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 Quartet with 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.
