"Some people think of music as being on some higher level," Ornette Coleman says by phone from his apartment in New York City. "But basically it's the human being that receives the pleasure from sound ...

This is Our Music is the militantly expressed jumping-off point for alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman on the way to the epochal Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation (Atlantic, 1961). Coleman picks up ...

During Ornette Coleman’s legendary 1959 run of shows at the Five Spot club in New York, there was a joke going around: “A waiter drops a trayload of drinks and a man says to his lady-friend, ‘Listen ...

In a scene from Ornette: Made in America, Shirley Clarke’s unconventional — and unforgettable — documentary portrait of Ornette Coleman, the musician and composer is on a New York City sidewalk in ...

“Ornette’s work is so profoundly tied to the notion of liberty,” Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid says, reflecting on the life, music and legacy of the saxophonist Ornette Coleman, who died on June ...

The excessive interest in film scores is as bad for music as it is for movies. Most movie music is dull to listen to on its own, no matter how well it enhances the film in which it’s deployed. With ...

Ornette Coleman, visionary saxophonist who pioneered "free jazz," performs with his quartet in 2006. Coleman died Thursday in New York at age 85. (Boris Grdanoski) Jazz legend Ornette Coleman, the ...

Those less familiar with out-there jazz of the 1950s and ‘60s might not have a clue as to why Ornette Coleman, who died Thursday morning, was such a transformative American musician at that time, and ...

Jazz saxophonist Coleman, who is almost 85, rarely makes records any more. In New Vocabulary, he joins up trumpet and drums — and peppers his solos with his signature catchy and earthy pet phrases.

Ornette Coleman was always light years ahead of everyone else in terms of his ability to function as a constantly evolving nonconformist who took risks and created new spaces where art and ...

Alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, one of the most innovative composers and performers in jazz history, died Thursday morning in Manhattan at age 85. A representative for the musician’s family cited ...

John Rogers is a photographer living in New York City who specializes in jazz. A few weeks ago, he approached NPR with the idea to document the unique connection he shared with his friend Ornette ...