Eventually, Ornette Coleman-Ornette Coleman and Free Jazz

Ornette Coleman
Eventually (Coleman) excerpt
Recorded: Los Angeles, 1959
Ornette Coleman, alto saxophone; Don Cherry, cornet; Charlie Haden, bass; Billy Higgins, drums
©Atlantic Recording Corporation
"The Shape of Jazz to Come" CD-2516

Coleman's composition "Eventually" clearly carries a relationship to the bebop tradition, though the theme has a roughness and a freshness absent in many of the hard bop themes of the day. While the beginning of the piece offers some sense of key, some sense of pulse (though it cannot be counted with precision), and some sense of AABA form, a not unpleasant atmosphere of partial ambiguity reigns. Among other details in Coleman's solo, note the return to jazz of the "whinnying horse" effect we first heard in the 1917 "Livery Stable Blues" (Class 5). Since the Coleman quartet did not include a piano, the bassist was free to build long melodic lines based on intuitive reaction to Coleman's playing. "Solos" here in fact involve simultaneous improvisation (another concept from early jazz) by bassist and drummer, making for an unusually rich texture that some listeners found chaotic. Much of Coleman's early work communicated a sense of exuberance, an effect perhaps deriving from the jettisoning of the bonds of time, chord progression, and structure. This music was a bracing adventure for players and audiences alike.