FM
Biography
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.
