Change Of The Century - Ornette Coleman (1960)

Coleman blasted onto the scene in 1958 with some bold new ideas about how jazz should be less constrained by tradition and convention. This movement got to be known as free jazz, and I think nobody to this day could really tell you what that means exactly.

In one sense, it’s free from the strict tempo and clockwork chord changes demanded of bebop groups. The sound jets around finding new keys, new timbres, new territories as it goes.

At the same time, the music is hardly abstract or formless. While keys and rhythms change quickly and intermingle, it’s nothing like some of the more chaotic free improv of later decades.

This record features Coleman sidemen Charlie Haden (O_o) on bass, drummer Billy Higgins, and trumpeter Don Cherry (if you don’t know that name you might recognize either his son or stepdaughter, both briefly pop stars).

Modern jazz–like modern art, modern architecture, or modern about anything else–will always leave some people behind, complaining that it’s not like it’s supposed to be. But that’s generally going to land you on the wrong side of history.