Ornette Coleman – Saxophonist, Composer, Father of Free Jazz – to Receive Honorary Doctorate of Music at Berklee Faculty Conference
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Ornette Coleman |
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Photo by Jimmy Katz |
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BOSTON, MA, December 22, 2005 — On Tuesday, January 17, groundbreaking saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman will receive an honorary doctorate of music degree and give a keynote address at an annual, two-day Berklee College of Music faculty conference. The 16th Berklee Teachers On Teaching (BTOT), held throughout the college, is a forum for exchanging recent breakthroughs and innovations, and for teachers to lead peer workshops on topics such as hip-hop, music technology, World music, women's health, retirement planning, grant research, and cultural diversity.
"We are thrilled to have Mr. Coleman, a truly inspired musician and thinker, speak to our faculty at Berklee," said Associate V.P. for Academic Affairs Karen Zorn. "We can all learn from his example – an ever evolving artist who continues, to this day, to develop his voice. To hear Mr. Coleman is the chance to be in the presence of history and the future."
Ornette Coleman once said, "I could play and sound like Charlie Parker note-for-note, but I was only playing it from method. So I tried to figure out where to go from there." And he did. As the father of free jazz, Coleman is an innovator who deconstructed the structural, harmonic, and rhythmic conventions of mainstream jazz and in doing so paved the way for generations of avant-garde musicians.
From 1959-1961, Coleman recorded a series of demanding but widely influential albums—including the nearly 40-minute pulse-driven epic, Free Jazz—greatly affecting John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, and most of the other advanced improvisers of the 1960s. He later took up the violin – which he played as a drum – as well as trumpet, and, in 1965, he recorded sets on all his instruments. In the 70's, Coleman formed Prime Time, a "double quartet" comprised of two guitars, two electric bassists, two drummers, and his own alto. Coleman recently started his own label, Sound Grammar—named after the universal language used by musicians to communicate—and will release Live At Carnegie Hall, 2003, in early 2006. He is also working on his third music theory book.
For editorial information or digital photos, the media may contact:
Nick Balkin
Office of Public Information
(617) 747-2247
nbalkin@berklee.edu
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