Not sure how many jazz fans we have on the forum, but his NYT obituary is here.
It took me a long time to get to jazz, but it was through Ornette Coleman and Coltrane that I finally came around. The Shape of Jazz to Come had just the right off kilter energy to get me to think it was worth paying attention to jazz after being pretty much immune to anything outside punk throughout my teen years.
Later reading commentary by people better equipped to speak to the music I realized that it might be because his music, though often abstract to the point of non-recognition, is based in the blues more fully than the jazz that I had likely not thought much of until that point. The opening track from Shape still gives me goosebumps, though. The lack of piano de-clutters the sound and makes you focus on the melodies of the horns.
And of course Free Jazz opened everything up.
IMO he stayed on top of his shit pretty much the whole way. Several of his later albums still get frequent play in my headphones.
It took me a long time to get to jazz, but it was through Ornette Coleman and Coltrane that I finally came around. The Shape of Jazz to Come had just the right off kilter energy to get me to think it was worth paying attention to jazz after being pretty much immune to anything outside punk throughout my teen years.
Later reading commentary by people better equipped to speak to the music I realized that it might be because his music, though often abstract to the point of non-recognition, is based in the blues more fully than the jazz that I had likely not thought much of until that point. The opening track from Shape still gives me goosebumps, though. The lack of piano de-clutters the sound and makes you focus on the melodies of the horns.
And of course Free Jazz opened everything up.
IMO he stayed on top of his shit pretty much the whole way. Several of his later albums still get frequent play in my headphones.