The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet

Free Jazz

First released1961

Free Jazz by The Ornette Coleman Double Quartet was recorded on December 21, 1960, at the A&R Studios in New York City in a single session. The album featured two quartets playing simultaneously in an improvisational format, with Coleman leading one group and Don Cherry on cornet, while Freddie Hubbard led the other quartet with Eric Dolphy on alto saxophone. Producer Irving Towbin and engineer Tom Wilson oversaw the recording, which was notable for its experimental approach to capturing two ensembles performing collectively improvised music without predetermined chord changes or harmonic structure. The session resulted in a single 37-minute track that became one of the most significant documents of free jazz, released by Atlantic Records in 1961. The recording's technical achievement lay in capturing the complex interplay of eight musicians in real time, which was considered a bold and innovative approach for its era.