"The Shape of Jazz to Come" – Ornette Coleman
You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians
Peter Martin
4.9 • 770 Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) may be the most controversial album in jazz history, and one of the most important.
In 1959, a broke musician from Fort Worth, Texas arrived in New York City with a plastic saxophone and a band that didn't play by the rules. And EVERYONE had an opinion about it.
Jazz legends hated it. Miles Davis said Ornette was "all screwed up inside." Max Roach punched him in the mouth. Dizzy Gillespie said Ornette's music wasn't even jazz. Meanwhile, Leonard Berstein and John Coltrane celebrated him.
So what exactly is The Shape of Jazz to Come, and why was it so radical? Jazz pianists Peter Martin and Adam Maness break down every track, from "Lonely Woman" to "Chronology". They dig into harmolodics, free jazz, and how Ornette shaped everyone from Miles Davis (who eventually came around) to the '80s burnout crew, including Wynton Marsalis, who personally recommended this record to Peter.
Dig into The Shape of Jazz to Come with us, and learn why this soft spoken saxophonist inspired both criticism and awe.
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Related You'll Hear It episodes:
Mingus Ah Um: https://youtu.be/XYeRZ0Awui4
Giant Steps: https://youtu.be/8umC2yZlPHc
Kind of Blue: https://youtu.be/ShzSnjP8bSg
Time Out: https://youtu.be/-_qPhFSJeQU
Nina Simone at Town Hall: https://youtu.be/2PDjN5_2y5Q
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About You'll Hear It:
In this popular music series Adam and Peter break down the greatest albums of all time. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, D'Angelo: Jazz is the foundation of the most GENIUS music in recent history. These seasoned jazz pianists bring their deep musical knowledge to every joyful episode to help you hear the hidden qualities that make music AMAZING. You'll never hear music the same way again.
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0:00:00 - Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come
0:01:42 - 1959: A Pivotal Year
0:03:06 - Ornette Coleman: The Backstory
0:04:44 - Ornette's Earlier Sound
0:06:18 - Lore of the Five Spot
0:07:00 - "Lonely Woman"
0:12:27 - Harmolodics Explained (Charlie Haden + Don Cherry)
0:13:27 - "Eventually"
0:14:42 - The '80s Jazz Connection (Wynton, Branford, Kirkland)
0:17:21 - "Peace"
0:23:50 - Ad: Open Studio
0:24:57 - Mingus Said THIS About Coleman
0:27:47 - "Focus on Sanity"
0:29:40 - When Peter Played with Charlie Haden
0:32:43 - Don Cherry's Kids: Neneh Cherry + Eagle-Eye Cherry
0:34:22 - "Congeniality"
0:36:28 - "Chronology"
0:37:23 - Technical Technique vs. Artistic Vision
0:42:13 - Categories: Desert Island Tracks, Apex Moments
0:48:55 - You'll Read It Newsletter + Ambies
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Miles Davis thought he was crazy. |
| 0:05.0 | Dizzy Gillespie said that he had no idea what this music was, |
| 0:10.0 | that it wasn't jazz. |
| 0:12.0 | And Max Roach once followed him out of the five spot |
| 0:16.0 | and punched him in the face. |
| 0:18.0 | Ornette Coleman. He was divisive. He was revolutionary. In 1959, he packed the five |
| 0:27.3 | spot in downtown Manhattan, with musical royalty clambering to hear sounds unlike anything they'd heard |
| 0:33.9 | before. The music that would define the shape of jazz to come. |
| 0:40.7 | Music I'm Adam Anas. |
| 1:05.9 | And you're listening to the You'll Hearer Podcast. |
| 1:08.2 | Music Explored. |
| 1:09.5 | Explored, brought today by Open Studio. Go to Open StudioJadogaz.com for, oh. Oh. Dopeo. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, all of your jazz lesson needs. I'm trying to be fresh, Peter, because this album we're listening to today. Inspired new sounds. I thought I would make some new sounds. That's right. |
| 1:45.9 | That's right. 1959's The Shape of Jazz to Come. One of the greatest titled records, maybe the greatest titled record ever. That's a bold statement. That's a bold statement. We'll get into the title, actually. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, what great stuff here. What a pivotal record. What a pivotal year, 1959. |
| 1:47.1 | How many times have we said that? |
| 1:48.1 | I mean, we said it now. |
| 1:45.9 | I think, Yeah, yeah. Oh, what great stuff here. What a pivotal record. What a pivotal year, 1959. |
| 1:47.1 | How many times have we said that? |
| 1:58.3 | I mean, we've said it now. I think this is the fifth album we've done from that year. So we did Time Out. Wow, we're really old souls, aren't we? We've done Kind of Blue, which, by the way, we're going to be redoing Kind of Blue pretty soon, I think. It's time. It's time for a recond of blue. |
| 2:00.6 | We've done Charles Mingus Mingus Ahum. |
| 2:00.9 | Yeah. |
| 2:03.6 | We've done Nina Simone live. |
| 2:04.5 | At the town hall. At town hall. It's time. It's time for a rekind of blue. We've done Charles Mingus Mingus Ahum. Yeah. |
... |
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