Artist in Residence Ornette Coleman was born in Forth Worth, Texas. At age fourteen, he taught himself to play the saxophone and read music, and from age nineteen he performed with various rhythm & blues bands. In 1950, Coleman arrived in Los Angeles where he came into contact with jazz. It was here that he formed the legendary Ornette Coleman Quartetwith Don Cherry (trumpet), Billy Higgins (drums) and Charlie Haden (double bass). He recorded his debut album Something Else (1958) with this quartet. More classic albums followed including The Shape Of Jazz To Come (1959) and This Is Our Music (1960). Coleman also immersed himself in the rhythmic and hypnotic power of African music and with Prime Time he explored the boundaries of funk. In 2007, Coleman was honored with a Grammy Award for his entire oeuvre and in that same year he won a Pulitzer Prize for the album Sound Grammar. His current quartet consists of himself, his son Denardo Coleman on drums, Al MacDowell on bass guitar and Tony Falanga on double bass.
Two projects are being organized around the Ornette Coleman Quarte involving musicians who have been important in his career. On Friday the project is This Is Our Music Now, a performance with special guests bass player Charlie Haden and saxophonist Joshua Redman (the son of the late Dewey Redman who played with Coleman in the sixties and seventies). As the title suggests, Coleman does not only look to the past: his interest is still in innovation.
