Change of the Century

Change of the Century is an album by jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, released on Atlantic Records in May 1960.[1][2][3] It sold very well from soon after its release.[4] Recording sessions for the album took place on October 8 and 9, 1959, in New York City.[6]

Change of the Century
Studio album by
Ornette Coleman
ReleasedMay 1960[1][2][3][4]
RecordedOctober 8 & 9, 1959
GenreFree jazz[5]
Length40:55
LabelAtlantic
ProducerNesuhi Ertegün
Ornette Coleman chronology
The Shape of Jazz to Come
(1959)		 Change of the Century
(1960)		 This Is Our Music
(1961)

In the liner notes, Coleman stressed that the album was "a group effort," and wrote: "When our group plays, before we start out to play, we do not have any idea what the end result will be. Each player is free to contribute what he feels in the music at any given moment... our final results depend entirely on the musicianship, emotional make-up and taste of the individual member."[7]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[9]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide[10]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings [11]
Tom HullA−[12]

Writer A. B. Spellman commented: "this is a very disciplined group of musicians. They had complete intuition about where the other one was going to go. The sympathy within the group was absolutely extreme and that's hard to develop." He noted: "This record catches them just as they are sort of rising toward their peak. It has all the excitement and all the newness."[13]

AllMusic's Steve Huey stated that the album showcases "a group that was growing ever more confident in its revolutionary approach and the chemistry in the bandmembers' interplay," and remarked: "Coleman was hitting his stride and finally letting out all the ideas and emotions that had previously been constrained by tradition. That vitality makes it an absolutely essential purchase and... some of the most brilliant work of Coleman's career."[8]

C. Michael Bailey, writing for All About Jazz, called the title track "a wild phantasm of notes that are to 'free jazz' what trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's 'Bebop' was for that virtuosic genre," and commented: "finally things are really beginning to come apart at the seams... Coleman has fully gained his traction and is now ready."[14]

Track listing
All compositions by Ornette Coleman

Side one
No.TitleDateLength
1."Ramblin'"October 96:39
2."Free"October 96:24
3."The Face of the Bass"October 86:59

Side two
No.TitleDateLength
1."Forerunner"October 95:16
2."Bird Food"October 85:31
3."Una Muy Bonita"October 86:02
4."Change of the Century"October 84:41

Personnel

References
Footnotes
  1. Atlantic Records (25 April 1960). "21 New Stereo LPs". The Billboard. The Billboard Publishing Co. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  2. Editorial Staff, Cash Box (30 April 1960). "Atlantic 1c Stereo Sale For May; 21 New Stereo LP's Issued" (PDF). The Cash Box. The Cash Box Publishing Co. Inc., NY. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  3. Editorial Staff, Cash Box (14 May 1960). "May Album Releases" (PDF). The Cash Box. The Cash Box Publishing Co. Inc., NY. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  4. Atlantic Records (30 May 1960). "New LP Sales Dynamite". The Billboard. The Billboard Publishing Co. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  5. Cox & Warner 2004, p. 401.
  6. "Ornette Coleman Discography". jazzdisco. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
  7. Coleman, Ornette (1960). Change of the Century (liner notes). Ornette Coleman. Atlantic Records. SD 1327.
  8. AllMusic review
  9. DeCurtis, Henke & George-Warren 1992, p. 152.
  10. Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. pp. 45. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
  11. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  12. Hull, Tom (n.d.). "Jazz (1940–50s) (Reference)". tomhull.com. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  13. Spellman, A. B.; Horwitz, Murray (August 1, 2001). "Ornette Coleman: 'Change of the Century'". NPR. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
  14. Bailey, C. Michael (August 12, 2011). "Ornette Coleman: Change Of The Century". All About Jazz. Retrieved August 7, 2022.
Bibliography
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