Released 1959 Artist Ornette Coleman Producer Lester Koenig Genre Jazz | Length 42:22 Release date 1959 Label Contemporary Records | |
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Recorded January 16, February 23 and March 9–10, 1959 at Contemporary's Studio, Los Angeles Tomorrow Is the Question!
(1959) The Shape of Jazz to Come
(1959) Similar Ornette Coleman albums, Jazz albums | ||
Tomorrow Is the Question!, subtitled The New Music of Ornette Coleman!, is the second album by American jazz musician Ornette Coleman, originally released in 1959 by the Contemporary label. It is Coleman's last album for the label before he began a highly-successful multi-album series for Atlantic Records in 1959.
Contents
As well as regular sideman Don Cherry on trumpet, the album features bassists Percy Heath and Red Mitchell, and drummer Shelly Manne. Unlike Coleman's debut Something Else!!!!, on which he was contractually obliged to feature a pianist, there is no piano on the album.
Reception
The album generally received better press than did Something Else!!!!. Allmusic's Thom Jurek notes the interplay of Coleman and Cherry on tunes he described as "knottier and tighter in their arrangement style" than those of the previous album. Ekkehard Jost, in his book Free Jazz, noted that "as early as the 1958/59 recordings for Contemporary, the most pronounced features of Coleman's saxophone playing were set. His bent for improvisations that were largely unrestrained harmonically is evident, even in pieces whose outward make-up is anything but revolutionary." Others have hailed the removal of the piano as a positive move: for Mike Andrews, "a marked conceptual improvement can be immediately recognized" as the lack of harmonic instrument allowed greater freedom for the soloists.
Release history
Originally released as an LP by Contemporary Records in 1959, the album was later reissued on the Original Jazz Classics label on July 1, 1991.
Track listing
All pieces written by Ornette Coleman.
- "Tomorrow Is the Question!" – 3:09
- "Tears Inside" – 5:00
- "Mind and Time" – 3:08
- "Compassion" – 4:37
- "Giggin'" – 3:19
- "Rejoicing" – 4:01
- "Lorraine" – 5:55
- "Turnaround" – 7:58
- "Endless" – 5:18
Track 7 recorded on January 16, 1959; tracks 8 and 9 on February 23; tracks 1-6 recorded on March 9 and 10, 1959.
Performance
Production
Songs
1Tomorrow Is the Question!3:14
2Tears Inside5:05
3Mind and Time3:12