Coleman disapproved of giving up his own voice and viewed standards as concessions to popular taste. As the unapologetic title of the album makes clear, he wanted to be taken on his own terms also making it clear just how important the concept of group improvisation was to Coleman's goals. "Beauty Is a Rare Thing" indeed! Audiophile remaster from Original Master Tapes by Bernie Grundman.

• Audiophile Double LP 45rpm
• Mastered from Original Analog Master Tapes
• Mastered by Bernie Grundman
• 180 grams Vinyl Pressed at Pallas Germany
• Stoughton Style Gatefold Cover

With two landmark albums already under its belt, the Ornette Coleman Quartet spent nearly a year out of the studio before reconvening for This Is Our Music. The album features Coleman on alto, Don Cherry on trumpet, Charlie Haden on bass, and Ed Blackwell on drums. "All in all, This Is Our Music keeps one of the hottest creative streaks in jazz history going strong” (AllMusic).

Coleman disapproved of giving up his own voice and viewed standards as concessions to popular taste; as the unapologetic title of the album makes clear, he wanted to be taken (or left) on his own terms. And that word 'our' also makes clear just how important the concept of group improvisation was to Coleman's goals. It's all showcased to best effect here on the hard-swinging 'Blues Connotation' and the haunting 'Beauty Is a Rare Thing,' though pretty much every composition has something to recommend it.

The inventor of what has been called “free jazz,” Ornette Coleman belongs to that rare breed of artists/thinkers whose influence extends far beyond the realm of their chosen medium. Always putting his remarkable virtuosity at the service of melody and emotion, he has had a powerful impact on how musicians play, improvise, and compose, on how music lovers listen, on the color and sound of music the world over.

It was while working as an elevator operator in the late-50s in Los Angeles, CA that he formed the Ornette Coleman Quintet, a core of players who would figure largely in his life: a lanky teenage trumpeter, Don Cherry, and a cherubic double bass player with a pensive style, Charlie Haden, who in Ornette found a dream accomplice. Drummers Billy Higgins and Ed Blackwell also joined the intense exploratory fold as integral pieces.

Coleman fondly recalls his early collaborators: “I would write new music all the time, usually for every show we had, and they would play like they had been playing it their whole lives. As a group and as human beings, we found a relationship to our common humanity and to the creation of art that was really special, truly something else."

This Is Our Music was issued on Atlantic Records in 1960, Coleman's third release for the label and fifth release overall. The seminal 7-song set is his first with drummer Ed Blackwell in place of Billy Higgins and is also significant in that it's Coleman's lone Atlantic release to feature a non-original, the Gershwin standard "Embraceable You." The remainder of the program is comprised of creative Coleman compositions which give the piano-less quartet room to showcase their immense improvisational talents, highlighted by numbers like "Blues Connotation," "Beauty Is a Rare Thing" and "Kaleidoscope."

Musicians:

Ornette Coleman, alto sax
Don Cherry, pocket trumpet
Charlie Haden, bass
Ed Blackwell, drums

Track Listing:

LP 1 Side 1
1. Blues Connotation
2. Beauty Is A Rare Thing

LP 1 Side 2
1. Kaleidoscope

LP 2 Side 3
1. Embraceable You
2. Poise

LP 2 Side 4
1. Humpty Dumpty
2. Folk Tale

Click here to listen to samples on AllMusic.com