Ornette Coleman

Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930

– June 11, 2015)[1] was an American jazz saxophonist, Ornette Coleman
trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as
a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term
derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective
Improvisation. His pioneering works often abandoned
the harmony-based composition, tonality, chord
changes, and fixed rhythm found in earlier jazz
idioms.[2] Instead, Coleman emphasized an
experimental approach to improvisation rooted in
ensemble playing and blues phrasing.[3] Thom Jurek of
AllMusic called him "one of the most beloved and
polarizing figures in jazz history," noting that while
"now celebrated as a fearless innovator and a genius,
he was initially regarded by peers and critics as
rebellious, disruptive, and even a fraud."[3]
Coleman at the Enjoy Jazz Festival in
Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Coleman taught Heidelberg, 2008
himself to play the saxophone when he was a Background information
teenager.[1] He began his musical career playing in
Birth name Randolph Denard Ornette
local R&B and bebop groups, and eventually formed
Coleman
his own group in Los Angeles, featuring members such
Born March 9, 1930
as Ed Blackwell, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy
Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Higgins. In November 1959, his quartet began a
controversial residency at the Five Spot jazz club in Died June 11, 2015 (aged 85)
New York City and he released the influential album Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
The Shape of Jazz to Come, his debut LP on Atlantic Genres Avant-garde jazz · free jazz ·
Records. Coleman's subsequent Atlantic releases in the free funk · jazz fusion · third
early 1960s would profoundly influence the direction stream
of jazz in that decade, and his compositions "Lonely Occupations Musician · composer
Woman" and "Broadway Blues" became genre
Instruments Alto saxophone · tenor
standards that are cited as important early works in free
saxophone · trumpet · violin
jazz.[4]
Years active 1940s–2015
In the mid 1960s, Coleman left Atlantic for labels such Labels Atlantic · Blue Note · Verve
as Blue Note and Columbia Records, and began Spouse
Jayne Cortez
performing with his young son Denardo Coleman on ​
​(m. 1954; div. 1964)​
drums. He explored symphonic compositions with his
1972 album Skies of America, featuring the London
Symphony Orchestra. In the mid-1970s, he formed the group Prime Time and explored electric jazz-funk
and his concept of harmolodic music.[3] In 1995, Coleman and his son Denardo founded the Harmolodic
record label. His 2006 album Sound Grammar received the Pulitzer Prize for Music, making Coleman the
second jazz musician ever to receive the honor.[5]

Biography

Early life
Coleman was born Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman on March 9, 1930, in Fort Worth, Texas,[6] where
he was raised.[7][8][9] He attended I.M. Terrell High School in Fort Worth, where he participated in band
until he was dismissed for improvising during John Philip Sousa's march "The Washington Post". He
began performing R&B and bebop on tenor saxophone, and formed The Jam Jivers with Prince Lasha
and Charles Moffett.[9]

Eager to leave town, he accepted a job in 1949 with a Silas Green from New Orleans traveling show and
then with touring rhythm and blues shows. After a show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he was assaulted and
his saxophone was destroyed.[10]

Coleman subsequently switched to alto saxophone, first playing it in New Orleans after the Baton Rouge
incident; the alto would remain his primary instrument for the rest of his life. He then joined the band of
Pee Wee Crayton and traveled with them to Los Angeles. He worked at various jobs in Los Angeles,
including as an elevator operator, while pursuing his music career.[11]

Coleman found like-minded musicians in Los Angeles, such as Ed Blackwell, Bobby Bradford, Don
Cherry, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins, and Charles Moffett.[3][12] Thanks to the intercession of friends
and a successful audition, Ornette signed his first recording contract with LA-based Contemporary
Records,[13] which allowed him to sell the tracks from his debut album, Something Else!!!! (1958), with
Cherry, Higgins, Walter Norris, and Don Payne.[14] During the same year he briefly belonged to a quintet
led by Paul Bley that performed at a club in New York City (that band is recorded on Live at the Hilcrest
Club 1958).[3] By the time Tomorrow Is the Question! was recorded soon after with Cherry, bassists
Percy Heath and Red Mitchell, and drummer Shelly Manne, the jazz world had been shaken up by
Coleman's alien music. Some jazz musicians called him a fraud, while conductor Leonard Bernstein
praised him.[12]

1959: The Shape of Jazz to Come

In 1959, Atlantic Records released Coleman's third studio album, The Shape of Jazz to Come. According
to music critic Steve Huey, the album "was a watershed event in the genesis of avant-garde jazz,
profoundly steering its future course and throwing down a gauntlet that some still haven't come to grips
with."[15] Jazzwise listed it at number three on their list of the 100 best jazz albums of all time in
2017.[16]

Coleman's quartet received a long and sometimes controversial engagement at the Five Spot Café in
Manhattan. Leonard Bernstein, Lionel Hampton, and the Modern Jazz Quartet were impressed and
offered encouragement. Hampton asked to perform with the quartet; Bernstein helped Haden obtain a
composition grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. A young Lou Reed followed
Coleman's quartet around New York City.[17] Miles Davis said that Coleman was "all screwed up
inside",[18][19] although he later became a proponent of Coleman's innovations;[20] Dizzy Gillespie
remarked of Coleman that “I don’t know what he’s playing, but it’s not jazz."[17]

Coleman's early sound was due in part to his use of a plastic saxophone; he had purchased it in Los
Angeles in 1954 because he was unable to afford a metal saxophone at the time.[9]

On his Atlantic recordings, Coleman's sidemen were Cherry on cornet or pocket trumpet; Charlie Haden,
Scott LaFaro, and then Jimmy Garrison on bass; and Higgins or Ed Blackwell on drums. Coleman's
complete recordings for the label were collected on the box set Beauty Is a Rare Thing in 1993.[21]

1960s: Free Jazz and Blue Note

In 1960, Coleman recorded Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, which featured a double quartet,
including Don Cherry and Freddie Hubbard on trumpet, Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet, Haden and LaFaro
on bass, and both Higgins and Blackwell on drums.[22] The album was recorded in stereo, with a
reed/brass/bass/drums quartet isolated in each stereo channel. Free Jazz was, at 37 minutes, the longest
recorded continuous jazz performance at the time[23] and was one of Coleman's most controversial
albums.[24] In the January 18, 1962, issue of Down Beat magazine, Pete Welding gave the album five
stars while John A. Tynan rated it zero stars.[25]

While Coleman had intended "free jazz" as simply an album title, free jazz was soon considered a new
genre; Coleman expressed discomfort with the term.[26]

After the Atlantic period, Coleman's music became more angular and engaged with the avant-garde jazz
which had developed in part around his innovations.[21] After his quartet disbanded, he formed a trio with
David Izenzon on bass and Charles Moffett on drums, and began playing trumpet and violin in addition to
the saxophone. His friendship with Albert Ayler influenced his development on trumpet and violin.
Charlie Haden sometimes joined this trio to form a two-bass quartet.

In 1966, Coleman signed with Blue Note and released the two-volume live album At the "Golden Circle"
Stockholm, featuring Izenzon and Moffett.[27] Later that year, he recorded The Empty Foxhole with his
ten year-old son Denardo Coleman and Haden;[28] Freddie Hubbard and Shelly Manne regarded
Denardo's appearance on the album as an ill-advised piece of publicity.[29][30] Denardo later became his
father's primary drummer in the late 1970s.

Coleman formed another quartet. Haden, Garrison, and Elvin Jones appeared, and Dewey Redman joined
the group, usually on tenor saxophone. On February 29, 1968, Coleman's quartet performed live with
Yoko Ono at the Royal Albert Hall, and a recording from their rehearsal was subsequently included on
Ono's 1970 album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band as the track "AOS".[31]

He explored his interest in string textures on Town Hall, 1962, culminating in the 1972 album Skies of
America with the London Symphony Orchestra.

1970s–1990s: Harmolodic funk and Prime Time

Coleman, like Miles Davis before him, soon took to playing with electric
instruments. The 1976 album Dancing in Your Head, Coleman's first
recording with the group which later became known as Prime Time,
prominently featured two electric guitarists. While this marked a stylistic
departure for Coleman, the music retained aspects of what he called
harmolodics.

Coleman's 1980s albums with Prime Time such as Virgin Beauty and Of
Human Feelings continued to use rock and funk rhythms in a style
sometimes called free funk.[32][33] Jerry Garcia played guitar on three
tracks on Virgin Beauty: "Three Wishes", "Singing in the Shower", and
"Desert Players". Coleman joined the Grateful Dead on stage in 1993
during "Space" and stayed for "The Other One", "Stella Blue", Bobby
Bland's "Turn on Your Lovelight", and the encore "Brokedown Coleman playing his
signature alto saxophone in
Palace".[34][35]
1971
In December 1985, Coleman and guitarist Pat Metheny recorded Song X.

In 1990, the city of Reggio Emilia, Italy, held a three-day "Portrait

of the Artist" festival in Coleman's honor, in which he performed
with Cherry, Haden, and Higgins. The festival also presented
performances of his chamber music and Skies of America.[36] In
1991, Coleman played on the soundtrack of David Cronenberg's
film Naked Lunch; the orchestra was conducted by Howard
Shore.[37] Coleman released four records in 1995 and 1996, and
for the first time in many years worked regularly with piano
players (Geri Allen and Joachim Kühn).

2000s
Two 1972 Coleman recordings, "Happy House" and "Foreigner in
a Free Land", were used in Gus Van Sant's 2000 Finding
Forrester.[38]
Coleman playing the violin in 1978
In September 2006, Coleman released the album Sound Grammar.
Recorded live in Ludwigshafen, Germany, in 2005, it was his first
album of new material in ten years. It won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for music, making Coleman only the
second jazz musician (after Wynton Marsalis) to win the prize.[39]

Personal life
Jazz pianist Joanne Brackeen stated in an interview with Marian McPartland that Coleman mentored her
and gave her music lessons.[40]

Coleman married poet Jayne Cortez in 1954. The couple divorced in 1964.[41] They had one son,
Denardo, born in 1956.[42]
 Coleman died of cardiac arrest in
Manhattan on June 11, 2015, aged
85.[1] His funeral was a three-hour
event with performances and
speeches by several of his
collaborators and
contemporaries. [43]

Awards and honors

Guggenheim Fellowship, 1967 Coleman performs in
and 1974[44] Toronto in 1982.
Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame,
Coleman playing the trumpet at the 1969
Great American Music Hall, San MacArthur Fellowship,
Francisco in 1981 1994
Praemium Imperiale,
2001
Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, 2004[45]
Honorary doctorate of music, Berklee College of Music,
2006[46]
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 2007
Pulitzer Prize for music, 2007[39]
Miles Davis Award, Montreal International Jazz Festival,
2009[47]
Honorary doctorate, CUNY Graduate Center, 2008[48][49]
Honorary doctorate of music, University of Michigan,
2010[50]
Coleman plays his Selmer alto
Discography saxophone (with low A) at The
Hague in 1994.

In popular culture
McClintic Sphere, a character in Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel V., is modeled on Coleman and
Thelonious Monk.[51][52][53]

Notes
1. Ratliff, Ben (June 11, 2015). "Ornette Coleman, Saxophonist Who Rewrote the Language of
Jazz, Dies at 85" (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/arts/music/ornette-coleman-jazz-sax
ophonist-dies-at-85-obituary.html). The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
2. Mandell, Howard. "Ornette Coleman, Jazz Iconoclast, Dies At 85" (https://www.npr.org/secti
ons/ablogsupreme/2015/06/11/413630335/ornette-coleman-jazz-iconoclast-dies-at-85).
NPR Music. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
 3. Jurek, Thom. "Ornette Coleman" (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ornette-coleman-mn00004
84396/biography). AllMusic. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
4. Hellmer, Jeffrey; Lawn, Richard (May 3, 2005). Jazz Theory and Practice: For Performers,
Arrangers and Composers (https://books.google.com/books?id=mjaITr2NdkEC&pg=PA234).
Alfred Music. pp. 234–. ISBN 978-1-4574-1068-0. Retrieved December 15, 2018.
5. "2007 Pulitzer Prizes" (https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2007). Pulitzer.org.
Retrieved July 13, 2020.
6. Fordham, John (June 11, 2015). "Ornette Coleman obituary" (https://www.theguardian.com/
music/2015/jun/11/ornette-coleman). The Guardian. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
7. Palmer, Robert (December 1972). "Ornette Coleman and the Circle with a Hole in the
Middle". The Atlantic Monthly. "Ornette Coleman since March 19, 1930, when he was born
in Fort Worth, Texas"
8. Wishart, David J. (ed.). "Coleman, Ornette (b. 1930)" (https://web.archive.org/web/2012070
7184611/http://jetson.unl.edu/cocoon/encyclopedia/doc/egp.afam.015). Encyclopedia of the
Great Plains. Archived from the original (http://jetson.unl.edu/cocoon/encyclopedia/doc/egp.
afam.015) on July 7, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2012. "Ornette Coleman, born in Fort
Worth, Texas, on March 19, 1930"
9. Litweiler, John (1992). Ornette Coleman: the harmolodic life. London: Quartet. pp. 21–31.
ISBN 0-7043-2516-0.
10. Spellman, A.B. (1985). Four Lives in the Bebop Business (1st Limelight ed.). Limelight.
pp. 98–101. ISBN 0-87910-042-7.
11. Hentoff, Nat (1975). The Jazz Life. Da Capo Press. pp. 235–236.
12. "Ornette Coleman biography on Europe Jazz Network" (https://web.archive.org/web/200505
02160154/http://www.europejazz.net/mus/coleman.htm). Archived from the original (http://w
ww.europejazz.net/mus/coleman.htm) on May 2, 2005.
13. Golia, Maria (2020). Ornette Coleman: The Territory and the Adventure. Unit 32, Waterside
44-48 Wharf Road, London NI 7UX UK: Reaktion Books Ltd. p. 100. ISBN 9781789142235.
14. Jurek, Thom. "Something Else: The Music of Ornette Coleman" (https://www.allmusic.com/al
bum/something-else-the-music-of-ornette-coleman-mw0000198903). AllMusic. Retrieved
August 14, 2018.
15. Huey, Steve. "The Shape of Jazz to Come" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-shape-of-ja
zz-to-come-mw0000187968). AllMusic. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
16. Flynn, Mike (July 18, 2017). "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World" (http://www.jazz
wisemagazine.com/pages/jazz-album-reviews/11585-the-100-jazz-albums-that-shook-the-w
orld). www.jazzwisemagazine.com. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
17. Shteamer, Hank (May 22, 2019). "Flashback: Ornette Coleman Sums Up Solitude on
'Lonely Woman' " (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ornette-coleman-lonely-w
oman-lou-reed-837918/). Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
18. Miles Davis, quoted in John Litwiler, Ornette Coleman: A Harmolodic Life (NY: W. Morrow,
1992), 82. ISBN 0688072127, 9780688072124
19. Roberts, Randall (January 11, 2015). "Why was Ornette Coleman so important? Jazz
masters both living and dead chime in" (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/
la-et-ms-why-was-ornette-coleman-so-important-jazz-masters-both-living-and-dead-chime-i
n-20150611-column.html). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
20. Kahn, Ashley (November 13, 2006). "Ornette Coleman: Decades of Jazz on the Edge" (http
s://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6449431). NPR.org. Retrieved
December 16, 2018.
21. Yanow, Scott. "Ornette Coleman" (https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ornette-coleman-mn0000
484396/biography). AllMusic. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
22. "Happy 55th: Ornette Coleman, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation" (https://www.rhino.co
m/article/happy-55th-ornette-coleman-free-jazz-a-collective-improvisation). Rhino Records.
December 21, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
23. Hewett, Ivan (June 11, 2015). "Ornette Coleman: the godfather of free jazz" (https://www.tel
egraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11668275/Ornette-Coleman-the-godfather-of-fr
ee-jazz.html). The Telegraph. Archived (https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://w
ww.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/worldfolkandjazz/11668275/Ornette-Coleman-the-godfath
er-of-free-jazz.html) from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
24. Bailey, C. Michael (September 30, 2011). "Ornette Coleman: Free Jazz" (https://www.allabo
utjazz.com/free-jazz-by-c-michael-bailey.php). All About Jazz. Retrieved November 17,
2019.
25. Welding, Pete (January 18, 1962). "Double View of a Double Quartet". DownBeat. 29 (2).
26. Howard Reich (September 30, 2010). Let Freedom Swing: Collected Writings on Jazz,
Blues, and Gospel (https://books.google.com/books?id=z6hAiX1i5jEC&pg=PA333).
Northwestern University Press. pp. 333–. ISBN 978-0-8101-2705-0.
27. Freeman, Phil (December 18, 2012). "Good Old Days: Ornette Coleman On Blue Note" (htt
p://www.bluenote.com/spotlight/good-old-days-ornette-coleman-on-blue-note). Blue Note
Records. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
28. Chow, Andrew R. (June 28, 2015). "Remembering What Made Ornette Coleman a Jazz
Visionary" (https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/28/arts/music/remembering-what-made-ornett
e-coleman-a-jazz-visionary.html). The New York Times. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
29. Gabel, J. C. "Making Knowledge Out of Sound" (http://www.stopsmilingonline.com/twitter/SS
-Ornette.pdf) (PDF). stopsmilingonline.com. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
30. Spencer, Robert (April 1, 1997). "Ornette Coleman: The Empty Foxhole" (https://www.allabo
utjazz.com/the-empty-foxhole-ornette-coleman-blue-note-records-review-by-robert-spencer.
php?width=1680). All About Jazz. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
31. Chrispell, James. "Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/yoko-ono-
plastic-ono-band-mw0000026229). AllMusic. Retrieved August 14, 2018.
32. Appiah, Kwame Anthony; Henry Louis Gates Jr. (March 16, 2005). Africana: The
Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (https://books.google.com/boo
ks?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA146). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195170559.
Retrieved March 18, 2017.
33. Berendt, Joachim-Ernst; Huesmann, Günther (August 1, 2009). The Jazz Book: From
Ragtime to the 21st Century (https://books.google.com/books?id=Rd82AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA
1980). Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781613746042. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
34. Scott, John W.; Dolgushkin, Mike; Nixon, Stu (1999). DeadBase XI: The Complete Guide to
Grateful Dead Song Lists. Cornish, New Hampshire: DeadBase. ISBN 1-877657-22-0.
35. "Grateful Dead Live at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on 1993-02-23" (https://archive.o
rg/details/gd93-02-23.sbd.hall.1611.sbeok.shnf). Internet Archive. February 23, 1993.
36. "Ornette Coleman: Quartet Reunion 1990" (https://www.allaboutjazz.com/quartet-reunion-19
90-ornette-coleman-solo-piano-publications-review-by-aaji-staff.php?). AllAboutJazz.com.
January 10, 2011. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
37. Mills, Ted. "Howard Shore / Ornette Coleman / London Philharmonic Orchestra: Naked
Lunch [Music from the Original Soundtrack]" (https://www.allmusic.com/album/naked-lunch-
music-from-the-original-soundtrack-mw0000274736). AllMusic. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
38. "Finding Forrester: Music From The Motion Picture" (https://www.discogs.com/Various-Findi
ng-Forrester-Music-From-The-Motion-Picture/master/781806). discogs.com. Retrieved
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39. "Pulitzer Prize winning jazz visionary Ornette Coleman dies aged 85" (https://www.heraldsco
tland.com/news/13412464.pulitzer-prize-winning-jazz-visionary-ornette-coleman-dies-aged-
85/). HeraldScotland. June 11, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
40. Lyon, David (March 14, 2014). "Joanne Brackeen On Piano Jazz" (https://www.npr.org/201
1/11/04/101558445/joanne-brackeen-on-piano-jazz). NPR.org. Retrieved December 16,
2018.
41. Rubien, David (October 26, 2007). "Poet Jayne Cortez makes heady music with Ornette
Coleman sidemen" (https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Poet-Jayne-Cortez-makes
-heady-music-with-Ornette-3237076.php). sfgate.com. Retrieved July 13, 2020.
42. Fox, Margalit (January 3, 2013). "Jayne Cortez, Jazz Poet, Dies at 78" (https://www.nytimes.
com/2013/01/04/arts/jayne-cortez-poet-and-performance-artist-dies-at-78.html). The New
York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
43. Remnick, David (June 27, 2015). "Ornette Coleman and a Joyful Funeral" (https://www.new
yorker.com/culture/culture-desk/ornette-coleman-and-a-joyful-funeral). The New Yorker.
Retrieved December 16, 2018.
44. "Ornette Coleman - John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation" (https://www.gf.org/fell
ows/ornette-coleman/). www.gf.org. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
45. The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (http://gishprize.com/index.html) Archived (https://web.ar
chive.org/web/20131006072738/http://gishprize.com/index.html) October 6, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine, official website.
46. "Ornette Coleman Honored at Berklee - JazzTimes" (https://web.archive.org/web/20170419
002856/https://jazztimes.com/news/ornette-coleman-honored-at-berklee/). Archived from the
original (https://jazztimes.com/news/ornette-coleman-honored-at-berklee/) on April 19, 2017.
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47. "Montreal Jazz Festival official page" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100516053059/http://w
ww.montrealjazzfest.com/maison-du-festival-online/miles-davis-award.aspx). Archived from
the original (http://www.montrealjazzfest.com/maison-du-festival-online/miles-davis-award.a
spx) on May 16, 2010.
48. "Press Release: 2008 CUNY Graduate Center Commencement" (https://www.gc.cuny.edu/N
ews/All-News/Detail?id=5849). www.gc.cuny.edu. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
49. "CUNY 2008 Commencements" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180814071643/http://www1.
cuny.edu/mu/forum/2008/05/16/cuny-2008-commencements/). cuny.edu. Archived from the
original (http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2008/05/16/cuny-2008-commencements/) on
August 14, 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
50. Mergner, Lee (June 3, 2010). "Ornette Coleman Awarded Honorary Degree from University
of Michigan" (https://web.archive.org/web/20181107135838/https://jazztimes.com/news/orne
tte-coleman-awarded-honorary-degree-from-university-of-michigan/). JazzTimes. Archived
from the original (https://jazztimes.com/news/ornette-coleman-awarded-honorary-degree-fro
m-university-of-michigan/) on November 7, 2018. Retrieved December 16, 2018.
51. Davis, Francis (September 1985). "Ornette's Permanent Revolution" (https://www.theatlanti
c.com/past/docs/unbound/jazz/dornette.htm). The Atlantic. Retrieved May 11, 2020. "In
Thomas Pynchon's novel V. there is a character named McClintic Sphere, who plays an alto
saxophone of hand-carved ivory (Coleman's was made of white plastic) at a club called the
V Note."
52. Yaffe, David (April 26, 2007). "The Art of the Improviser" (https://www.thenation.com/article/a
rchive/art-improviser/). The Nation. Retrieved May 11, 2020. "Of all the ink spilled on
Coleman's impact, perhaps the most memorable came from Thomas Pynchon's 1963 debut
novel, V., in which the character McClintic Sphere (with a last name nodding to Thelonious
Monk's middle name) sets the jazz world on end at a club called the V-Note."
53. Bynum, Taylor Ho (June 12, 2015). "Seeing Ornette Coleman" (https://www.newyorker.com/
culture/culture-desk/seeing-ornette-coleman). The New Yorker. Retrieved May 11, 2020. "In
Thomas Pynchon's 1963 novel 'V.', a thinly veiled character named McClintic Sphere
appears, playing a 'white ivory' saxophone at the 'V Spot.' Pynchon's wonderfully terse
parody of the portentous debate around Coleman's music is as follows: 'He plays all the
notes Bird missed,' somebody whispered in front of Fu. Fu went silently through the motions
of breaking a beer bottle on the edge of the table, jamming it into the speaker's back and
twisting."

References
Interview with Roy Eldridge, Esquire March 1961
Interview with Andy Hamilton. "A Question of Scale" The Wire July 2005
Broecking, Christian (2004). Respekt!. Verbrecher. ISBN 3-935843-38-0.
Jost, Ekkehard (1975). Free Jazz (Studies in Jazz Research 4). Universal Edition.
Mandel, Howard (2007). Miles, Ornette, Cecil: Jazz Beyond Jazz. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-
415-96714-3.

External links
"Forms and Sounds" (https://ethaniverson.com/rhythm-and-blues/ornette-1-forms-and-soun
ds/) by Ethan Iverson about early Coleman and Harmolodics
Interviewed by Michael Jarrett in Cadence magazine, October 1995 (http://www2.yk.psu.ed
u/~jmj3/p_ornett.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20080307055508/http://www2.y
k.psu.edu/~jmj3/p_ornett.htm) March 7, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
"Ornette Coleman interview, 1996", LA Weekly (https://web.archive.org/web/200809070235
34/http://www.laweekly.com/music/music/ornette-coleman-interview-1996/1191/)
New York Observer (https://observer.com/2005/12/ornette-coleman-2/), December 19, 2005

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