--- description: The experimental musician was the first to win a Pulitzer Prize for a recording title: Jazz Saxophonist Ornette Coleman Dies At 85 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb269e0db7c0ea2a8/6988541d0b72e33f9e6e46ca/ornette-coleman.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [remembrance](/tag/remembrance/) ## remembrance Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Jazz Icon Ornette Coleman Dies At 85 by [Kevin O'Donnell / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Kevin O'Donnell / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 11, 2015 2:47 PM CUT  Ornette Coleman performs during "Celebrate Ornette: The Music of Ornette Coleman", part of the 2014 Celebrate Brooklyn! season at the Prospect Park Bandshell on June 12, 2014 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Ornette Coleman performs during "Celebrate Ornette: The Music of Ornette Coleman", part of the 2014 Celebrate Brooklyn! season at the Prospect Park Bandshell on June 12, 2014 in Brooklyn, N.Y.Al Pereira—Getty Images by [Kevin O'Donnell / Entertainment Weekly](/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Kevin O'Donnell / Entertainment Weekly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 11, 2015 2:47 PM CUT The jazz world lost one of its most visionary artists Thursday when Ornette Coleman died in New York City, the [_New York Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/arts/music/ornette-coleman-jazz-saxophonist-dies-at-85-obituary.html "undefined") reports. Coleman was 85\. According to the Times, the cause was cardiac arrest. Over his six-decade long career, Coleman was a pioneer in the more experimental realms of jazz, branching out into be-bop, free jazz (a term he coined) and other out-there styles, similar to his peers John Coltrane and Charlie Parker. Born in 1930 in Fort Worth, Tex., Coleman was a journeyman of jazz—literally and figuratively. He started out on the circuit in New Orleans and, after returning home briefly, he ventured out west to Los Angeles, where he played with a rhythm and blues band. It was there, according to Ken Burns’ [authoritative _Jazz_ documentary](http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist%5Fid%5Fcoleman%5Fornette.htm "undefined"), that Coleman began to hone his style, which mixed country blues with technical jazz theory. In the ’50s, Coleman moved to the Northeast and it was during a stint living in New York City when he signed with Atlantic Records and released the breakthrough albums _The Shape of Jazz to Come_ in 1959 and _Free Jazz_ in 1960\. The latter record, as the Burns’ documentary site notes, “was undoubtedly the single most important influence on avant-garde jazz in the ensuing decade.” Coleman performed and recorded up until this death. In the ’70s, he dipped into rock and funk styles with the group Prime Time. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2005 live improvised recording _Sound Grammar_, the first time a recording had won the honor, [NPR](http://www.npr.org/2007/04/16/9607210/ornette-coleman-wins-music-pulitzer "undefined") notes, along with a MacArthur Genius award. In a 1997 [interview](http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/a-thing-the-existence-of-which-jacques-derrida-interviews-ornette-coleman "undefined") with philosopher Jacques Derrida, Coleman looked back on his childhood and how it nearly led him to abandon music altogether. --- > “” --- Hear “Congeniality” from _The Shape of Jazz to Come_ below. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/11/ornette-coleman-dead-dies "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3917667/ornette-coleman-remembrance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3917667/ornette-coleman-remembrance/"},"headline":"Jazz Icon Ornette Coleman Dies At 85","datePublished":"2015-06-11T14:47:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:07:21.951Z","description":"The experimental musician was the first to win a Pulitzer Prize for a recording","url":"https://time.com/3917667/ornette-coleman-remembrance/","keywords":["remembrance","Music","Jazz"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb269e0db7c0ea2a8/6988541d0b72e33f9e6e46ca/ornette-coleman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kevin O'Donnell / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb269e0db7c0ea2a8/6988541d0b72e33f9e6e46ca/ornette-coleman.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ornette coleman brooklyn new york city","caption":"ornette coleman brooklyn new york city","creditText":"Al Pereira—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/remembrance/","name":"remembrance"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3917667/ornette-coleman-remembrance/","name":"Jazz Icon Ornette Coleman Dies At 85"}}]}] ```