Jazz Titan Ornette Coleman Stayed at the Front of the Avant-Garde Pack All His ... - Daily Beast
Ornette Coleman, who died Thursday morning from cardiac arrest at age 85, came across as a thoughtful, soft-spoken man in private life. But he will be remembered as a fiery revolutionary, and the most controversial figure in the jazz world during the second half of the 20th century. Fans still talk about his arrival at New York’s Five Spot in November 1959 as a disruptive moment in the history of modern music. Many embraced Coleman’s saxophony as the next new thing in the music. Ornette Coleman simply demanded attention. All the opinion leaders came to the Five Spot to size up the newcomer. Coleman was no stranger to controversy. When Coleman tried to sit in with Max Roach’s band, he was kept waiting for four hours, and when he finally came on the bandstand, the other musicians started to pack up their instruments. When Bill Holman let Coleman sit in with his band, the club owner told him he would be fired if he did it a second time. “Well, we let him sit in again, and the club emptied out again” Holman later told me. “This time she fires us. ”. But Les Koenig, owner of Contemporary Records, ignored the skeptics and signed Coleman to a record contract in 1958. The resulting... Source: www.thedailybeast.com
