Ornette Coleman Has Died

Ornette Coleman has died at the age of 85, The New York Times reports. The cause of death was cardiac arrest, according to a family representative. 

Coleman is widely acknowledged one of jazz’s great innovators, as both a saxophonist and a composer. He released several influential albums, such as 1959’s The Shape of Jazz to Come and 1961’s Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, which popularized the concept of “free jazz.”

In addition to collaborating with other noted jazz musicians such as Charlie Haden and Don Cherry, he worked with artists such as Lou Reed (on Reed’s The Raven LP), Yoko Ono, and Jerry Garcia. 

Coleman’s 2005 Sound Grammar LP won him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2007. That same year, he also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.