The Shape of Jazz to Come

Infobox Album | Name = The Shape of Jazz to Come
Type = Studio album
Artist = Ornette Coleman


Released = 1959
Recorded = May 22 1959, United States
Genre = Avant-garde jazz
Free jazz
Length = 37:59
Producer = Nesuhi Ertegün
Label = Atlantic Records
Reviews =
*Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:9t3m96bodep6 link]
Last album = "Tomorrow Is the Question!"
(1959)
This album = "The Shape of Jazz to Come"
(1959)
Next album = "Change of the Century"
(1960)

"The Shape of Jazz to Come" is an influential album by Ornette Coleman. It was his debut album for Atlantic Records, who released it in late 1959.

"The Shape of Jazz to Come" was one of the first avant-garde jazz albums ever recorded. It was recorded in 1959 by Coleman's piano-less quartet. The album was considered shocking at the time, because it had no recognizable chord structure and included simultaneous improvisation by the performers in a much freer style than previously in jazz.

Coleman's major breakthrough was to leave out chord-playing instruments. Each selection contains a brief melody, much like the tune of a typical jazz song, then several minutes of free improvisation, followed by a repetition of the main theme; while this resembles the conventional head-solo-head structure of bebop, it abandons the use of chord structures.

The album was a breakthrough work, in that it helped establish the avant-garde & free jazz movement. Later avant-garde jazz was often very different from this, but the work laid the foundation for the format in which nearly all later avant-garde and free jazz would be played.

Track listing

"All tracks written by Ornette Coleman."

ide A

# "Lonely Woman" – 5:02
# "Eventually" – 4:22
# "Peace" – 9:04

ide B

# "Focus on Sanity" – 6:52
# "Congeniality" – 6:48
# "Chronology" – 6:03

Personnel

*Ornette Coleman – alto saxophone
*Don Cherry – cornet
*Charlie Haden – double bass
*Billy Higgins – drums