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RIP Ornette Coleman, jazz visionary

#fridayjazz – Jazz legend Ornette Coleman, the visionary saxophonist who pioneered “free jazz” and won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007

Coleman is regarded as one of the greatest innovators in jazz history along with Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. In the late 1950s, he originated “free jazz,” challenging the bebop establishment by abandoning the conventional song form and liberating musicians to freely improvise off of the melody rather than the underlying chord changes.