Ornette Coleman was born on March 9, 1930 in Ft Worth, Texas. He died today, on June 11, 2015. Mr. Coleman was an American saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He changed the face of music in the 1950s and ’60s, and relentlessly explored new forms and improved older ones throughout his long life. He had pretty good taste in collaborators, too. As Ben Ratliff wrote in his NYT obit today, Mr. Coleman “symbolized the American independent will as effectively as any artist of the last century.”
Here are a dozen clips of performances by, interviews with and documentaries on the incomparable artist.
This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2015.
