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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
On this highly influential 1959 album, Ornette Coleman's unique writing style and idiosyncratic solo language forever changed the jazz landscape. On classics such as "Lonely Woman", "Congeniality", and "Focus on Sanity", Coleman used the tunes' moods and melodic contours, rather than their chords, as a basis for his improvisations. In so doing, he opened up jazz soloing immensely and ushered in new freedoms--both individually and collectively. Lest these innovations sound too dry or abstract, it must be noted that both Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry play with a deep-felt emotion and joy that is as infectious today as it was then. This is truly an essential jazz recording, marking the end of one era, providing the blueprint for the next. --Wally Shoup
CD Description
Enjoy two classic Ornette Coleman albums digitally remastered for optimum listening! 'The Shape Of Jazz To Come' and 'Something Else!!!!' are iconic records for any Coleman aficionado or jazz fan's collection.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is the ideal place to start for anyone interested in Coleman and a recording to rank along Kind of Blue and A Love Supreme. Coleman's departure ("abandonment" is too prejudicial a word) from the chord-based blues and jazz tradition gave him a reputation for difficulty before his forays into free jazz but, as I once read, the startling thing about "The Shape of Jazz to Come" is how melodic and rhythmic is it. "Lonely Woman", stately, mournful and passionate, is one of the finest openings to an album ever but the quality does not abate. The interplay between Coleman and Don Cherry on cornet is spellbinding and the Haden-Higgins bass and drums section is integral in propelling the music with a frequent spring and swing (witness Haden's bassline, including the bowed opening, on the centrepiece "Peace").
This is not a recording to fear or from which to shy. It is groundbreaking but accessible. I had the pleasure to see Coleman live a few years ago on his 75th birthday. His engaged and even ferocious playing belied his frailty and disarming modesty and compelled me to return to his blueprint literally of the shape of jazz to come. To paraphrase someone, this recording is, and is intended to be, seminal.
This is not a recording to fear or from which to shy. It is groundbreaking but accessible. I had the pleasure to see Coleman live a few years ago on his 75th birthday. His engaged and even ferocious playing belied his frailty and disarming modesty and compelled me to return to his blueprint literally of the shape of jazz to come. To paraphrase someone, this recording is, and is intended to be, seminal.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Being a newcomer to Jazz i was told to buy this CD,im told its a classic,I listened to it,then played it over again.I have never heard sounds like this before,im amazed at the level of playing skill,Listen to the 9 min" peace" or the blistering Eventually.It blew my socks off.All done with a plastic Sax by Ornette Coleman.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
It seems scarcely believable now that anyone could have regarded Ornette Coleman as an impostor. He was widely misunderstood when he came on the scene, often booed offstage and denied club dates by ignorant and insensitive promoters. Even seasoned musicians walked out on him.
It's interesting that albums with such grandiose titles (The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century, Art of the Improvisers...) should be in many ways so measured and reflective. But what is clear is that this was unashamedly challenging music.
Ornette Coleman had invented something he called harmolodics, used to describe an implied harmony that emerges from the melodic line. The Shape of Jazz to Come is a supreme example of this new approach to making jazz. The music this quartet made was quiet, but the revolution it initiated was wholly indiscreet. No-one could be indifferent to Ornette Coleman. People called it "free jazz" and Ornette himself made a now seminal album of that name a few months later (Atlantic probably wanted to exploit the buzzword of the year), attempting to encapsulate the concept.
Free jazz actually developed into something quite different. But there is no question that the sense of freedom evoked by Ornette's visionary juxtaposition of spontaneous improvisation and structured composition is overwhelming, and justifiably caused both artists and critics to rethink the parameters of the music all over again. Shape contains the first recording of Ornette's most well-known composition, "Lonely Woman", and the stirring "Peace".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not quite in shape for me.
Ornette Coleman is mostly just beyond my taste in Jazz. (John Coltrane is mostly within my taste satisfaction range). Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tysonbob
Great Jazz Albums
Recent TV programme was so right to include this as one of the five most influential jazz albums of all time. But not in my collection, so bought from Amazon quickly!. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Pilgrim
Successful gift
I bought this CD as a gift for a jazz-loving family member. I am pleased to report that said jazz-loving family member was delighted with it.
Published 2 months ago by Jan
Mr Congeniality
Free jazz this isn`t. Ornette was later to release a notorious record bluntly entitled Free Jazz, but he was as much a composer as an improviser, exemplified to the full on this... Read more
Published 7 months ago by GlynLuke
It's Free jazz, But Don't be Scared
A recent BBC series about jazz described the year this album was released (along with those by Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus and Miles Davies) as the year that changed jazz and this... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lewis Graham
A new world of jazz...
CD1: The Shape of Jazz to Come, Studio album by Ornette Coleman, Recorded May 22, 1959, United States, Running time approx 38 minutes. Read more
Published 23 months ago by C. FULLER
New to me
It's a new type of jazz for me being used to swing and be-bop but it's growing on me. The title is very apt. Read more
Published on 23 April 2010 by Ian Mason
The shape of jazz to come
I bought this for my son who plays tenor sax. He loves ska but has more secently been attracted to jazz, which i know nothing about. It's a bit um unstructured for my taste. . .
Published on 4 Jan 2010 by L. Tozeland
posibly true to its title...
Cutting edge jazz, possibly even to date, stripped to the basics. Original material, looks "kind of blue" in the eye. Read more
Published on 17 Dec 2009 by The O
Good value!
I'm still working my way through this one. I think it represents excellent value for what is probably a landmark jazz album. Read more
Published on 7 Aug 2009 by Scott Matthews
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