Ornette Coleman is one of the innovators of the jazz avant-garde. He started the free jazz movement in the late '50ies/early '60ies. With Don Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins he formed a legendary quartet in which they would play a theme together, but would let go the harmony when improvising. Coleman had a major impact on the European avant-garde movement: the European jazz scene developed out of this movement. After an absence of over ten years, Ornette Coleman is back at the North Sea Jazz Festival with an acoustic quartet, with two bassists and one drummer. It is said that Coleman never plays the same music twice, he writes new music for every performance, so the exact content of the performance can't be predicted, but is sure to be one of the 'must see' concerts at this year's festival. His new CD Sound Grammar has won a Grammy and the Pulitzer Prize 2007.
