely Woman" and there have even been progressive bluegrass versions of Coleman tunes (by Richard Greene).
Ornette Coleman died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 85 in New York City on June 11, 2015. His funeral was a three-hour event with performances and speeches by several of his collaborators and contemporaries.
Coleman was born in 1930 in Fort Worth, Texas where he participated in his high school band until being dismissed for improvising during "The Washington Post" march. He began performing rhythm and blues and bebop, initially on tenor saxophone. He later switched to alto, which has remained his primary instrument. Coleman's timbre is perhaps one of the most easily recognized in jazz; his keening, crying sound draws heavily on the blues. Part of the uniqueness of his sound came from his use of a plastic saxophone on his classic early recordings (Coleman claimed that it sounded drier, without the pinging sound of metal), though in more recent years he has played a metal saxophone.
Coleman is most famous for his albums The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959), Free Jazz (1961), and Skies of America (1972). In The Shape of Jazz to Come, he and his famous quartet, consisting of Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on upright bass, and Billy Higgins on drums, play solos free of a chordal structure, due in part to the absence of the pianist or guitarist that had been traditional in jazz. On Free Jazz, Coleman brings together his quartet from the previous album, together with multi-instrumental reedist Eric Dolphy, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Scott LaFaro, and drummer Ed Blackwell for a forty-minute double-quartet recording. This recording was perhaps his most controversial because it featured dense instrumentation with only brief and dissonant moments of composition, allowing for horn players to chime in to accompany the soloist, and because it contributed the name "Free Jazz" to the avant-garde jazz movements of the 1960s. Skies of America is Coleman's first symphony, recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. Coleman can be heard playing on this recording, beginning with the movement "The Artist in America".
In the 70s, Coleman, like Miles Davis before him, took to playing with electrified instruments. The 1976 jazz-funk album Dancing in Your Head, Coleman's first recording with the group which later became known as Prime Time, prominently featured electric guitars. While this marked a stylistic departure for Coleman, the music maintained certain similarities to his earlier work. These performances had the same angular melodies and simultaneous group improvisations – what Joe Zawinul referred to as "nobody solos, everybody solos" and what Coleman called 'harmolodics' – and although the nature of the pulse was altered, Coleman's rhythmic approach did not. Harmolodics encompassed the central musical approach of Coleman's later period, and he has explained it variously in depth, particularly in an interview with the WIRE magazine 257, July 2005 issue.
In the 1980s, albums like Virgin Beauty and Of Human Feelings continued to use rock and funk rhythms, sometimes called free funk. Jerry Garcia played guitar on three tracks from Coleman's 1988 album Virgin Beauty: "Three Wishes", "Singing in the Shower", and "Desert Players". Coleman joined the Grateful Dead on stage once in 1993 during "Space", and stayed for "The Other One", "Stella Blue", Bobby Bland's "Turn on Your Lovelight", and the encore "Brokedown Palace". Another collaboration was with guitarist Pat Metheny, with whom Coleman recorded Song X (1985); though released under Metheny's name, Coleman was essentially a co-leader, having contributed to all the compositions.
In 1991, Coleman played on the soundtrack for David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch; the orchestra was conducted by Howard Shore. It is notable among other things for including a rare sighting of Coleman playing a jazz standard: Thelonious Monk's blues line "Misterioso". The mid-1990s saw a flurry of activity from Ornette: he released four records in 1995 and 1996, and for the first time in many years worked regularly with piano players (either Geri Allen or Joachim Kühn).
In September 2006 a live album titled Sound Grammar with his newest quartet (Denardo drumming and two bassists, Gregory Cohen and Tony Falanga) was released. This was Coleman's first album of new material in ten years, and was recorded in Germany in 2005. It eventually won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for music, making Coleman only the second jazz artist to win the prize.
Coleman continued to push himself into unusual playing situations, often with much younger musicians or musicians from radically different musical cultures. An increasing number of his compositions, while not ubiquitous, have become minor jazz standards, including "Lonely Woman", "Peace", "Turnaround", "When Will the Blues Leave?", "The Blessing", "Law Years", "What Reason Could I Give" and "I've Waited All My Life". He has influenced virtually every saxophonist of a modern disposition, and nearly every such jazz musician, of the generation that followed him. His songs have proven endlessly malleable: pianists such as Paul Bley and Paul Plimley have managed to turn them to their purposes; John Zorn recorded Spy vs Spy (1989), an album of extremely loud, fast, and abrupt versions of Coleman songs. Finnish jazz singer Carola covered Coleman's "Lonely Woman" and there have even been progressive bluegrass versions of Coleman tunes (by Richard Greene).
Ornette Coleman died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 85 in New York City on June 11, 2015. His funeral was a three-hour event with performances and speeches by several of his collaborators and contemporaries.
The Blessing
Ornette Coleman Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'The Blessing' by these artists:
Aaron & Jeoffrey May the Lord bless you and keep you May the Lord…
Aaron and Jeoffrey Suddenly I know I want the truth Help me see…
Benedict Silberman Orchestra And Chorus COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS (Instead of Sheep) Eddie Fisher/Rosema…
Beriedir Can't you see? Across the border A new era, a rising…
Bethel Music feat. We The Kingdom The Lord bless you and keep you Make His face shine…
Billy & Cindy Foote We never blessing the beef Now they step 2 waps.. Gang…
Bishop Larry Trotter Just touch somebody and tell them "The Lord is blessing…
Brian Fallon The Lord bless you And keep you Make His face shine upon…
Celtic Woman In the morning when you rise I bless the sun, I…
Connie Dover The Blessing Soiridh leibh 'us oidhche mhath leibh Oidhche …
D.B.A I'm stacking blessings on blessings Blessings on blessings o…
D.O.X. I can feel the end unwind She don't know I'll be…
Dave Godfrey Looking at your feet ain’t gonna give you what’s missing Bel…
David Hmmmmmm Yeah yeah Oh deh deh Oh deh deh Oh deh deh Count my …
electrics May your life in this world be a happy one May…
Elevation Worship The Lord bless you And keep you Make His face shine upon…
Hillsong Worship What gift of love could I offer to a King What…
Instrumental Hymns and Worship 祢以恩典為年歲的冠冕 祢的路徑都滴下脂油 每天看顧與保守 扶持與安慰 恩典滿滿圍繞我生命 賜我平安度過每一天 除祢以外 …
Jennifer Jimenez Woke up this morning and my energy was low Lately…
Joanne Hogg Moya Brennan & Margaret Becker In the deep of the dark, you fell in as…
John A. Behnke When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed When you are…
John Waller Let it be said of us While we walked among the…
Joi Spent half of my life in denial Was an ongoing trial Already…
Kari Jobe The Lord bless you And keep you Make His face shine upon…
L. Boogie May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be…
Lisa Kelly In the morning when you rise I bless the sun, I…
Lj the Messenger Love that conquers every fear Love that holds the sinner nea…
Majesty Out of the ancient ruins emerged chaos It shattered the ear…
Nicolay & Soul Dekhi hai duniya in ankho se (ahko se) Paala pada mera…
P Soup - The Blessing Oooo, fé, muita fé Um por amor, dois por respeito O…
P. Soup Yo whatever you going through Make sure you stay on yo…
S.O.N I need your love I need your pain I need your trust I…
Sally Oldfield I stand and watch upon the mountains of Morne The new…
Slowmotion Apocalypse Choked by the pressure Inside this glass cage I can't breat…
Soul Dekhi hai duniya in ankho se (ahko se) Paala pada mera…
Steve Tallis When you're down and troubled And you need a helping hand …
Steven Curtis Chapman Let's not say another word We don't need to question why let…
Stevens Siegel & Ferguson The Lord bless you, and keep you The Lord make His…
The Electrics May your life in this world be a happy one May…
The Temple It was a painful day of summer I was thinking wicked…
The War Within The Lord bless you And keep you Make His face shine upon…
Will Downing I searched all day, and into the night, to find a…
Wondersigns The Lord bless you And keep you Make His face shine upon…
Zozobra She comes in waves. When we crash, we break Head floats aw…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Ornette Coleman:
All My Life I've waited all my life for you and now you're here you neve…
Bird Food [Instrumental]…
Embraceable You Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you! Embrace me, you irrepl…
Free Jazz Unga boinga, this music sucks. this music sucks. random nois…
How Deep is the Ocean How much do I love you? I'll tell you no lie How…
How Deep Is The Ocean? How much do I love you? I'll tell you no lie How…
Lover Come Back To Me You went away I let you We broke the ties that bind I…
Poise Some nights we got too high to fall asleep These nights…
Proof Readers BIG TYMERS Miscellaneous Big Tymers (Intro)"(feat. Bullet …
Una Muy Bonita [Instrumental]…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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@mysteryloaf
The rhythmic phrasing in the head sounds nothing like the old bebop and swing phrasing that came before. It uses every note of the triplet and goes into straight sixteenths, quarter note triplets, playing WAY behind the beat, and who knows what else. Really interesting choices. Even with the warm and homey melody, the rhythm makes for a controlled-chaos feeling within the otherwise straightforward band sounds. Listening today, it feels very fresh and insightful in how the music finds unfamiliar territory in its own time.
@migdel
We get to keep the blessing he gave to us.
@Gsmooth10455
R.I.P. Jazzmaster Coleman.
@2300skiddoo
This is from his first day in a recording studio, February 10, 1958.
@abrahampalmer1153
Very legit song
@60otaku4
You're very welcome, KillerJazzSet-san!! Otaku4 (*^_^)/
@mcnabbpete
Beautiful Song, very odd to hear ornette with a piano...takes some getting used too...but great none the less
@liamwatson5125
Pete M Ornette did not like the sound of the piano at all. That’s why he omitted and forbade it in his recordings. Don Cherry was his best friend. I think they may have known each other in school, I could be wrong.
@emilianoturazzi
@Liam Watson he didn't like to have fixed harmony (and probably an equal temperament) it's different form disliking an instrument. actually he played with several piano players (Paul Bley, Joachim Kuhn, Geri Allen) and even played piano himself in a couple of occasions. He didn't meet Cherry in school one was from Fort Worth, the other from Oklahoma City. And Ornette was six years older than Cherry. Something missing is a meeting with Cecil Taylor, they were friends, buy probably felt that their approaches were too diffferent... I don't know
@jimmyy5954
Does sound sort of dated with a piano. His stuff without a piano is timeless and much less constrained