Ornette Coleman: Genesis of Genius: The Contemporary Albums

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Contemporary Records, Craft Recordings has released this potent box set (2 LPs or 2 CDs) of Coleman’s seminal releases, 1958’s Something Else!!!! and 1959’s Tomorrow Is the Question! The surfeit of exclamation points in those titles is well-deserved. These eye-opening recordings helped usher in the avant-garde, laying the groundwork for his formidable body of work while challenging the status quo. On classics like “Invisible” and “The Blessing” from Something Else!, Coleman and trumpeter Don Cherry demonstrate a telepathic connection while individually improvising in bold and audacious ways that went outside the parameters of bebop. And while tunes like the buoyant swinger “Jayne” and uptempo burners like “Chippie” and “Alpha” may sound relatively tame compared to what Coleman would later get into, their solos remain proudly unorthodox. Tomorrow Is the Question! is the more uncompromising of the two albums, as evidenced by futuristic numbers like “Mind and Time,” the tempo-shifting “Lorraine,” frantically darting “Endless,” and pulsating “Rejoicing.” The bluesy “Turnaround” remains a jamming classic. Newly mastered by Bernie Grundman, these two albums have a pristine sound that will thrill audiophiles.

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