Today is Ornette Coleman's 77th birthday. For those of you who may not be acquainted with his music, when he showed up in NYC after recording an intriguing first record-according to the now-legendary story-during a six-week run (was originally slated to be two weeks but was extended b/c of the huge crowds) at the Five Spot, everyone showed up. Miles, Sonny Rollins, Diz, Monk, Coltrane, you name it- and all of the jazz critics of the day. His style was so unorthodox, so different that they all had to come out and see him. I provided an explanation of his melange of sound he called harmolodics here, but no matter what it says, it's best to listen. Today NYC's Columbia U radio honors him by playing his music for 24 hours straight- the WKCR birthday broadcast. I am streaming the broadcast right now thru iTunes. Give it a listen.
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