Ornette Coleman, Jazz pioneer, dies at 85

Ornette Coleman, a pioneering Jazz alto saxophonist and composer, died Thursday. He was 85.

A family representative told The New York Times that he died from cardiac arrest. He died in Manhattan.

Coleman pushed into experimental jazz throughout his six-decade career. His work included influence from other genres and always pushed Jazz itself in new directions. During the early part of his career, he made albums like The Shape of Jazz to Come, Change of the Century and This Is Our Music, which have become hailed as some of the best jazz records ever.

As Entertainment Weekly notes, he was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1930, so he brought country blues to jazz. He moved to New York City in the ‘50s. Musically, he traveled into rock and funk in the ‘70s.

In recent years, Coleman received a MacArthur Genius award and even won a Pulitzer Prize for 2005’s Sound Grammar, which was an improvised live show. It was the first time a recording won a Pulitzer.