condition (record/cover): NM / EX (lamination slightly detatchin near edges)

Laminated and die-cut with embossed blue stereo gatefold sleeve with original innersleeve.

December 1960: two quartets, two channels, one continuous collective improvisation - Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, the record that gave the whole movement its name whether Ornette wanted that or not. The personnel remains staggering, arguably the deepest single-session roster of the era: Eric Dolphy, Freddie Hubbard, Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, Scott LaFaro, Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins, arranged in stereo combat and cooperation, with the Jackson Pollock painting in the cover window announcing exactly what kind of field you are entering. What scandalized 1961 now reads plainly as structured conversation: themes surfacing, soloists framed by ensemble commentary, two rhythm teams in constant negotiation - freedom as collective responsibility, not chaos. Thirty-seven minutes that opened a door which has never closed since, and through which half the music in this catalog walked.

Atlantic stereo pressing of one of the true landmarks of twentieth-century music, in any genre. No serious shelf is without it.